Ashlee Crews is 12 years old, with only 95 pounds on her 4-foot-11-inch frame. But she has just thrown a 5-foot-10-inch, 160-pound man to the floor.
She used a technique called “uke-nage,” a karate term which means to escape someone’s hold and throw that person to the ground.
David Crews, Ashlee’s 24-year-old brother, is the man she just overpowered, and he’s happy about it.
Mr. Crews has been studying Isshinryu karate under grandmaster Phil Little for several years, and now his two younger sisters also have begun studying at Phil Little’s School of Karate in Anderson.
“I think everyone regardless of age or sex should study (karate), whether it’s for a month or six months, because the world doesn’t get any safer,” Mr. Crews said, wrapping Ashlee in a bear hug.
Mr. Little, a 10th degree black belt, said the most important part of self-defense is confidence.
“Be more assertive, because the person who is going to prey upon you is looking for weakness,” he said. “Confidence portrays strength.”
If someone attacks you, try to get free and get out of the way, Mr. Little said.
If you have to fight, strike quickly and try to mark the attacker’s facial area and draw blood, so his DNA can be traced.
I wasn’t aware of that tip to try and draw blood for DNA evidence. It’s definitely true. I think the best part of taking martial arts or other self-defense classes isn’t the fighting techniques, but rather the confidence. By learning to appear and actually be confident, assertive, and aware, students of these types of classes learn to avoid getting into dangerous situations which would require the fighting moves.
What do you think?
Thursday, May 22nd 2008 at 1:19 pm
As a self-defense teacher I always advise my students to avoid coming into contact with the bodily fluids of any attacker. The risk of contracting a disease is very high and many of these diseases are dangerous if not eventually fatal, HIV in particular.
In order to obtain DNA as the result of an attack it is not at all necessary to draw blood since DNA exists in every cell of our body. Therefore skin under the nails, hair (with root intact) and even a bit of saliva on the victims clothing can be sufficient to obtain the DNA profile of an attacker.
It’s also important to note that DNA may not be useful in locating a criminal if the person does not have a prior offense with DNA already on file.