Self defense...

The place that Mac goes to Taekwondo is run by a man and his wife. They are both black belts. Mr. Duer does most of the instructing and Miss J (his wife) does most of the business part with occasional instructing. When we first started going there, Miss J came up to me to tell me that she had gone to high school with my sister-in-law Brooke (she wasn't friends with her but knew her), and that Brooke was a huge reason she is so passionate about teaching woman self-defense. 

They offer woman's self defense classes every other month and charge only $35 for a two hour hands-on class. I finally was able to go yesterday, and I have to just say that I was blown away. Miss J truly is passionate about this, and she did an amazing job teaching the 20 or so woman that were there. She also had five men there (that are either instructors or taking classes there) to be our "dummies" because she believes that to learn this you have to feel the actual emotions you might have when being grabbed or assaulted. She really did a great job at instructing us and the men did a great job at letting us hurt them a bit. 

I learned so much about how to defend myself and left feeling very empowered. Just to give you an idea of  how hands on we were and how hard we worked, I woke up really sore this morning. Way more sore than after doing the Insanity workouts this last month. I am sure that the guys are even more sore and probably a bit bruised up too.

 At one point Miss J offered to put us in a hold to choke us (just as much as we could handle) so that we could feel what it is actually like and at how quickly we would have to react if someone ever came up behind us to choke us. Which let me just say, was only about one second. 

I am grateful for the tools I learned there, so grateful. And I plan on taking the class again before the end of the year. I really encourage all woman to take a woman's self defense class. And if you have taken one before, and it has been awhile, take it again. It could save your life!