Teacher's back after fending off would-be rapist By Mareva Brown -- Bee Staff Writer February 18, 2005 Police detectives don't believe the attempted rape of a student teacher at Hiram Johnson High School this week is part of a series of school attacks, but a spokesman said Thursday they are concerned that the suspect may try to harm someone else. "It's unusual," said Sacramento Police Sgt. Justin Risley. "But it seems to be isolated at this point." The victim, a 25-year-old student teacher who placed seventh last year in the U.S. Olympic trials for women's free-style wrestling, returned to teaching physical education classes on Thursday. She was alone in an office inside the women's locker room at 7:10 p.m. Tuesday when someone rattled and knocked on the door. When she opened it, a young man entered, grabbed the woman - cutting her lip - and tried to take off her pants. The victim, who is not being named by The Bee, said she was stunned when she realized the assailant was trying to rape her rather than steal her computer. "The whole time he was attacking me, I was thinking, 'If he only knew what he was getting himself into,' " she said. She practices martial arts, including Brazilian jiu-jitsu, five nights a week. And once the attack began, she said she pulled him closer so he couldn't punch her and used her martial arts training to kick him. "He totally gave up and ran away," she said. "I was kind of ****ed because I wanted to choke him out so the police could come and get him." She described her assailant as an African American youth about 17 to 20 years old, about 5-foot-10 and 180 pounds with a thin build, brown eyes and black, curly hair. He was wearing knee-length shorts and a black "puffy" jacket, officials said. Sacramento City Unified School District spokeswoman Maria Lopez said an additional security officer was assigned to the campus Wednesday and schedules have been rearranged to ensure staff members work in pairs. Thursday, police officials put together a composite sketch of the attacker in hopes of identifying him. "We're making headway," Risley said. Detectives don't believe the would-be rapist is a student at Hiram Johnson, but officials are looking into whether he may have been a student athlete from another school because of his athletic attire. A basketball game was going on in a nearby gymnasium at the time of the attack, Risley said. Detectives are uncertain whether the victim was specifically targeted or whether the assailant just saw her there alone and decided to act. The victim did not recognize him. "There's nothing she told us that indicates she had problems with anyone, or that anyone looked at her inappropriately," Risley said. "And it wasn't unusual for her to be there that late. She coaches and teachers. Her hours are all over the place." http%3A//www.sacbee.com/content/news/education/story/12386286p-13242586c.html
Good to hear about the times things go right. For every one story there are hundreds that never make the news. ------ Just a point. The title "Woman uses BJJ, wrestling to fend off rapist" is that from the news article? It is a little misleading. No one really uses wrestling or BJJ or boxing or karate or etc. in a fight to defeat someone. You can use a strategy, you can use a technique, and you can use a concept to defeat someone or fend them off, but you don't really use a martial style. I don't like it when news headlines focus on martial arts in such a way to give martial arts a bad name because they mislead expectations. I mean it says in the article that she kicked the attacker. This is fine, but you don't kick in BJJ or wrestling, you would learn to kick as part of Vale Tudo, or self defense training, from somewhere else, or as an add on to BJJ or wrestling. Very often kicks can be taught from the open guard as part of MMA or self defense, but you will not see those kicks allowed in BJJ competition or in wrestling competitions. You can also just kick without any formal training. What I am saying is the title is misleading. I would rather see more honest titles that aren't so sensational, like "BJJ and wrestling champion fends off attacker" or "Woman martial artist fends off attacker" or something like that.
That's what I thought. Guy tried to take my money - I shin kicked him in the thigh - he fell over - end of "fight" Guess I didn't use Muay Thai though Friend of mine (4th Dan Judoka) got attacked by a mugger - guy tried to grab him - my friend threw him with Harai-Goshi and landed on him, knocking him out & breaking his sternum. Guess he didn't use Judo though
Guy tried to take my money - I shin kicked him in the thigh, he fell over - end of fight. Guess I must have used kickboxing. ... my friend threw him with Harai-Goshi and landed on him... Guess he must have used Jiu-jitsu. Yoda, IMHO, your examples are as bad as the rest. Giving martial arts a bad name because people come in and expect that just because they train in an art and go to class, they will be great fighters just like others who take that art. Then they find out later that it isn't so and blame the style and teacher for everything. You learned the shin kick from Muay Thai training, how well you use that technique and how well you understand it and apply it in a fight is totally up to you. You do not use Muay Thai, you used a technique and concepts learned in Muay Thai. Saying you used Muay Thai, for instance, is just like the message sent in some dubbed Kung Fu movie from the seventies. Fine it is a movie, but they say things like, my crane fist beats snake fist, then the movie proceeds to have some moves like crane and some moves like snake but overall it is a bunch of acrobatics and nothing like what is actually taught in those "styles". Mean while thousands of viewers are painting this picture in their head and run off to find some "crane fist" school to train in. But others knew it was just a movie. All I am saying is that it is misleading to do such things when you are presenting the news, something people consider to be mostly factual. Keep the sensational stuff for the movies. Say "you used a shin kick to the thigh that you learned in Muay Thai." Not that you used Muay Thai. I learned those same kicks, they are from Muay Thai as my instructor trained in Thailand, but the marital art that I train in, is not called Muay Thai.
