Madison Hudson
Staff Writer
The Chozen Martial Arts Academy held their semi-annual Women’s Self Defense Workshop that emphasized the importance of protecting the body and minds of women when facing a harmful situation on Saturday morning.
Located at 670 Arrow Hwy. in La Verne, the academy offers different fitness classes from Krav Maga and mixed martial arts to kids’ karate. The defense workshop falls under an Israeli martial arts practice; a modern and dynamic self defense system that trains hand-to-hand combat.
Designed for ages 13 and up, women from local communities attended this event and were led by a variety of different instructors that focused on specific topics. Starting from having a predator mindset and pre-attack cues to discovering proper ways to use your body as a defense tool and establishing how to strike your targets.
“Self-defense, with everything going on in the world, being able to stay consistent with learning new self defense movements and unlocking new ways when using your body as a defense mechanism as well as staying healthy has inspired me to continue exploring this profession,” Kevin Amos, the workshop instructor, said.
Throughout the hour and a half workshop, women used their bodies to deflect punching bags and other equipment that imitated defensive situations.
Shihan Danny Trujillo, the owner of the dojo, approached a fresh outlook to his martial arts when he first opened up the Chozen Martial Arts Academy. He established a place where both children and adults can come and train their skills while being a part of a family atmosphere when entering the dojo.
“The importance of having knowledge when it comes to self-defense is a very valuable idea,” Trujillo said. “When women purchase a weapon, most of the time, they don’t know how to operate it nor know how to actually defend themselves with a gun or even a stick so knowing how to defend yourself in a time of need using your elbows or knee is essential.”
Multiple attendees who went to the workshop are members that attend other classes and private lessons with various instructors. As this dojo is a very family-friend orientated business, multiple family members of the instructors attend numerous times a week to perfect their skills and advance onto their new colored belts.
“My dad started here and he enrolled us in karate at a young age and my sister and I started to pursue this passion seven years ago,” Alexa Longburn, San Dimas resident, said. “The biggest takeaway from each class I take at the dojo is learning different techniques to protect yourself and being very aware and cautious of your surroundings no matter if you are alone or with someone.”
Krav Maga means “contact combat” in Hebrew as the system developed for the Israeli Defense Forces and was developed by Imi Lichtenfeld who was a boxer and wrestler. The idea behind this was to emphasize defensive and offensive movements and aggression while fighting both on and off the ground using different maneuvers.
“The most important thing I took away from this workshop was that I had more options to defend myself in a crisis situation than I thought,” Murphy Daley, Claremont resident, said. “Elbows are very impressive and tactical when it comes to a lot of situations and I learned that through attending multiple classes at this dojo.”
Madison Hudson can be reached at madison.hudson@laverne.edu.
Madison Hudson is a staff writer for the Campus Times.
