LUFKIN, TX (KTRE) -
One East Texas woman says guns are not necessarily needed when it comes to protecting yourself. A local self-defense instructor is teaching women how to survive an attack using nothing but their body parts.
Gabriella Roberts has been teaching women self-defense for more than 20 years. Her program 'Attack Survival' is a way for women to learn how to react, release, retaliate, and run while being confident and fearless.
"It is very important to have a plan
because when the distraction happens or when the attack happens, then you are
prepared," Gabriella Roberts said.
Many times women are attacked due to being unaware of their surroundings.
"You need to make sure you're changing your routine on a
weekly or even a monthly basis because people do watch you or do
follow you," Roberts said. "If do change your routine and you do have all those things
in place, then you are less likely to be that target."
During Thursday's Attack Survival class, Roberts taught her students many different techniques on how to escape an attack. The attack scenarios were purse theft, how to get someone of you if they attack you while you're laying down, how to get away from someone who has a gun or knife, if someone attacks you from behind, and how to get away from someone who has you pinned against the wall chocking you.
If you are in a situation where the attacker has a weapon, Roberts says your body can be used as a weapon in many different ways to protect yourself.
"Control where the
weapon hand is and also the body. So, instead of going away from the
attack lean your body into the attacker," Roberts said. "Once I push back into the attack and towards them in an aggressive state, then
I'm going to take and use my body as the weapon."
Robert demonstrated how to turn your body into the attacker and taking control of the hand the weapon is in.
Roberts said, "You can use your hand as either
a hammer fist or you can give them an elbow to the chest depending on the situation and
the size of the man or the woman because women do attack, too."
Every body part, every move can be
used to escape your attacker and could save your life.
"Strike in as you're turning with the attacker. We always want to think
of circular motions. You don't want it hard or rigid. You want to make sure you
turn it (the weapon) into them, then come up and out of the situation," Roberts said.
The self-defense instructor feels it is essential to have a gun
along with proper training, but it is certainly not
always needed when defending yourself from an attacker who may have a weapon.
"It is very important to have your gun license to be able to
be trained properly with a gun especially if you're going to use that gun and
check your perimeter and what have you," Roberts said. "There's been several women that have
killed themselves over not being able to properly use a gun."
To learn how a no weapon defense is possible you can contact Instructor Gabriella Roberts at 936-639-0677 or attacksurvival@yahoo.com
Women's defense classes are offered on Monday and Thursday mornings from 9 to 10 at The City of Lufkin Parks and Recreation. The cost is $50 for eight weeks.
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