Alpha Chi Lambda social sorority sponsored a Krav Maga self defense workshop on April 3 at the Sams Gym in the Bell Center. The event was open to anyone interested in learning self defense techniques.
Alpha Chi Lambda has hosted the event four years in a row. The workshop marks the beginning of Sexual Assault Awareness month.
“For the past three years, it has only been open to women. This year, we decided to open it up to everyone,” said Alison Campion, event coordinator and special projects chair for Alpha Chi.
Alpha Chi member and junior Emily Hall said that she was glad men were allowed to participate in addition to women.
“It was important to include men because anyone can be attacked and basic self defense moves are important for anyone who needs it,” Hall said.
STW Krav Maga Worldwide, a company associated with largest Krav Maga providers in the United States and the only certified Krav Maga providers in the San Antonio area, instructed the event.
“The instructors are all excellently trained and wonderful to work with. They keep you motivated and truly help you get the most out of the seminar. I would highly recommend going to one of their workshops if you did not get a chance to attend ours,” Campion said.
Despite learning new self defense moves that she found empowering, Hall did find some issue with the focus of fighting violence with violence.
“I didn’t really like the focus on that because even though we were learning to defend ourselves they placed too much focus on the fact that without this women are helpless which I didn’t really appreciate,” Hall said. “But overall it was a positive experience.”
Krav Maga was developed by the Israeli army as a fighting technique that emphasises self-defense through realistic training scenarios and instinctive movements in the case of an attack.
“Anyone can be targeted and attacked. Too often, people think that they could never be harmed, and that’s dangerous. We would rather prepare people and never have them face a life-threatening situation than leave them unprepared if such an event arose,” Campion said.
Hall also noted that this workshop came at a fitting time, especially in light of the discussion about sexual assault on campus.
“Due to the recent sexual assaults, it’s good for people to know how to defend themselves and it absolutely makes me feel safer walking around on campus,” Hall said.
Campion agreed and saw the session as a valuable educational tool.
“Especially in the wake of such discussions about rape and the culture surrounding rape, we thought this would be a great way for all Trinity students to become educated, prepared, and empowered,” Campion said.
Though the event was open to all, most who attended the workshop were women. Krav Maga is a fighting technique that is useful in any situation where self-defense is necessary, but it is especially useful in teaching people to respond to a sexual-assault type situation.
“Alpha Chis are passionate about encouraging women to be powerful and one of those ways to be powerful is to know how to protect yourself,” said Ronja Behrends, a sophomore and member of Alpha Chi Lambda.
The event lasted two hours and gave students in attendance a crash course in maneuvers that would help in case of an attack.
“I’ve seen things happen to other people. I’ve heard of bad things happening to people and I realized that I really didn’t know how to protect myself. I think this was a good first step. It gives you a little more peace of mind,” Behrends said.
