Karen Karney (right) points to her sparring partner Pat Drewniak while Sgt. Sheila Jones teaches a defense maneuver during a Rape Aggression Defense class. van

Pat Drewniak kicks a pad during a Rape Aggression Defense class at the Central Rappahannock Regional Library's Fredericksburg headquarters last week. The four-week course teaches women self-defense techniques. van

By INGRID SBACCHI BAIRSTOW
The Free Lance-Star

Date published: 7/31/2002

"NO!"

Thump!

"NO!"

Thump!

"NO!"

Thump!

Seven women practiced knee strikes, sweep kicks and straight kicks during a Rape Aggression Defense class last week.

Cathy Miller delivered the kicks with gusto, her voice almost hoarse and her arms clenched in front of her face and waist.

"My mother told me it's the last thing I have to do before I go away," said the 17-year-old, who is heading off to college in the fall.

She struck her foot at a black padded pillow that Fredericksburg police Sgt. Sheila Jones grasped between her waist and her knees.

"Yell loud and kick loud," Jones told the next young woman, Kristin Karney, a 14-year-old taking the class with her mother.

"Don't forget you're going for the groin," she added.

The four-week course--for women only--focuses on physical defense, although instructors point out that common sense and an awareness can help avoid potential attacks.

Women learn punches, kicks and ways to get away from an attacker while lying down.

At the final class, each student is subjected to a simulated assault. Then each is videotaped and reviewed by Jones and fellow students.

Jones told her class, which meets in the library of the Central Rappahannock Regional Library's Fredericksburg headquarters, to yell "No!" while fighting off an attacker.

The RAD approach teaches women to yell instead of scream, which can be mistaken for being playful and is associated with fear.

Instead, if women yell short sentences like "Stop!" "Get back!" and "Stay away from me!" it helps identify the crime to others and discourages the attacker, the RAD defense manual states.

"It also gets you to breathe," Brenda Loehfelm said.

The 22-year-old, who works in Dahlgren, signed up for RAD because she had always wanted to learn self-defense and the class was free, she said.

One of the most helpful things she'd learned was that the thumb is the weakest part of the hand.

"If someone grabs you by the wrist, you can pull away from the thumb," she said.

Across the room, Pat Drewniak was gearing up to beat up the padding.

She gave it a whack with her foot, simultaneously yelling "no!" That took a lot out of her, but she smiled as she turned around to give her 13-year-old daughter Julia Drewniak a high-five.

Date published: 7/31/2002