TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Highlands Today

Ways To Stay Safe

ADVERTISEMENT

By BRAD DICKERSON

Highlands Today

Published: January 24, 2009

SEBRING - One form of martial arts Stephen Weed teaches his students is a Japanese style called okazaki ju-jitsu.

"It has the discipline with it," said Weed, an instructor at Sebring's Universal Center of Natural Martial Arts.

The style encompasses teaching students how to get out of headlocks, perform submission holds, fall properly without getting hurt and do takedowns and throws.

Weed teaches this form of ju-jitsu to not only children between ages 4 and middle-school aged, but also adults.
Adult participation in his classes has grown somewhat recently.

"I've had a little bit within the last three or four months," Weed said.

He added that some of his new students are a family who came home and found a burglar inside their residence.

In 2007, U.S. residents age 12 and older experienced an estimated 23 million crimes of violence and theft, according to the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Males experienced 22 violent victimizations per 1,000 men age 12 or older, while females experienced 19 such victimizations per 1,000 women age 12 or older, according to the statistics.

The 2007 rates were at or near the lowest levels recorded since 1973, the first year such data was available. Still, the current trends in medium-sized cities are moving up, according to a press release from The Self Defense Company.

"Home invasions and muggings are on the rise, and regular citizens need to practice simple strategies to avoid becoming an easy target for petty crime and personal attacks," said company president Damian Ross.

Master Val Henry, with Sebring's Martial Arts America, said that in the past year a lot of new students have signed up not because of something that happened to them personally, but because a person they knew was a victim of a crime.

He may teach maneuvers like wrist locks, but Henry always instills that violence should be the secondary choice.

"We always teach all of our students how not to fight," Henry said.

In addition to helping students perfect techniques like Tai kwan do, Henry also teaches a woman's self-defense program.

Some of the advice he passes on in this program is for women not to carry purses with shoulder straps.

If a person were to try and snatch the purse while the strap was around a woman's shoulder, the victim could be dragged to the ground and sustain injury, according to Henry. He advises to always carry a purse in hand.

Both Ross and Henry say people should always have car keys in hand when entering a parking lot.

Some other suggestions Ross offers is to keep 911 on speed dial, carry pepper spray or a personal alarm, take advantage of local safety services, study the neighborhood, share your schedule and report suspicious activity.

"Most of us believe that crime is limited to large cities, or in certain areas and neighborhoods, but that is simply not the case," Ross said.

Highlands Today reporter Brad Dickerson can be reached at 863-386-5838 or bdickerson@highlandstoday.com

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT