Easy Defense, the first of two self-defense courses offered by the Office of the Dean of Student Life and the Graduate Representation Organization (GRO), didn't have any takers. Early Sunday morning, Lonnie Clark and his crew set up their equipment in the Sherwood Room of Levering Hall. Less than an hour later, they packed everything up untouched.
It seems hard to imagine the event lacking appeal -- a Master Instructor of Tae Kwon Do, University-sanctioned combat and foam weaponry, at only $10 per student?
This time the GRO is determined to get the word out and the registration forms in, ensuring that the second round, scheduled for March 26, will be a knock-out.
Easy Defense is a three-year-old self-protection program developed and run by Clark's School of Tae Kwon Do. Clark, a fourth-degree black belt, opened the Baltimore school in 1992.
"What we're doing is so totally different. We have a hard time overcoming the image [of normal self-defense classes]."
Clark wonders if that reputation is one of the reasons students were less than quick to seize this opportunity. "It's not 16 ways to get out of it if you're grabbed ??? it's how to not get grabbed."
This is the third year Clark is offering his course at Hopkins, but the first time that it's been open to undergraduates. Expecting a larger turnout, the GRO proposed two classes in February and March. With the keen support of the Office of the Dean of Student Life, they were able to further reduce the program cost from $50 -- Clark's usual fee -- to the $10 contribution asked of students. This includes a CD that Clark creates for every student with a video of his performance.
For those who don't know, the GRO is a graduate student-run organization that allows them a forum for expressing their views and organizing events specifically tailored for them. According to Puneet Bajpai, sports coordinator for the GRO, past defense classes have been a big success.
"These classes have only been for graduate students in the past," Bajpai says. "Given the recent security concerns we thought of opening the classes for the undergrad community."
Easy Defense teaches its students -- male, female, adult or child -- to defend themselves against attackers by focusing on verbal skills, body language and boundary setting. Through safe, but powerful scenarios and role-plays, Clark and his staff teach students of all ages and abilities to protect themselves using basic common sense tactics.
"That's the beauty of the course," Clark says. "The oldest person I've had was 68 years old ??? the youngest [in the adult course] was maybe 14. The youngest ever [in the children's course] was 4."
Hopkins students will get a taste of the basics on March 26, when Clark returns for his second session. He'll start with concepts like boundary recognition (how close is too close, and what should you do about it), and how to cope in situations of adrenaline stress and fear.
"Societal pressures and upbringing, to an extent, dictate what people are supposed to do," Clark says. "Ladies are taught: don't make a scene. Guy are taught: be a man, don't be afraid."
The course aims to break old habits and teach appropriate responses instead: not passive, not macho, just sensible. After coaching students on these concepts, students stand in line while Clark introduces the first confrontation: the woofer.
"He might woof at you, the person next to you. The purpose is to get him to back down. As in: 'Bad Dog!'"
In Level 1 scenarios, the woofer, basically the attacker, tries to start up a conversation with the student. Clark explains, "The kamikaze attack out of the dark -- while it happens -- is very rare. I mean, let's get real, most women are attacked by someone they know."
He says Hopkins students have always taken the course very seriously.
"If not at the beginning, they are before long," he says. "You get hooked up."
After "barking down" the attacker at Level 1, students are ready to move on to Levels 2 and 3, with increasingly complex and intense scenarios. Clark teaches movement drills to ensure the student is never directly in front of their attacker and other response techniques, as students graduate to Level 3.
"Level 3 is one-third Klingon, one-third tiger, one-third mamma bear defending her cubs," Clark says, his voice growing in intensity. "Back Off!"
If you handle this well, Clark says, the confrontation may not even go physical. But because Clark knows his students will only be believable if they know they can handle themselves when it gets physical, he and his staff teach a canon of simple physical attacks and sample scenarios before the woofer comes out. The class culminates with students facing three full attacks -- one from the front, and two from behind.
Clark draws his Easy Defense staff from a group of seven, some Tae Kwon Do experts, others with absolutely no martial arts background. Last Sunday he was accompanied by Cindy Carruthers, a microbiologist and research technician at Hopkins and Sharon Young, who recently retired after almost 20 years in the Department of Romance Languages and Literature.
"I would honestly say, until I took this course, I felt pretty cocky while I was out there," Sharon says. "Now I realize how simple things can be so effective. I walked away from that course and I was ready."
"It's so easy. It's so empowering," Sharon Young says as the group prepares to leave Levering Hall. "So many times we're afraid. It's phenomenal what this course will do ... It gives that sense of self."
For anyone who can't attend the Easy Defense program, just remember one main thing: a sense of confidence. Attackers are less likely to choose people as targets who seem to exude a sense of calm confidence. As one of Clark's flyers reads, "awareness and confidence are among the most effective safety tools we have at any age."
