“Bye guys, love you, I’ll see you tonight.” I blew them both extra kisses as they walked into the office building.
At first I was looking forward to this but seeing the abundance of women waiting here in the Hotel Gymnasium made me feel intimidated and unsure, I had a Gym membership but only ever did Weights or Cardio Machines, I hadn’t actually exercised once since starting my job so I knew this was going to be a challenge, not only physically but co-ordination wise as well. It shouldn’t really surprise me that there were a lot of women here, I bet none of them gave a shit about Self-Defence, nor payed any attention to the learning aspect of the class. Judging by the whispered giggling and obvious excitement when Bryce entered the room, they were only here for one thing, a bloody good Perve! I snuck in two rows from the back; surely I couldn’t do any harm in this little pocket.
“Good morning Ladies, did we all have a good weekend?” The women all agreed in unison. Seriously? I felt like I was amongst a bunch of school girls!
“Good, now that all your fun is over we need to get serious.” A lady behind me murmured ‘I’d like to get serious with him.’ Another laughed and agreed.
“Do I have any newcomers today?” He started scanning the room, a couple of women put their hands up and he directed them to stand in the front row. I figured I’d stay and hide here, but he was on to it, before I had a chance to look anywhere else our eyes met and locked!
“Ah, Alexis my lovely assistant. I’d like you all to meet Alexis, she is going to help me demonstrate a few defensive moves that may one day help save your life.” He held out his hand and then pointed to stand next to him. Oh shit, you didn’t just do that and you’re freakin smirking at me. I hesitantly and very slowly made my way up to the front and gave a sheepish wave to the class, who by the looks on their faces, all seemed to automatically hate me. He placed his hands on both my shoulders and positioned me next to him, I felt my cheeks start to redden and I knew I looked like that beetroot I so often resembled when I was around him.
“Ladies, firstly I want you to remember the following 6 ‘soft spots’. Eyes, Ears, Throat, Groin, Fingers and Toes. By inflicting pain to these very sensitive areas, it can give you the best chance of disabling your attacker.” He started to pace the stage and every pair of eyes followed his every move.
“No matter how big your attacker is, his eyelids are always going to be just a thin layer of skin, this makes them a very vulnerable target to attack. A simple eye gouge with your thumbs, is all that is needed.” He moves to face me and demonstrates the action of sticking his thumbs into my eyes, although he doesn’t actually touch me.
“Or, a quick hard jab to the eye sockets with the fingertips.” As he thrust towards my eyes I flinched and he laughed. Oh you are hilarious, you’ll pay for that!
“Both these actions are great techniques to help you break holds, where your arm and/or arms are not restrained. The next soft spot is the Ears. The Ears are usually easy enough to grab onto and if yanked hard enough will cause a great deal of discomfort, another effective tactic is giving both Ears a hard slap with your palms at the same time, this creates such great air pressure that it may rupture an ear drum.” Still facing him, he instructs me to perform the last technique.
“Alexis, with both your palms facing inwards slap both my Ears in unison.” He puts both hands over his ears. Dammit, he was on to me, oh well my revenge will have to wait. I did what I was told.
“Excellent, hitting both Ears at the same time is paramount in this situation.” He moved quite close to me and placed his pointer and tall fingers to my throat, I tried not to look at him as his face was not far from mine. My chest started to rise and fall quite obviously and he picked up on my sudden change of heart rate.
“The Trachea Well is the little patch of soft flesh here, at the base of the Adams Apple and just like the eyelids is only one thin layer of skin protecting a vital and sensitive body part. You attack the Trachea Well in the same manner as the eyelids, by a thumb gouge, or sharp finger jab, like this.” He repeated the quick jabbing move.
“The second part of the throat area to strike is the Carotid Artery.” He firmly put his hand to my neck and squeezed gently.
“Grabbing in a claw like motion on either side of the Adams Apple will no doubt cause your attacker a great deal of pain.” This demonstration made me feel quite uncomfortable and vulnerable, I couldn’t help but look up to the roof, Bryce relaxed his fingers stood behind me but left his hand resting on my shoulder blade, he gentle flexed his hand which gave me a sense of relief surprisingly.