Teaching Young Women Self-Defense through Taekwondo

Amanda Rosbarsky is determined to teach young women how to stand up to a potential attacker and how defend themselves.

Rosbarsky instructs a self-defense class called Worth the Fight which is precisely the message she wants her female students to take away from class.

“Self-defense techniques will only be useful to you if you feel you are worth the effort to use them,” Rosbarsky elucidated as her young students were leaving the Missoula Taekwondo Center.

Rosbarsky want to help women evade and escape potential attackers by teaching them simple self-defense techniques. But these techniques don’t mean a lot unless the victim has a sense of self-worth, she explained.

This was her first course meant for college students this year, but Rosbarsky is preparing to arrange a little more classes throughout the year for the women at the University of Montana.

Throughout one class, Katie Resch and her sister practiced a move called the “simple circle” that can be used to escape an attacker if she is apprehended.

Katie gripped her hands to one another and kept her arms close to her chest as she spun to unlock herself from her sister’s grasp.

“I like the idea of building my self-confidence,” Katie said.

Deviations of the “simple circle” can be utilized in other stances or situations to break away and run, Rosbarsky explained.

When they’re practicing a quick punch to the bottom of the nose or a stern kick to the crotch, the young women yell in a fearsome voice from their belly. The yell is called a kehap in Korean, meaning “soul yell.”

Rosbarsky said critics of her seminar say civilization should be sorting out what young men learn from pop culture, not teaching young women how to protect themselves.

Some young men take up a conquering character, Rosbarsky described. Her husband and business partner would also like to teach a seminar to teach them self-worth and how to decode any negative sway from music and television.

Rosbarsky said it’s unfortunate that our culture puts the responsibility of protection on the victim. But she said there’s no reason she shouldn’t arm women with the simple moves they need do so.

“You get to decide who you are and who you want to be,” she said.

“If we don’t make the conscious decision to decide who we are and define who we are, then we slip into a complacent attitude,” Rosbarsky added.