The art of fighting back

Girls at TeWinkle Middle School learn to protect themselves with martial arts moves.Bear St. Clair is clear about one thing: He may teach fighting moves, but he’s also antiviolence.

When addressing a classroom of girls at TeWinkle Middle School last week, the martial arts trainer offered the first rule for fending off a stalker -- and it had nothing to do with a karate chop to the head. If you detect someone following you, St. Clair told the two dozen girls present, turn around and loudly ask them a question.

“Then,” the Costa Mesa instructor and former Kaiser Elementary student explained, “they’re answering to you.”

Sometimes, of course, the situation gets hairier, and St. Clair spent the next hour showing the girls physical defense moves. By the end of an hour, the girls -- many of whom had never taken a self-defense class before -- had learned how to drop an attacker from behind, how to retaliate after being pushed to the ground, and how to target the knee, the shin and other delicate parts of the body.

All of the students present were members of Girls Inc. in Costa Mesa, which leads defense classes both on- and off-site. The “Action for Safety” program, overseen by Girls Inc., teaches self-defense in multiple ways -- physical, mental and verbal.

“It has components of respect from martial arts,” said Orleda Roa, volunteer coordinator for Girls Inc. “It also teaches girls how to use their minds, think quickly, or use their voice to scare off an attacker.”

Lori Wagner, the Girls Inc. project chairwoman for the Junior League of Orange County, contacted St. Clair about working with the older girls. St. Clair, who has traveled and competed worldwide, operates the Bear Essential Combat studio on 17th Street.

During the session last Tuesday, Wagner acted as his assistant as he demonstrated a series of increasingly complex moves. Afterward, the girls found partners and attempted the moves while standing on mats.

The first technique that St. Clair demonstrated involved knocking down an assailant from behind: The girls learned to bend down, grab the attacker’s foot from between their legs and then sit down on it forcefully. Next was the “spider guard,” a complex move that St. Clair offered as a defense after being knocked down.

In the spider guard, the intended victim rests on one haunch, with a leg and arm extended to ward off blows to the head or body. St. Clair and Wagner showed the girls how to pivot in a circle to deny the assailant a clear shot from any angle.

“You never see a snake, when it’s about to strike someone, go out in a straight line,” Wagner told the class.

After the class, some of the girls said they enjoyed their first experience learning self-defense.

“It was weird and funny at first, but as we went on, I got more excited about it,” said Melissa Correa, 11, a sixth-grader at TeWinkle.

Her classmate Victoria Aguilar, 11, said she wanted to take jujitsu in the future.

“If anybody comes to attack me, I’ll already know what to do,” she said.

* IN THE CLASSROOM is a weekly feature in which Daily Pilot education writer Michael Miller visits a campus in the Newport-Mesa area and writes about his experience.

20051220irrtfdnc(LA)20051220irrtennc(LA)Araceli Calderon grimaces as she is pushed back by a counterattack in self-defense training at TeWinkle Middle School. Right, Victoria Aguilar fights off Jasmin Aviza, who is playing the role of attacker in the class sponsored by Girls Inc. 20051220irrtecncPHOTOS BY DON LEACH / DAILY PILOT(LA)Lori Wagner and instructor Bear St.Clair demonstrate how to ward off an attack using the “spider guard.”