THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 25, 1994 TAG: 9408230163
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOAN C. STANUS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
Fourteen-year-old Chavela Manuel put her hands around her mother's throat and squeezed.
Her effort wasn't good enough for Mark Gerszewski. He wanted a tighter grip: something more threatening.
``It doesn't pay to be lady-like,'' Gerszewski told Manuel. ``Get tough.''
Manuel's mother, Linda George of Norfolk, remained unfazed as her daughter tightened the grip. At Gerszewski's direction, the 38-year-old mother simply threw her arm over her head, stepped back and whirled her body around to free herself of her daughter's hold.
``That's good; excellent,'' Gerszewski cooed to the mother and daughter, two of his students in a recent seminar on self-defense for women. ``Now you're off and running. No one will be able to hold this choke on you for long if you know what you're doing.''
Knowing what to do if and when they're ever attacked is what brought George and her daughter to Gerszewski.
``It's a rough world,'' admitted George, a Tarrallton resident. ``I think every young girl needs to learn self-defense. It's going to build her self confidence and make her stronger.''
``I wasn't too excited about coming,'' Manuel said. ``But it's probably a good thing to know.''
A third-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, Gerszewski developed his seminar a year and a half ago after clients like George asked him to teach their children protection techniques. He's taught Tae Kwon Do for nine years.
``Growing up, I was a skinny kid,'' Gerszewski recalled. ``I first took a class in Tae Kwon Do in high school and fell in love with it. There was just something about it.''
Three years ago, he quit his construction company to work full time teaching the Korean martial art. Not long after, he opened his own studio in Ghent.
He believes his self-defense classes are the only ones offered in Norfolk that are specifically tailored to women wanting ``street survival techniques.''
``The police offer strictly a lecture. . . on street awareness to prevent crime,'' the 32-year-old Norfolk native explained. ``All but about a half hour of my class involves class participation, where we learn evasive techniques and ways to physically fight back.''
Unlike Tae Kwon Do or the other martial arts, these street survival techniques don't take years of practice and training to perfect. Most are a combination of the various martial arts moves. Class participants have ranged from young teenagers to 80-year-old grandmothers.
Gerszewski encourages participants, however, to take his class a second time within six months.
``We cover so much material, sometimes it's hard to absorb it all the first time,'' he said. ``The things we talk about give women food for thought, issues they haven't really thought about. It's not intended to instill paranoia, but (rather) it's a way for them to always keep their minds fresh and alert.''
At the August seminar, best friends Mechelle Carroll of Virginia Beach and Nicole Givens of Mt. Jackson, Va., were facing off in a simulated confrontation.
Givens, 19, held a hard cushion into the air about face-level, while her friend punched it with the bottom of her closed hand. The cushion was supposed to represent Givens' face.
``If that was really someone's face, and you hit it this way, they'd probably go to the hospital,'' said Gerszewski. ``You'd definitely knock them out.''
The girls looked at each other and grinned. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by BILL TIERNAN
Chavela Manuel and her mom, Linda George, learn an escape
technique.
by CNB