After an hour and a half at a self-defence class for women, I left Ferryhill Community Centre in Aberdeen standing that little bit taller, walking with more confidence and feeling empowered.
At first, we had all crammed ourselves into the corner of the room, directly opposite the emergency fire exit.
About 20 of us were waiting for the women’s self-defence experience to begin, perhaps with a little apprehension about what to expect.
Soon enough, we were coaxed out of the “scardey corner” by Arizona Brodie from Embodied Self-Defence, our coach for the evening.
She began by introducing herself and the eight-week course, explaining this wouldn’t be just about physical self-defence.
Arizona works as a domestic abuse worker with the charity Sacro, and is also a chairwoman for Rape Crisis Grampian.
The 29-year-old has been training in martial arts for most of her life, from learning karate when she was younger to becoming the second woman in Scottish history to earn a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
She then went on to explain her own past trauma, which she experienced despite her years of training and knowledge of mixed martial arts.
“I have all this martial arts experience, I wasn’t a black belt at the time when I experienced rape, but I still did have a good level of martial arts experience at that point,” she explained.
“When I was actually in that situation, I had a massive freeze reaction. I was so panicked and I knew there were consequences if I had done something, it would have affected multiple other areas of my life.”
‘Mindfulness is just as important’
After her experience, Arizona realised that self-defence was much more complex than physically being able to defend yourself. She went on her own self-defence journey and has learned that “mindfulness is just as important”, aiming to incorporate that into all her classes.
Throughout the evening we practiced different mindfulness techniques, from breathing exercises to tuning in with your mind and your body and finding out how you’re truly feeling in that moment.
These techniques help to calm us down, enabling us to think clearly and deal with the situation appropriately.
She added: “You actually have to believe you’re worth defending in the first place. A lot of people completely step past that part and just assume the physical techniques are going to be enough.
“The point is if you subconsciously think that you deserve to be treated badly, then it doesn’t matter if you know how to break out of a bear hug you’re still just going to stay in that situation because you don’t believe you deserve to be treated correctly.
“That’s why wellbeing, self-esteem, having those emotional regulation tactics, being able to self-manage, being able to talk to yourself and be your best friend and having those mindfulness habits are just as important as the physical part.”
Self-defence scenarios to put techniques for women into context
The eight-week course in Aberdeen, which welcomes LGBTQ+ members, is broken down into a number of self-defence scenarios including being followed home, a date gone wrong, a bad relationship and digital dilemmas for women.
Over lockdown, Arizona experimented with gaming and finding a way online for people to explore the decision-making aspect of self-defence.
She had also used a number of role-playing exercises in her classes just before lockdown and had received good feedback from them.
Arizona decided to run this block of classes as almost entirely scenario-based so that people could learn the individual techniques in context.
She said: “I had some really good feedback about the scenarios that I’d created so people could experiment with different decisions and try de-escalation, and almost get a taste of what a real-life situation would actually be like.
“Trying to put across the complexity of what if it’s a person you know or what would be the consequences of making this decision or whatever.
“Hopefully empowering people to apply those in a real-life situation much better than if we were like okay here is a random move in isolation, without any background or what led up to it or triggers or what might happen after you do that move.”
The scenario presented to us was being followed home. When Arizona asked us to raise our hands if we had ever been followed anywhere more than half the room held up their hands.
Not an ‘exact cookie-cutter’ template, but a set of self-defence tools
We were asked to partner up with someone so we could practice physical self-defence moves, designed around the scenario of women being followed home in Aberdeen.
As we sheepishly shuffled closer, not sure what was to come, Arizona began demonstrating what to do if you were pinned up against a wall with her partner and co-teacher Rachael Thomson.
We were then instructed to try those moves out on our partners. At first, I was the attacker, pinning my partner against a wall. It felt very strange to be trying to trap another woman, and looking around the room, everyone else felt the same way.
She echoed my feelings when it was her turn to push me against the wall.
As we took turns pushing and escaping the room was filled with laughter as people got the hang of the moves and began to relax.
The more comfortable we were getting the more confident we felt. The people who were at first shy and nervous were suddenly having fun, learning how powerful they can be.
Arizona explained that she wants the classes to feel like it is a safe space for everyone and that she thinks it is important people have fun when they are learning.
She added: “This isn’t about here is the exact cookie-cutter template of what you should do in every self-defence situation. Because we’ve all got different strengths and weaknesses and personal, mental and physical attributes.
“This is really about giving everyone a set of tools, and then you guys can focus on the bits that are natural for you and the bits that are maybe not the sort of thing you can see yourself doing you can leave to the side.”
Many of the people I spoke to had come for the first time, but excitedly told me they were coming again.
The transformation that occurred over an hour and a half was amazing, from being huddled in a corner we were filling up the space. Proud of ourselves for our achievements, and proud of each other.
The self-defence classes for women will run until December 2 at the Ferryhill Community Centre in Aberdeen, from 6.45pm on Thursdays. You can sign up for a class here.