Bored this afternoon?  Looking for some thing entertaining to read on the Internet?  I’ve got a few things for you.  I’ve been trying to post these on our Facebook page, but Facebook has not been cooperative.  So click away!

Wonderful article about the 10th Annual Shannon McNamara Run and Walk held yesterday.

Article from Wesley College about GFB Jaime’s recent program there. (Be sure to check out the picture accompanying this article in which Jaime looks like she totally knows what she is talking about.  Awesome!)

And I’ve seen a lot of great success stories recently.  Here are a few:

Woman fights off a man trying to abduct her.

13-year-old girl fights off a knife-wielding attacker.

12-year-old girl tricks a would-be kidnapper with her iPod Touch.

Found an interesting article?  Saw a success story online?  Friend us on Facebook and share your link there.  Or if Facebook hates you like it obviously hates me, put your link in the comments!

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So, I recently headed up to West Virginia to teach the awesome students of Bethany College how to kick ass Students Fight Back style.  Now, I’m sure we all have our stereotypes about West Virginia, but honestly, I found only one of them to be accurate and that is that there really are a lot of wild animals in West Virginia. 

I was driving on the backroads and twice had to come to a screeching halt for some little woodland creature to cross my path.  Ok, maybe not little woodland creatures because the first time I stopped it was for the biggest wild turkey I’d ever seen in my life, but the second time it was for a sweet little beaver.  I could sworn he winked at me as I slammed on my brakes and kept him from being crushed under my tire.  After that, I drove about 10 MPH under the speed limit just to be safe.   I also saw horses, cows and a full grown buck with huge antlers so close to the road, I could have rolled down my window and touched him.

The Bethany College campus was beautiful and in the middle of the most peaceful little town you’ve ever seen.  We had a small but mighty crowd and everyone seemed to have a blast.

So, my advice for anyone travelling through WV?  Watch out for woodland creatures and don’t mess with Bethany College students.  They are more than ready to defend themselves!

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Today I am very happy to announce the launch of our new Girls Fight Back website! Located at http://girlsfightback.com, the site strives to be easy to navigate, easy to learn about personal safety online and easy to bring the GFB program (keynotes or workshops) to your school, college or business.  We hope it simplifies the process of learning to defend yourself without stress or confusion. Since we just launched, we anticipate a few glitches here and there. If you find any errors on the site, let us know via the contact form and I’ll personally send you a free, autographed copy of my book! (Girls Fight Back! The College Girl’s Guide to Protecting Herself.)

Probably my favorite feature on the website is the entire Girls Fight Back presentation is viewable online.  And guess what? It’s FREE. You don’t even have to give us your e-mail address. (Pop some popcorn, then click here to enjoy.) Many of my professional speaker friends think I’m a nut for doing this. After all, the presentation IS our business, so why make it free? Well in addition to it being my business, it’s also my mission. And we get LOTS of e-mail from women living in fear or in crisis with no ability to access to a self-defense class. Sometimes these notes arrive from faraway places like Egypt and Bahrain! While I don’t claim the GFB program is a substitute for taking a live class, I do think it’s a good first step and I’m delighted to make it available to women who so desperately seek it.

I have to thank my friend David Meerman Scott (a rock star author and professional speaker – not to mention an amazing guy and father) who inspired me to make the presentation free and accessible to anyone. He actually blogged about our new website, so click here to read it. Someone once told me, “If you love something, set it free.” Besides all the amazing people in my life, I couldn’t love anything more than Girls Fight Back…so have a nice flight, little birdie! Mama loves you!

You’ll also notice on the home page and the partners page, we announce some exciting sponsors for the GFB Fall Tour – which is now underway. (Heather spoke at University of Memphis last night. Yee haw!) We’d like to give a big thank you to SELF magazine, FORSSE and CampusTshirt.com for backing our tour this season. Also mentioned on the partners page are two awesome speakers bureaus that book all our college programs, Bass Schuler Entertainment and CAMPUSPEAK. We’re really psyched to be working with both of them.

