APU Women Taught Self-defense Techniques

Communiversity and the Department of Campus Safety teamed up with the Azusa Police Department (APD) to present a course for APU women on rape prevention and self-defense training on November 19, 2002 from 6-10 p.m. in Cougar Dome. APD Officer Steve Martinez and Peter Hoh instructed the course, with the help from assistant instructors Officers Tommy Avila and Richard Martinez.

“We haven’t had this quality of training of self-defense here at APU before,” said Campus Safety Senior Officer Bethany Wynn. “They have trained the military and know how to fight. They know what to do and teach it well.”

“We have kids too and we want to educate people, especially girls, on how to defend themselves to be survivors,” said APD Officer Peter Hoh.

After an informative slide presentation on rape prevention techniques and strategies, APD officers warmed up the crowd with an exercise on yelling. In pairs, the women took turns practicing yelling from their core, rather than their throats.

Over the course of the evening, the women performed self-defense drills to help train their body on how to react in different situations. These drills included: the palm-heel strike, elbow strike, knee strike, front kick, choke defense, mount escape, kick-from-the-ground, and tactical standup move. In the last hour, the women went head to head with suited up APD officers and applied what they had learned.

“It was cool to be able to use what we just learned,” said Katy Steidl ’03. “I felt the sudden aggression and adrenaline rush that they talked about earlier.”

“Tonight was very beneficial for me,” said Lisa Daughety ’03. “Self-defense is something everybody should know.”

Posted: November 22, 2002