The members of her subcommittee of the Jill Behrman 5K Color the Campus Run Committee were motivated to organize a free self-defense training seminar, during which both male and female students can learn about basic personal safety on campus.
“When there’s a situation that reaches out to us and says ‘here’s an opportunity for you to engage and to provide support and assistance,’ we’re all in,” Geary said.
IU Police Department Lt. David Rhodes, an expert in martial arts, will conduct the seminar from 7:30 to 9 p.m. tonight in the Wildermuth Intramural Center’s gym 169.
Rhodes leads similar seminars year-round for both staff and students, teaching both safety and confidence when facing an attacker.
Geary said students and faculty have an obligation to look out for each other. She said in this seminar students will be encouraged to try the different defense mechanisms in small groups so they are prepared if they ever face an attack.
In a hands-on approach, Rhodes will demonstrate simple techniques, such as how to escape a hold or how to find pressure points to subdue attackers without heavy lifting.
“The hardest part about this particular training, this particular seminar, is going to it,” Rhodes said. “Once you get there, you’ll learn, possibly even learn something that you haven’t even had before, and I do try to make them fun.”
Rhodes said he tries to keep his seminars simple by teaching tactics that can be modified to each person’s individual comfort zone.
“I will just present some options for you to use and hopefully you will never ever have to use them,” Rhodes said. “They’re easy enough that hopefully in a stressful situation, once you get over the ‘oh my gosh, this is actually happening’ moment, that this will jump out at you, then everybody’s surprised, bad guy and you.”
Geary is encouraging anyone attending the seminar to wear normal, everyday clothes, rather than workout attire, to get an accurate sense of what it would be like to respond to an attacker in what one might wear to class or an evening out with friends.
Geary said she also hopes people do not feel intimidated by the physical defense practice.
“I don’t want someone to not come because they’re worried about the physical part of it,” Geary said. “Because there’s going to be plenty of information giving and you can watch.”
In addition to physical defense, Rhodes will incorporate general safety information as well, discussing what he calls the two types of strength: strength of body and strength of mind.
“There’s strength of body, which most guys are stronger than most women,” Rhodes said. “But there’s strength of mind, which evens the playing field because knowledge is power, and if you have the knowledge of what to do in a situation and you’ve practiced and you actually know what to do, then you’ll be surprised at what you can do.”
