Fighting for your life
Pro teaches women self-defense techniques
Most self-defense tactics advise women to target the vulnerable groin area of the attacker. Not so fast, says Ken Stephens, an instructor at the Frederick Fight Club who volunteers his time each week to teach women the how to protect themselves from would-be assailants.
"Genitalia is too small a target," Stephens told last Saturday's class of six women, ages 14 to 51, including two mother-daughter duos.
Besides, Stephens told the class, he's been the recipient of some heavy-duty blows to the groin and it doesn't drop a man to the ground in a cloud of immobilizing pain. "It's uncomfortable, but not paralyzing," he said.
Instead, Stephens, 38, teaches women to go for the largest targets — the legs, the torso and the head — with the goal of putting enough distance between themselves and their attackers to get away and get help.
"Self defense is not about winning a fight. It's about surviving the encounter," he said.
Stephens knows his stuff. A police officer for 16 years, Stephens has been a SWAT team member for 13 years in Montgomery County, where he's also the primary defensive tactics instructor for his SWAT team.
"Self defense is a habit. It is a routine. It is a mindset. Very few women are born with it," Stephens said. "For the rest of them, there are the free women's self-defense classes at Fight Club."
When warranted, women need to tap into primal instincts – that violent rage that allows them to fight like cats and not to stop until they send the attacker running, he said.
Picture a 15-pound cat being grabbed by a 300-pound bodybuilder. If that cat doesn't want to be grabbed, said Stephens, the cat finds its primal side and becomes a totally different creature.
"Most of us can envision a cat going absolutely nuts on a person who is trying to grab them, he said. "A cat will fight to the death and will convince that 300-pound man to leave it alone using only two means of attack: teeth and claws."
By being willing and able to tear a chunk out of someone with your teeth and nails, you are giving a pretty clear message that you are not an easy victim. And easy, cooperative victims, said Stephens, are what criminals are searching for, often spending hours, days or even months finding just the right one.
In recalling stories he's read or crimes he's investigated, Stephens said, he always thinks, ‘What if this person knew how to do this or that to defend themselves? Would she have gotten away?' He tells stories of women who fought their way to survival and women who didn't, like the elderly woman who punched an attacker in the nose and got away, and another elderly woman who was more cooperative. She meekly led her robbers to an ATM machine where they took her money, fled the scene and crashed her car, killing the woman.
That woman's best defense, Stephens said, would have been to fake a heart attack.
But he's always thinking about ways that women could have survived an attack. That's one motivation for teaching the free class. That, and the fact that the muscled instructor is a self-proclaimed "mama's boy" and "protective husband."
The free self-defense class has been going strong since March 2009. Class size ranges from two to 20. Stephens would like to see the class filled to capacity.
This day, six women are in attendance — three regulars, one attending her second class, and two newbies. Dawn Burch, a tall woman who can kick the bejesus out of any man or punching pad, is 34. Her son takes mixed martial arts from Stephens and after one self-defense class, she opted to bring her stepdaughter, Alissa, 16. The pair is headed for Jamaica with family and Burch wants Alissa to be alert, aware and ready to defend herself if the need arises. Burch also travels a lot for work, finding herself traversing empty hotel parking lots at night.
"I keep a key between my fingers as a weapon when heading to my car, but I want to feel more self-confident about my ability to defend myself," she said in an interview.
Watching her go at it with head, elbows, knees and shins, there's no doubt that Burch can channel her inner demons when necessary. Stephens starts each class with a five-minute warm up, allowing each student to work as lightly or intensely as she wants to, then proceeds to the meat of the class: using your body to fend off attacks and do some damage in the process.
Starting with the proper way to head butt, down to the elbows where you can learn to deliver painful wallops without hurting yourself much, to the hands, where by cupping them and clapping them over your attacker's ears, you can cause a world of pain, to the knees, shins and heels of your feet.
And let's not forget the cat. Clawing your nails into your assailant and biting him or her continuously is one method of attack that Stephens didn't have his students practice on each other.
Stephens likes to demonstrate real-life scenarios and doesn't give much credence to some of the fancier forms of self defense taught elsewhere that teach techniques that aren't based in reality.
"I have decided to teach this class to ladies who are at least 13 years old," he said in an interview. "In addition to defensive and offensive tactics, I often discuss ‘sensitive' issues regarding the realities of these terrible occurrences. I prefer not to candy-coat reality. Doing so would be a disservice. It is my opinion that many 13-year-old young women are (or should be) prepared to learn a little bit about the real world in which we live."
After the Saturday class, Stephens' students were smiling, beaming and feeling like they had spent a most worthwhile hour. "Now, go teach your friends," Stephens said.
E-mail Katherine Heerbrandt at kheerbrandt@gazette.net.
Ken Stephens, instructor at Frederick Fight Club, teaches a free women's self-defense class from 1:15-2:15 p.m. Saturdays,
at 244A S. Jefferson St., Frederick. E-mail him at ken@frederickfightclub.com or go to
www.frederickfightclub.com to learn more.
Ken Stephens, instructor at Frederick Fight Club, offers the following advice:
-Be smart, be aware and don't look like a victim.
-Be aware of your surroundings. Do you know the names of all the streets and intersections you jog through on a daily basis? Do you check the parking lot and look around before you exit the mall and walk to your car – even during the daytime?
-Criminals often prey on easy targets — the woman who plugs her earphones in, pulls a hood over her head and stares at the ground as she walks to her car where she stands for two minutes trying to fish her keys out of her purse... Don't be that girl.
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