Before attending the Self-Defense workshop last Friday, I was expecting a lot of kicking and punching, because I always sort of associated self-defense with fighting. To my surprise, the workshop did not do much kicking or punching, but taught us moves and techniques on how to get away from the person assaulting you rather than trying to fight with him. We learned a lot of different moves to deal with different situations, such as striking with your palm, kicking with your knee, twisting your wrists free when somebody grabs your wrists and ducking under the arm to free your neck when somebody’s choking you. When trying these moves with my friend, I was pretty amazed at how well they worked and felt that I learned something very valuable. Another thing worth pointing out is how voice affects our moves. Shouting out while doing moves makes a huge difference in the power of the move, and makes you feel a lot stronger.

However, I feel the most important thing about self-defense that I learned is attitude. When confronting danger, it is important to keep a ‘tiger’ attitude, feeling strong, confident and ready to defend yourself. If you position yourself looking weak and clumsy, it is hard to defense yourself effectively. It almost seems to me that attitude brings more strength in your moves than your muscles. But there is a huge difference between being confident and being aggressive. The point of learning self-defense is to protect and empower yourself, not to pick up fights.