Local karate school offers free clinics to teach kids
self-defense
He’s huge – well over 6 feet tall. He leans down to the small, blond 7-year-old girl and tells her he’s going to grab her.
“What are you going to do about it?” he asks, getting in her face and reaching for her.
The girl blocks his arm with hers and delivers a nasty kick to the outside of his thigh, executing the moves with a mighty yell.
The bully, martial arts instructor Robert O’Connor, high-fives his small victim, Danelle Schwegler, complimenting her on her kick.
Starting this week, other South Valley children can learn to be “bully-proof” at free clinics offered by West Coast Martial Arts in Gilroy and Morgan Hill.
“This community has been good to me for the last 11 years, and I’ve been successful,” said Russ Rocchi, owner of the Morgan Hill and Gilroy branches of West Coast Martial Arts. “This year, I really wanted to give back to the community. Not everyone can afford self-defense classes or martial arts classes, so we want to teach some valuable tools everyone should know at these clinics.”
The bully-proof workshops are the first in a series of free clinics Rocchi hopes to teach this year. The first half of the year will focus on children and the last half will include adult classes, he said.
Kids taking part in the bully-proof classes will learn about the mentality of bullies and how they seek out weaker, less confident children, Rocchi explained.
“We teach them to focus on self-esteem and confidence, as well as some basic martial arts stances,” he said. “We say to trust your tummy. If your inside-voice is telling you something’s not right, or if your tummy feels scared, then something’s wrong.”
One of the main points of the class is to teach children how to avoid physical confrontation to the best of their ability and use aggressive measures as a last resort.
“To harm you physically, a bully has to be able to get to you,” Rocchi said. “You learn to do foot work drills to keep your distance, you learn to take a non-aggressive stance, with your hands open and you say in a strong voice, ‘I don’t want to fight.'”
The classes also encouraged getting an adult involved as soon as possible.
If a child is forced into a physical altercation, they are taught a basic leg kick and basic punch. Both moves are designed not to cause permanent damage. The kick, for example, is aimed toward the mid-thigh, and will at worst cause a charley horse.
“When I was younger, I wasn’t necessarily the toughest kid on the block, and I remember that feeling of being scared (of getting bullied),” Rocchi said. “It’s a very real feeling and it’s not a fun place to be in. I watch my son, Gavin, who’s four-and-a-half, get more independent on the play ground, and there are skills I want him to have.”
Another focal point is teaching children it’s not okay to use the moves they learn in class in a negative way and become bullies themselves.
“It’s like any weapon you give a child – if you give them a baseball bat, you’re going to teach them the proper way to use it,” Rocchi said.
This concept is also stressed during West Coast Martial Arts’ regular classes.
“Be strong in case you have to defend yourself,” O’Connor tells the students after drilling them on what to do if a bully knocks them down or grabs them from behind.
“Remember the number one defense is running away and yelling ‘fire,'” he tells the kids after letting them practice moves on him. “If they can’t touch you, they can’t hurt you.”
Danelle, who will be 8 next month, said she’s learned to be strong from her classes and she recommends them.
And is it pretty cool to have a chance to beat up on a man that’s more than twice as tall as she is?
“Yeah, it’s pretty fun,” she said, with a big smile.
Lorie Scalzo not only put her son and daughter in martial arts classes, she and her husband are taking them, too.
“When we first saw (Robert), he was so intimidating,” she said. “But they have a great time with him, and they don’t even realize the discipline they’re learning.”