Another big feature on the new website is our two new speakers, who have made Girls Fight Back a GLOBAL movement of peace and girl power. I extend a very warm welcome to Khalida from Pakistan and Trina from India – both of whom I spent this past summer training in public speaking and self-defense. They are incredible warriors in their own battles, with Khalida working to end honor killing across Pakistan and Trina working to end sex trafficking in Mumbai. When I first met them, I was so excited by the idea of GFB going global…I had no idea that training them would also to give me 2 more sisters. (BTW: Trina & Khalida will be using all money earned from programs they give in their countries to create revenue for their non-profits. They keep 100% of what they earn. This is the first major initiative of the Girls Fight Back Foundation – training women from other countries to be speakers on the topic of peace and safety, and how to make money doing it. Then use that income to fund social change.)

If you enjoy the new website, please tell us by visiting our Facebook fan page and leave a comment. Even better, send the link to 3 of your friends. Or blog about it, tweet it or post a link on Facebook. Our mission is to make women’s safety education as widely available as possible, and we thank you in advance for helping us out. We can’t do it alone – making women see that WE can be our own best protectors takes an army of women and men who love women.

Before I scamper off, I’d like to thank the following people for making contributions to this new website: Photographer Sean Savitt, graphic designer Jenn Doe, web designer Peter Lacis, GFB Program Director Cheryl Goff, t-shirt guru Jim Levy, Morgan Jelling at SELF, Liz Meitus at FORSSE, all our past and future clients and my incredible GFB speakers.

People often tell me and my team that Shannon McNamara is very proud up in heaven. In the past, I’ve always said “I hope so.” But now that any woman, anywhere, can learn some basic skills that could save her life – “I know so.”

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The incoming class of freshman at Reinhardt College should not be messed with! 

 Our Fall 2010 Tour has officially begun and they helped me kick it off right with a Students Fight Back program this past weekend.  They were enthusiastic, fun, and just a little bit scary.  Mad props go to Jeremy, who not only planned the whole thing, but also served as one of the creepiest SBGs I’ve ever worked with.  I think at one point I compared him to a Harry Potter character; maybe it was the badass beard he was sporting.

Keep checking the blog over the coming months.  We’ve got a super busy semester planned and we’ll keep you entertained with our tales from the road both here  and on our Facebook page!  Be sure to become a fan of ours on FB!

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Beware you aspiring home invaders, women are willing and able to fight back.  And you never know what they will have lying around their house to club you over the head with!

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I’ve recently had the pleasure of speaking for a couple of local senior groups and this story just goes to show that you shouldn’t mess with “little old ladies.” 

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Super excited to see California taking some strong steps to make self-defense education a required part of a public school education!  Check out this link!

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March is already starting out to be an exciting month for me.  I’ll be doing Fight Back Productions gigs in Georgia, Ohio, Wisconsin, South Carolina, and Florida.  Crazy! 

But in between the out of town excursions, there are some exciting things going on right here in town that I want to share with you.  I hope that if you are in NC you’ll come and join me!

First up, at 3pm on Saturday, March 13^th, I’ll be presenting a free Girls Fight Back! seminar at Advanced World Martial Arts Systems in Kernersville.  The program is appropriate for ages 13 and up and will last about 90 minutes with plenty of time after to answer any questions you may have.  I’ll be talking about ways to avoid becoming the target of a violent crime by trusting your intuition and behaving like a bad victim and I’ll finish up with some simple fight techniques that you can use if you ever find yourself confronted by an attacker.  The program is presented with tons of humor and you’ll leave feeling like a stronger, more empowered person.  Pete Andrews of AWMAS has graciously agreed to let me use his studio for free and while there is no charge for the seminar itself, we will be collecting donations for Heroes Serving Humanity.  For more information about the workshop check out: http://www.awmas1.com/page_latestnews.htm. And call 336-992-5223 to sign-up.  Call ASAP – space is limited.

Also in the realm of violence prevention, from March 12^th thru March 27^th; V-Day Greensboro will be presenting staged readings of Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues and A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant, and A Prayer at Open Space Café Theatre in Greensboro, NC.  These very adult oriented productions explore how our society affects the way women view their bodies and the way that violence impacts the lives of women around the globe.  I’ll be performing in A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant, and A Prayer, so come check it out and say hi to me afterwards! The Vagina Monologues performs March 11, 13, and 26 at 8pm. A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant, A Prayer performs March 12, 25, and 27 at 8pm.  Tickets are $10 each and can be purchased at the door or make reservations by calling (336) 687-1319.  All proceeds go to The Sherri Denese Jackson Foundation in Greensboro NC.

