When my flat-mate and good friend, Ian, asked me to come along to a self-defence class, I was all, “Nah, I’m good eh“, but then I thought, what the hell! Knowing I said no, because of the fear of the uncertain, was exactly why it was necessary I did this activity. Can I just stop for a second and say, man I’ve come a long way – that very sentence shows growth, awareness and a comfort zone that has stretched a little bigger. It’s important we acknowledge the milestones and small steps we take in life, no matter how little they may be. Good work Sloan – oh why thank you mate.
Fight, flight or freeze – the three Fs that depict how you respond in a stressful or scary situation. I am both a freezer and a runn-away-er (Yes, that’s a word). I’ve found myself in both stress-filled and scary situations and I tell you, I have never been much of a fighter. So with that in mind, plus the exciting nature of travel in my near future (More on that later!), I headed along to my first self-defence class.
The anxiety levels were at a minimum, but I definitely had some nerves rattling around inside of me. I was worried I’d be shit, that I’d be too puffed to punch and that I’d over think the moves, making them impossible to grasp – so the usual inner thoughts were brewing. The 2.5 hour course was held at Tony Martin’s Gym in Mt Roskill, Auckland. It was run by NZKM Krav Maga Auckland – a bunch of very passionate instructors who were extremely talented and great teachers. They didn’t muck around, jumping straight into a warm-up and within 10 minutes I knew I had to leave all nerves on the sideline.
In the first 30 minutes we learnt how to escape a strangle hold. I felt so bad-ass! They told us that when a female is attacked and killed by a male, 72% of those deaths are due to strangulation. It’s the most common form of attack and therefore I sure as hell paid attention. There are multiple ways in which you can be strangled by an attacker, but they taught us one sequence to get out of all of them. I started to really get into it and began asking my partners to really “go for it” and not to hold back when strangling me. Sounds intense as I write it down, but you can’t learn properly unless you’re put under pressure right? No one is going to strangle you with the same force as holding a cuppa bloody tea. I felt sorry for the dude I was paired up with, as he really didn’t want to hurt me – “Go harder, I’ll be sweet!“, I said. Poor fulla!
We then learnt to remove ourselves from a head lock and just like the strangle position, it was only a few moves and you were free, or at least able to catch your breath. Accordingly to the instructors it only takes three seconds for you to have the air pushed out of you and for you to collapse and pass out- three seconds!! Everytime I counted to three, I was only up to move number two of four – shit, I’m dead!
The class was physically such a workout, which I loved. With time my confidence grew, even to the point where I slapped a little Asian guy pretty hard on the leg, just from being so in the zone. Don’t worry, he was fine, he laughed and said I was hard-core. Haha that’s right! #Unagi
At the end of the two-hour lesson, we got to have some real fun. The five instructors geared up in body-suits, head-gear, held big punching bags and went into the middle of the room. They played heavy metal music to set the scene and we were to each go into the middle, one at a time and practice our moves out against ALL of them. I mistakenly opened my big mouth and made a stupid comment, so got made to go in the ring first. Ohhh SHIT! I only took two steps forward, before getting wacked in the head with a bag – Oh it is so onnnnn!
I started to punch the bag in front of me, whilst being shoved from behind, sideways and made to run around the room, dodging being smashed from every angle. They were yelling “common, what you got?“, whilst attempting to push me over. I tell you, it seems scary, but you really do go into fight mode (A mode I never had before). The first strangle hold came out of nowhere and straight away I performed the learnt sequence, breaking free in less that three seconds – I’M ALIVE! I continued punching, feeling sweat dripping down my forehead. My hair was coming out of its ponytail, blocking my vision – god, I would’ve looked a treat. The tallest instructor grabbed me and put my into a head lock and I froze…crap, what was the first move???. I then remembered them saying, if you forget, that’s OK, just do what you got to do to get out of that position – so I went full HULK and broke free – don’t ask me what I did though, I couldn’t see a thing and I was only concentrating on breathing ha! It went on for one and a half minutes and I confidently got out of a few more moves, whilst building up a healthy amount of anger – it was so incredibly fun!
What a bloody workout! I felt so tough, so able and had zero nerves or anxious energy floating around by the end of the course. I highly recommend if you ever get a chance to learn self-defence, do! These guys were awesome, so knowledgable and their passion filled the room. I loved that they didn’t go soft on me either, just because I was a girl, as it meant I got a lot more out of it. I left with sore muscles, a big smile and really felt like my ‘fight’ response had been activated. The Wanganui was well and truly alive.
Watch out! Or… watch this before and after check-in vid!
I rode those feel good vibes for the rest of the day – going from fear to fearless, now that’s magic my friends! Grab life by the balls… (Also a sweet spot to get your opponent on the ground!)
Namaste,
Bad-ass Bex
Insta | bexsloany
#wherethemagichappens
If you didn’t catch my last Blog – that’s OK, here’s one I’ve prepared earlier – Click here!
Who’s who?
NZKM Krav Maga Auckland – https://edgenzkm.wixsite.com/edgenzkm
Tony Martin’s Gym – https://tonymartins.nz/
Where the magic happens 