According to a police self defence instructor ... ‘Thinking beats rape’

Press, 27 February 1986, Page 9

According to a police self defence instructor ... ‘Thinking beats rape’

Deborah McPherson

By

Breaking down years of a social conditioning that has taught women to be submissive and not fight back, is one of the most difficult barriers to deal with, says Christchurch police self-defence instructor, Inspector Tony Lynch. Inspector Lynch has taught self-defence to up to 500 Christchurch women in the last three years. Most of the women who do the six-week courses have never been in any sort of physical fight, he says. “The majority have also never hit a man in their life, except by accident, or when they were young fighting their brothers.”

Teaching women selfdefence is challenging because for many it was not something they had naturally learnt. “The fear of physical contact is enormous for some women.”

Many women feel at a physical disadvantage, even to a male the same size, and so become discouraged, he notes. “I find a large percentage of women are more upset by the frustration of not knowing what to do when they are attacked, than by the actual attack itself.”

Most of the women who have attended his courses want to redress this physical and psychological imbalance.

They want to learn how to protect themselves and their children, to become aware of how to avoid potentially difficult situations or attacks, and how to better secure their homes.

Inspector Lynch says he prefers to base the courses around avoidance of potential rape or attack situations. His catch phrase is "thinking beats rape.” The first three sessions of the course are spent in talking about situations where rapes could occur, commonsense precautions to take to avoid attacks, and answering questions. Personal safety labels, that can be placed at the front door, behind a toilet door, dr over the sink bench, are also given to women oh the course. If learnt by heart, the memory aids could help stop the panic setting in, he

said. -The courses help boost

women’s confidence by teaching physical and mental self-defence methods. Knowing one has the technical skills to combat an attacker reduces fear. Some of the women on the courses, who started off timid, astounded him by the end of the course, said Inspector Lynch.

He would also like to see a programme of self defence for girls taught in the secondary schools, so that they would be conditioned to defend themselves from an earlier age, and to build their confidence in their ability to defend themselves. The teenagers he taught last year at Rangiora High School were a lot less inhibited and keener to learn than some of the women he taught, he says. - The self-defence courses started and run single handedly by Inspector Lynch have become the basis for a series of self-defence courses run by the police in conjunction with neighbourhood watch schemes throughout the country. He says he is not paid any extra by the police force for his extra-curric-ular activities. It is something he does becau&Spie has “always been con-

cerned about crimes against a person." “It always seemed to me, that in court the offender had all sorts of rights, but the victim suffered long after the offender had finished his sentence,” he says. “I guess that is a reflection of our materialistic society.”

As a policeman, he says he is very much aware of the way people unwittingly place themselves at risk. Self-defence is not just a matter of knowing the right physical moves, but also involves thinking and becoming aware of some of the ways to avoid difficulties. Many of the crimes

committed against people occur in their own homes. Crime statistics also show that more than 60 per cent of all rapes committed in New Zealand in 1984 occurred in the home of the victim. A large percentage of the offenders are known to the victims, says Inspector Lynch.