If you aren’t in North Carolina, you can find out more about the V-day campaign and look for events in your area by checking out www.vday.org.  And be sure to check out our FBP calendar at www.fightbackproductions.com/calendar to when we’ll be in your neck of the woods!

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Last night was my last official RAD class at my alma mater and I thought I would share my experience with those of you who might be looking for a self-defense class to take.  Just remember that these are only my thoughts and programs will vary at different locations.  So, check out the RAD Systems website to find a class near you so that you can form your own opinion.

First, RAD is an incredibly popular program with a presence on virtually every college campus in the US and Canada.  It is usually free or very low cost to attend and once you graduate, you are given a certificate to return to any class throughout the US or Canada without any additional charge.  They also require that all men involved be law enforcement officers or submit to a thorough background screening.

Because RAD is typically offered on college campuses, you can expect to have a lot of young, enthusiastic gals in your class and the one I attended was no exception.  Over four short training sessions, we bonded and cheer each other on through various scenarios.  The instructors were friendly and not the least bit intimidating or egotistical.

While I general found the class to be simple and easy to follow, I wasn’t totally impressed with the amount of practice time we were given or the time spent on teaching ground defense.  There were also some scenarios that were “off-limits” during the full-contact portion of the final night.  I found that frustrating since several of us wanted to practice ground techniques.

All-in-all I would list the pro and cons as follows:

Pros -

• Easy to find classes and large network of instructors all over the US and Canada
• Free or low cost to attend with the option to return to any class, any time, any where without additional charge
• Very simple techniques that are similar to other systems

Cons-

• Not a lot of practice time esp on ground defense
• Not a lot of time with padded attackers to practice various scenarios
• Some scenarios were “off limits” and could not be practiced with the padded attackers.

Personally, I really enjoyed learning this new system.  It is very similar to other approaches and I will definitely be checking out other RAD programs in my area.  If you have taken a RAD class at your college or in your community, please feel free to leave a comment!  Was my experience similar to yours or did you have a totally different opinion about the classes you took?

If you are in the Denver area, be sure to sign-up for the new Girls Fight Back workshop being held at Spiral Yoga and Wellness tomorrow.  For more details, check out Erin’s post below!

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Lately I’ve been talking to women’s safety instructors about low class attendance for a skill that can save a person’s life.  It’s a common frustration among most self-defense instructors, even those who are internationally known, when it comes to marketing safety and self-defense education to everyday women.  Despite the excellent education that so many instructors offer, in many cases these classes are duds, with only a few people in attendance.

I believe there are many reasons for this, one of the biggies being that women are flat-out SCARED of something bad happening to them…and consequently are afraid of confronting that possible reality in a self-defense class.  As a result, many class attendees who actually show up have put off taking a class for years, are nervous to be there, recently survived an attack or “close call” or are forced to attend. (Often the case with moms making their daughters go…while ironically, those same moms often never take a class themselves.)  This can be a tough crowd in regards to helping them relax, opening their minds and filling their brains and bodies with new ideas of what they are capable of.

This begs the question…what if we got this education to women in other ways, with less pressure?  What if we made self-defense classes like swim lessons?  The lessons are fun, but the goal is teaching young people to not drown. (Scary outcome, fun process learning to avoid it.)  What if we looked at models like Jazzercize?  It was created after Judy Sheppard Missett saw the high turnover rate of dance classes, so she threw in a fitness component and some crazy humor.  The idea? Have fun while getting fit.  Why is fun so taboo when it comes to self-defense?  Is it possible for the education to be even MORE effective if people are relaxed while they hear our message of safety?

When people are laughing, they are listening.  And when they are listening, they’re learning.  And when they are learning, they become empowered.  And that’s when change happens.

I’d like to pose this question to all women: What would make the idea of taking a self-defense class or martial arts less scary to you?  A clean, pretty studio? Women only?  More “friendly” marketing materials?  Or shouldn’t self-defense be fun at all?  Please comment…

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