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People often ask us, “What if I do everything I can to avoid being attacked – and it doesn’t work?”
The answer, of course, is that they might need to use the power of their body – such as to hit or kick – in order to escape and get to safety.
Knowing how to fight in ways that work for your own body can build self-confidence and can prepare you to escape an assault – just in case the skills to avoid it in the first place didn’t work.
Teaching physical self-defense skills has always been a core part of our work. Instead of teaching fighting to “win”, we teach fighting to leave. This means we focus on skills and strategies to break away, escape, and get to safety.
After 31 years of teaching these crucial skills to hundreds of thousands of all ages and abilities all over the world, 2020 brought the opportunity and the motivation for us to learn how to make these skills accessible online.
We’ve learned a lot in the last two years and are excited about the online options we can now make available to you and your loved ones!
You now almost always find live, online physical self-defense workshops listed among our many Community Workshops – we even have space in this Sunday’s Fullpower Physical Self-Defense for Adults and Teens 15+!
Next month, we’ll be rolling out a new Fullpower Physical Self-Defense self-paced course in our Online Learning Center. Be on the lookout for an announcement in our newsletter – or, register for Sunday’s class and get a code for free access to the online course! We’re offering these to all participants in our live online physical self-defense workshops through September.
Finally, don’t forget our popular “One Strong Move” book! One strong move stops most attacks, and in this engaging and practical self-defense textbook, you will find step-by-step lessons for learning and teaching practical and effective self-protection strategies and techniques from Kidpower’s globally acclaimed curriculum.
We’re excited to share these workshops and resources with you – and to learn from your feedback! We are continuing to expand our online options because these tools have made it possible for us to further our mission more widely and effectively than ever before – and, as always, the people like you who use our programs and resources are the best ones to tell us what works and how we can make it better!
Published: August 4, 2022 | Last Updated: August 4, 2022
Irene van der Zande, Kidpower Founder and Executive Director
Kidpower Founder and Executive Irene van der Zande is a master at teaching safety through stories and practices and at inspiring others to do the same. Her child protection and personal safety expertise has been featured by USA Today, CNN, Today Moms, the LA Times, and The Wall Street Journal. Publications include: cartoon-illustrated Kidpower Safety Comics and Kidpower Teaching Books curriculum; Bullying: What Adults Need to Know and Do to Keep Kids Safe; the Relationship Safety Skills Handbook for Teens and Adults; Earliest Teachable Moment: Personal Safety for Babies, Toddlers, and Preschoolers; The Kidpower Book for Caring Adults: Personal Safety, Self-Protection, Confidence, and Advocacy for Young People, and the Amazon Best Seller Doing Right by Our Kids: Protecting Child Safety at All Levels.