"Well, I've sparred before," she began. "In New York with my trainer. But that was like, boxing type stuff and we didn't do that very often. I'm not sure how well I'd fare with self-defense stuff."
"It's not totally unlike boxing," Heath said with a shrug. "There are just other elements." He paused, studying her face as she studied her hands. "You would really be helping me out."
Finally, she sighed and lifted her head, nodding. "All right. I suppose I owe you a favor, anyway."
He had planned on not referencing Saturday night's events, for her comfort, and he'd expected that she wouldn't either. But now, her veiled reference served to almost put them at ease with each other. She smiled uncertainly at him, as though she wasn't sure how he'd receive her comment.
He waved a hand. "No big deal," he said. "Let's go to the ring."
He hopped up into the ring and pulled the ropes back slightly as she hopped up beside him, stepping delicately through the ropes. She stood with her back to them, hugging herself as he moved into the center of the ring.
"All right," he said. "Come here. I'm going to show you how to hit angles." Drew stepped toward him uncertainly, still hugging herself. He smirked and reached out, pulling gently at one of her arms. "You have to put your arms down. Stand like this." He showed her a proper, basic fighting stance and she mimicked him.
"Now. I want you come toward my shoulder. When you get there, you're going to take your hands and push off, throwing me to the side. This is effective for when an attacker is coming at you head-on. You hit your angle, shove him away, and run. Got it?" He demonstrated slowly against her, turning his body away from her slightly, stepping up to her side, and using his hands to push at her shoulder, sending her stumbling back several steps as he moved away. She nodded, and he resumed his place in the center of the ring, facing her head on. "All right. I'm going to stand still. You hit my angle on both sides." Drew demonstrated, and he nodded his approval. "That was good. Easy?"
"Yes," she replied. "Easy."
They practiced that several more times, before Heath showed her how to take it to the next level if staying and fighting was the only option. He showed her how to reach up and grab an assailant by the back of the head and bring the head down, to ram it with the knee. He fetched a padded helmet with a front cover guard on it and told her to go to town.
"Really go for it," he said. "You won't hurt me."
Drew hit her angle and then whirled to the side, grasping the back of his head and yanking it down, while bringing her knee up to the front of his helmet. He was pleased that she'd caught on so quickly. He made her do it over and over, then practiced both moves together until he was satisfied with her progress. Next, he took her through some exercises to show her how to block strikes, how important it was to watch an opponent's shoulders and not their eyes, to be able to gauge from where they were going to throw their next punch.
"Now, I want to show you how to get out of a hold," Heath announced a while later. He was starting to work up a sweat, and Drew was finally starting to loosen up. She genuinely seemed to be enjoying herself, and he could tell she was growing more and more empowered with every new thing he taught her. Which was precisely the goal of the course—to empower women to be able to take care of themselves in a hairy situation.
"There's a couple ways you can go about this," he added. He moved in front of Drew, giving her his back. "All right. Put me in a hold." He stood, waiting, and after a moment glanced over his shoulder. Drew was flushing slightly as she stared at his back. "What's the problem?" he asked.
"Huh?" Drew's head snapped up, meeting his gaze.
"What's the problem? Grab me."
"Uh, yeah," she muttered. "Right." Her arms slid around him gingerly. He bit back a smile and shook his head.
"Drew. Grab me like you mean it. This won't work otherwise."
He heard her sigh and her arms tightened around him noticeably. He wiggled slightly, testing the strength of her grasp, and was satisfied it would work to demonstrate on her.
"All right," he said over his shoulder. "Say someone comes up behind you and pins your arms to your sides, and you can't get out. What you should do is swing one of your legs in a giant step behind both of you, plant it right behind their leg, and throw your hip to put them off-balance. Then you can start throwing elbows, breaking the hold, getting away. Sometimes it might be a little bit more of a fight if they're not willing to let you go. You can try twisting out of their grasp like this." He showed her, and she nodded. "Let's try it again."