Shawn Phillips of Coast Martial arts is passionate about teaching women self-defence in order to stop them from becoming another statistic.
"One in four women in Canada will be sexually assaulted," he told a group of about a dozen women gathered in his Gibsons dojo Monday night, June 10. "And in the U.S. it's even worse. Their statistic is one in three women. That to me is just appalling, but that's what the real numbers are."
He said the most common place for attacks to occur is in the home, while the second is in parking lots and the third is on college or university campuses. He also noted girls are most often raped "for the first time" between the ages of 12 and 17.
"And these assaults often aren't committed by strangers. Seventy per cent of sexual assaults are by someone you know," Phillips said.
He wanted to make sure the women enrolled in his self-defence course heard the real statistics and understood the need to be prepared.
"We're not going to be all doom and gloom. We're going to have lots of fun, but we need to know the truth," he said, noting it was the shocking statistics that moved him to start offering the women's self-defence course in Gibsons last year. June 10 marked the start of his third self-defence course for women.
"I do it because I believe in it. I believe one of the most important things we can do is learn how to protect ourselves," he said.
The eight-week course is rooted mostly in jiu-jitsu because that form of martial arts is "ground-based," Phillips noted. "And the reality is that if you get attacked you will likely be on the ground."
The self-defence program was developed by the Gracie martial arts group over a period of 15 years and includes verbal, physical and psychological self-defence techniques.
Day one of Phillips' class saw women learn how to assume "combat base" which is a solid stance that's difficult to be moved from, as well as the proper way to stand up from sitting to avoid being pushed over.
Women practised using verbal strategies and kicking from the sitting position before the one-hour class was complete.
Phillips encouraged all students to find a reliable partner at home to practise with until the following week's class stressing that "repetition is the mother of skill."
"You need to do it all the time so that it's instinctive. If you practise all the time it will be there when you need it," he said.
By the end of the first class women were commenting that they felt more empowered and they were eager to practise their new skills.
"Because of what they're learning here, they're going to carry themselves differently and a predator might look at them and decide they don't look like an easy target and move on. They'll never know," Phillips said.
"But that's the idea. To stop these attacks from happening."
To find out more about the program, call 778-462-2292, email [email protected] or visit www.coastmartialarts.com.
The next self-defence course will start in September.
