The tragic death of Lisa from Abcoude provides a considerably increasing interest of girls and young women in particular for self -defense lessons at gyms. This is apparent from an inventory by Omroep Brabant. “We now have more than doubling the number of registrations compared to the same period last year,” says Monique Hooft of Fierce Self Defense in Zevenbergen.
Her colleague Louise Pross from Taus Gym in Tilburg and Breda sees the same trend. Also with her there has been a sudden doubling of the number of registrations in recent weeks. “We also get a lot of phone calls and apps with questions about Stay Away program.” That program is a training in self -defense and resilience especially for women.
Pross consciously chose not to seek publicity about the increase in the number of registrations ‘due to the sad reason’. “But it is good that the importance of resilience training is now gaining attention thanks to questions from the media.”
Almost all gyms with self -defense courses for women use Krav Maga, a defense method that was developed in Israel. “The techniques are based on natural movements. They are therefore relatively easy for everyone to learn to defend yourself in an extreme situation,” explains Monique Hooft of Fierce Self Defense.
“Only when things really get out of hand do you have the technology in mind.”
The application of violence always remains a final life -agent both instructors. “We learn students how to recognize certain behavior at an early stage and how to deal with it,” explains Louise Pross. “In this case we also teach women how to better indicate their limits. Certainly with well -known people, such as colleagues, this is often sensitive. Only when things are really out of hand, do you have the technology behind.”
“The point is that you come out of a situation where you don’t want to be as quickly as possible. That you know what to do to bring yourself to safety, preferably without violence. That can also be very simple by, for example, always paying attention to where there is an emergency exit,” Monique Hooft adds.
Rita Bosma is one of the students who follow a training at Monique. “You realize that what happened to Lisa could also have happened to me. I was also chased a few times. As a result, I no longer felt safe on the street. Because I now know that I don’t have to be powerless, I radiate that somehow out outside. I am much more confident.
According to the instructors Louise and Monique, almost every student has sometimes had to deal with unsafe situations. “It ranges from attempts to assault to years of intimidations of a friend. It has a huge impact on their lives. For example, I had someone in the course who, because of her trauma, holds all the lights in the house at night until even in the bedroom. Fortunately we could help her over it.”
After the drama with Lisa, the discussion about the legalization of pepper spray also flares up again. Louise Pross has its reservations about this. “I understand people to one Quickfix grasping, but there is a risk that it is counterproductive. Your attacker can take the pepper spray from you. In addition, the mist can also come in your direction. Moreover, I know that when people are really malicious, they will not be put off by pepper spray. Only in combination with good training can it contribute to defending you. “
“It may sound crazy about my mouth, but actually these training sessions should not be necessary at all,” says Monique. “I would rather see that the world around us was safe enough to be able to go safely on the street. But the reality is unfortunately different. Incidentally, that, to a lesser extent, certainly also for men.”
Women’s safety
Omroep Brabant pays attention to the safety of women in our province. The reason is the broad discussion that arose after the murder of 17-year-old Lisa in Amsterdam.
With a series of stories we map out how this lives in Brabant and we try to show that the problem is complicated and there are no ready -made solutions.