A college-prep course that has some real kick

October 10, 2007|By Wes Smith, Tribune Newspapers and The Orlando Sentinel

ORLANDO — Jennifer Woodbury of Orlando sent her daughter Abby to

college with the usual boxes of clothes, dorm decorations and snacks.

But Abby, 18, also headed for campus packing a punch, not to mention

an eye gouge and a throat jab.

Concerned about reports of date rapes, carjackings and assaults on

young women everywhere, Woodbury signed up her daughter for a nononsense

back-to-school special: Self-Defense 101.

Abby and a group of friends from Lake Highland Preparatory

School learned their “ABCDEs” — “Attack him. Blind him. Choke

him. Drop him. Escape.” — in the college-prep course at TLM’s

Fighting Chance Combat Systems.

This martial-arts school in Orlando charges $250 for a two-day, 10-

hour course that teaches women methods for escaping armed

assailants.

Self-Defense 101 trains students to handle attack scenarios including

attempted date rape, parking-lot and dorm-room attacks, bar and club

assaults, carjackings and muggings at ATMs. Additional training

includes techniques for profiling potential date rapists and

precautionary measures to avoid being drugged, stalked or abducted.

“Abby is going to be on her own for the first time, and there are

criminals out there, so I definitely feel better sending her off with these

skills,” said Woodbury, who may join other mothers in taking the

course.

They were led to Fighting Chance by Mary Ann Gruenberg of Winter

Park, Fla., who sought a self-defense program for her daughter,

Katherine, 18, after seeing news footage on the abduction of Kelsey

Smith. The Kansas teenager was slain after being kidnapped in a

Target parking lot in June.