If all else fails, try the Eye Strike

Sometimes you must take things into your own hands, or at least try. Last night before heading out to meet some friends in *gasp* the Marina, I convinced who was supposed to be my original RARE instructor to provide me with a one-on-one session of Personal Safety skills today in the east bay or live with the conscience of sending me off to Asia unequipped and unprepared to defend myself if attacked. She buckled. And gave me a discount.

I invited my mom to take the course with me, and I must say, I do not regret paying the steep $100/hr fee. Erica, the instructor, first briefed us on the background of the organization and gave us an account of how she came to be an instructor. She was knowledgeable, straightforward, humorous, patient, and very accommodating. We first practiced setting boundaries (strong verbal and physical tactics used to fend off unwanted attention) and then went into role-playing using moves such as the eye strike, groin slap, thrust-kick, wrist snap-back, heel palm, among others. From the examples Erica brought forth throughout the workshop, it became obvious to me that she had experienced the full gamut of sexual assaults through the many women who have attended BA Impact classes and shared their incredibly moving stories with each other. Some of the experiences were so gruesome and cruel, I had to look over to my mom to make sure she wasn't going to have a heart attack and decide to stop me from leaving next week. In some ways, I think she has really changed over the last few years, and I am so proud of her. She is much more understanding, calm, and open-minded about her children facing challenges and confronting problems on our own. For that, I am really grateful.

Anyway, I do recommend this class to any female reading this and would encourage considering the Basic Essentials class I had originally signed up for that was canceled. That workshop is much longer and covers other tactics outside of the ones I learned today. I'm also considering the 24 hr workshop they cover over the course of a weekend when I come back from Asia. If anyone is interested in doing this with me during spring of next year, let me know.