TBJJ saves 16 year old from serious harm

I hesitated to write this, mainly because it puts my family in an odd position; however, Doc assured me that it would be a good post and I want to share my infant experience with this school as much as possible in order to assure others of the value of attending this gym's activities.

If you read some of my first posts, you will see that I attended a self defense class that Chris Gates taught for Tupelo Anesthesia Group and Alliance Collection Service. I went home and passed along a couple of the things he taught to my three teenage daughters. The key things I remembered were that a woman has a great weapon in her hips when attacked from behind and to use your heels to keep your attacker at bay when you are on your back.

In my first class with Mark Romano, I learned the jab and right cross both of which I passed along to my daughters.

Last week, after a field trip, my 16 year old daughter was attacked from behind by an older, larger girl. The girl ran up behind her, grabbed her pony tail and hit my daughter three times in the side of the head.

This situation had catastrophe written all over it; however, having taken several shots already and not being sure where her attacker was except that she was behind her, my daughter took what Chris taught and applied it. She knew that this girl meant to hurt her bad, so she had to do something to stop her. She backed into the girl and caught her right arm, pushed her hips back and in her words "Dad, she was on the ground in front of me before I knew it!" At that point she had the advantage, was able to get on top of the girl and lock her into a submissive position.

Here is where I am sure we need to get the girls into the gym in front of the professionals at TBJJ. As I am sure you can imagine, my daughter was very angry. She told me that she remembered how to punch... and used it... a LOT. Needless to say, she is in "In School Suspension" for three days. The amount of blood at the scene indicates to me that I HAVE to get them into class. She was in a position to stop and didn't. She had the girl down and submitted but let anger take over which I am not sure was the best decision. BUT... had Chris not taught that class, and had Doc not shared with me the basic punching techniques, I would surely be telling a very different tale on this blog.

I do not advocate fighting. I teach my girls and son to defend themselves but to never go too far and to handle the situation at the lowest possible level. Obviously, training by a trained professional like those at TBJJ, can not only prevent your family being harmed, but can also prevent them from harming others needlessly.

Thank you TBJJ for your training and efforts so far. I will have the two 99 pound youngest daughters in class within the next two weeks, after graduation, etc., to make sure the next time something like this happens, it is handled appropriately and not just "like daddy said".