Welcome, Self-Defense!
BIO Girls Announces Self-Defense Pilot Program for 2021
Since 2019, BIO Girls has been actively working to diversify program offerings to broaden the appeal to more and more girls in our region. That’s why when veteran Site Director, Katie Stengard (Fargo, ND - Atonement), approached us with an idea to pilot BIO Girls using Self-Defense training as the physical activity we jumped at the idea.
BIO Girls is excited to further our partnership with Atonement Lutheran Church, and their own D.J. Lura, as the instructor for the Self-Defense portion.
D.J. is an instructor level expert in Shorin-ryu karate and has been teaching Shorin-ryu karate and Self-Defense to adults and children for 24 years. BIO Girls worked with D.J. to formalize the workout curriculum and end of season showcase that will be used in the pilot BIO Girls program.
This Self-Defense pilot program was designed with the Five Values of Self-Defense Training at its core: Character, Honesty, Effort, Respect, and Honor. Read more about those Five Values at the end of this article.
This BIO Girls Self-Defense pilot will be open to girls in grades 4 - 6. Registration will open August 10th. View program dates and register at: www.biogirls.org/register
This pilot program offering is a part of our organization’s initiative to expand 2021 program options & reach in Cass and Clay counties funded by the FM Area Foundation.
Five Values of Self-Defense Training
“The martial arts are not concerned with brute force to knock opponents down, nor with lethal weapons that lead the world to destruction. The true martial arts... guard the peace of the world, and produce and bring to maturity everything that is naturally good. Therefore, martial training is not training that has as its primary purpose the defeating of others, but practice of God’s love within ourselves.”
-Gichin Funakoshi (founder of Japanese Karate).
By learning self-defense, the goal is life protection for ourselves and for others, so that we may overcome not only outward dangers by others to harm us, but inward dangers that would lead us to harm others. Therefore, these five values are emphasized when training together:
1. Character: through training we seek to develop a good moral character that values life by overcoming fear of harm and indifference toward others.
2. Honesty: through training we discover our strengths and weaknesses, and the point of training is to better ourselves by being true to who we are and what we can accomplish.
3. Effort: through training we discover that intelligence and physical ability have limits that can be overcome and enhanced through perseverance. Giving our best efforts in practice is what gives us improvement in daily life.
4. Respect: through training we learn respect for ourselves and for others. All are made in the image of God, and deserve dignity.
5. Honor: through training we overcome fear of danger and develop a sense of gratitude for life. Self-defense is not just about defeating an opponent, but peace with ourselves; thereby allowing us to endure all of life’s trials with love for God and neighbor.