Keeristmas in Heaven..What part of the world to you live in??.When ever I use a technique during the course of an arrest or an altercation the discipline that taught me the technique gets the credit.Plain and simple.. Most teachers (myself included) inform their students that not every technique will work on everyone ,and that it takes more than a couple of lessons to be real proficient..Blame the teacher?? Maybe in your little section of La-La Land but not in the real world where I live.. In my bouncer days I got knocked around a little but I didn't blame my teacher for my loss..I blamed myself for getting cocky and losing focus..
Its all down to the Fight or Flee response. People very raley are able to use there martial arts on the street because they are so scared they dont know what to do. All you can do is flail at your attacker and try and do as much damage as possible to you can leg it. After around 10+ years, your primative brain starts to shut down as your martial arts training reprograms your fight or flee response. Another way this is done, is when you train children very early, as soon as they can walk pretty much. It is possible to reprogram your fof repsonse earlier by training as realisticly. Fighting full contact speeds up the reprograming.
No the title in the Sacramento Bee newspaper was "Teacher's back after fending off would-be rapist" I have to disagree with you Rebel ... I believe crediting martial art instruction for a successful defense against an attacker will only encourage more women to get into the martial arts... whether it be karate or BJJ. (Let's not focus on the "type or style" of martial arts training which is the best for defense in this case.)
I agree with Wado here. Whether or not that was the actual title, I think it isn't fair to put more focus on the "styles" than the defender. The schools just teach concepts and ideas to use in your self defense inventory, it shouldn't actually BE your self defense inventory. Moves such as those previously mentioned aren't generally unique to that particular art anyway - in many arts, or even in no art, there are variations of the moves if not the exact same thing. With full respect intended Syn, finding the student blaming the teacher for their lack of success isn't anything fantastic. Looking on these and other forums, and former students in the real world, the student often blames the teacher for their self defense problems. But it's up to the student to embetter himself - the teacher isn't a free ride to experience (and from reading, you know that already as you are in law enforcement).
I'm all for giving credit where credit is due. I agree. I've had this discussion many times in the past with others and it seems I am still in the minority. Nevertheless, there are many that train in the martial arts for years, believe to represent a martial arts style, get in a fight or competition, lose unexpectedly, and then drop out of the martial art saying the stuff does not work. I'm not talking about a few lessons, I'm talking about years of training. Then this person finds another place to train and they feel they are doing much better, so all the problems must have been with their former school and teacher. Then others see this and it is the root of many of the "style verse style" arguments. Talking about the real world, I am of the opinion that in a real situation I would take a police officer, for instance, over the majority of black belts who have trained the same amount of time on the job verse in the dojo. So on the streets I would trust a police officer to handle the situation better at seven years on the force than a black belt of seven years in the martial arts training only at a dojo. Law enforcement with years of experience on the streets can take ANY martial art and make it work for them because they can apply it directly to street situation they encounter on the job. Whether it is Aikido, BJJ, karate, boxing, Kung Fu, Kempo, etc. When a bouncer or police officer says they used Aikido to survive fights, it can mean something completely different than what is taught and learned in a dojo. The concepts and basic techniques may be the same, but the experience and mindset of the student can be completely different. Now to make this relevant to women's self-defense. What I am saying is that it does not matter as much what martial style or combination of styles you train in, what matters is what you learn and that includes how well you can transition what you learn to other situations. 1. So if you are more timid and not comfortable in martial arts, than find a martial arts school and teacher that will work at YOUR comfort level so you can be relaxed and enjoy your training. 2. Now here is the part that many martial artists figure out, but only years later. If you are interested in self-defense and perfecting your fighting abilities, it is YOUR responsibility to slowly increase your comfort level AND challenge yourself and your teachers. When you are ready for harder contact, more resistance, etc. then it is YOUR responsibility to question things (respectfully) and test things out. More and more at a time until you can hit and take a hit and/or grapple against resisting opponents AND test things out. Push your limits, go beyond your comfort zone at times. 3. This means as you progress and build up relationships, you want to make sure that you are in a training environment that you can challenge the system and question your teacher without being ignored or made fun of or thought to be totally disrespectful. This could mean you have to seek additional instruction in optional classes or from someone else. It could mean you are ready to move on to another school completely to continue training. 4. The rest comes down to experience, how well you know the streets, how prepared you are, etc. Don't settle for just what experiences you gain in class. Seek out training or seminars from law enforcement instructors, I mean actual instructors that have been on the streets and are given the job as law enforcement to train civilians or other law enforcement personnel. And read up on things, hang out with people that have stories to tell that may enlighten you and get you thinking about the world. People that will change your view of the world and give you that mindset, the mental aspects and knowledge, that can make the difference between life and death in a real situation -- so you don't panic, so you can be better prepared and have a plan, and so you can reach deep inside you and learn never to give up! And thanks for the real news title Kickchick, I completely missed the first line of ubermint's post. :bang: So my whole post about the responsibilities of the news to provide the facts and not steer us readers towards conclusions is, well, unfounded in this case. Sorry.
