On April 21st, Ikazuchi Dojo sent three students to Seattle to attend Bruce Bookman and Melissa Pittman Fischer’s seven-hour women’s self-defense intensive. Aikido Journal speaks with the students who traveled to attend the seminar….

Aikido Journal (Josh Gold): Karen, Sophia, and Juliette, thank you for joining me today. Let’s talk about your experience earlier this month at Tenzan Aikido Dojo’s annual women’s self-defense workshop.

Karen Kim: I’d be happy to. Bruce Bookman Sensei and Melissa Pittman Fischer Sensei hosted a one-day, seven-hour self-defense workshop open to women and girls of all levels. There were about a dozen participants on the mat who ranged in age and experience from middle-school girls to young women university students to mothers like me. Several of us were aikidoka and a couple participants were relative newcomers or first-timers on the mat.

Before we talk about the seminar, could you all share a bit about your martial arts background?

Karen: Sure. I started training at Ikazuchi Dojo in 2013 after taking an opportunity to participate in a women’s aikido class that the dojo offered and I was hooked immediately. I received my shodan under Haruo Matsuoka Sensei in 2017 and I’m now an assistant instructor here at Ikazuchi.

Sophia: I’ve practiced aikido on and off since I was very young, but only started to train more seriously over the last two years. I’m pretty comfortable with moving on the mat but still have a lot to learn in terms of developing my basics. I’m currently 3rd kyu.

Juliette: I began my training at another dojo’s children’s program [Ikazuchi Dojo does not offer a children’s program presently] when I was 8 years old and I’m 14 now. I joined Ikazuchi Dojo in 2016 and now I’m 2nd kyu and training for my 1st kyu test. I train here about three days a week on average, in regular classes and sometimes in private lessons.

JG: Sophia, how did you feel going into the workshop? You traveled all the way to Seattle by yourself to go through this self-defense intensive.

Juliette: I was also struck by how the instructors had us use our voices. The notion of women using their voices is one that has been condemned by society for years and throughout each simulation, technique, and drill, we practiced a form of negotiation using a firm voice with confidence. I was able to watch the advanced teen class before the workshop and I even saw the concept of negotiation introduced there. I also saw a form of it presented in the seminar and it struck me as remarkable, since it never occurred to me that I might use my voice with an attacker and that this could stop an attack before it becomes physical.

JG: How was the workshop structured? What was the format?

Karen: The workshop taught us how to assess an encounter, recognize an attack, and mobilize a series of simple yet effective counter-attacks, including head, groin, and eye strikes and kicks. We started with solo practice, then we paired up and practiced as a group, before we took part in simulated attacks with Bookman Sensei and Keith Bookman, who suited up in protective gear and pressure-tested our counter-attacks. There was time over the course of the seven hours to give feedback to our training partners and debrief as a group.

JG: Seven hours is a long time!

Karen: I thought so too when I first heard about the workshop, but I think the duration was essential to the effectiveness of the training for a couple of reasons. If we’re only meeting for one day, I think it’s necessary to train all day so that the techniques have a chance of becoming muscle memory.

I also think we needed to spend that much time together to work through some of the jitters we might naturally feel training with a group of people we don’t know. By doing this, we could start to then chip away at the more profound inhibitions and reservations many women and girls have when it comes to defending ourselves.

Sophia: Also, the environment was highly focused on making you feel supported, and I think that helped my experience the most. The workshop was centered around not just making you feel strong as an individual, but also the strength of the community of women around you. As the attackers were coming at us, one by one, the other women stood and watched, chanting in support. It made me feel empowered to come out of my shell, and it really made it a more positive and transformative experience for me.

JG: Karen – both of our teenage daughters attended the seminar. As a parent, what do you think is one of the most important things they were able to get out of the event?

Karen: I think teaching the girls that’s it OK to protect against your own vulnerability. Of course, this was an important element for everyone at the seminar, but I’m particularly glad that both our girls learned about this at a young age.

For instance, I was struck by something Melissa said at the workshop. She suggested we imagine our mothers or daughters or best friends under attack as a way to access and harness the energy needed to execute counter-attacks. One of the sempai at my own dojo has said the same thing to me over the course of my training to cultivate my martial spirit and, on Saturday, this proved to be a good tool as well. But what I found interesting is that this suggests that we may not feel entitled, even reflexively, to defend ourselves, that we need to imagine someone else’s vulnerability to feel okay about protecting against our own vulnerability.

JG: That’s an interesting observation. Can you say a little more about that?

Karen: Yes. I’m saying that it’s important to acknowledge, explore, and challenge constructions of femininity in any women’s self-defense context because these constructions don’t simply disappear when a woman is under attack. Unfortunately, they can inhibit a woman even when her well-being is being threatened. The workshop did a good job addressing this issue by helping us trust our intuition and get comfortable setting boundaries. The workshop also incorporated verbal and psychological self-defense skills by adding dialogue to the staged attacks.

JG: Sophia, tell me about your final “boss battle” at the end of the seven-hour workshop.