Self-defense Workshop, El Camino College

The Seniors Fight Back team was first created due to all the hate crimes in the news. We wanted to create self-defense classes to bring community, empowerment, and safety for our AAPI elders. The classes are led by Ron Scolesdang, professional MMA fighter, and the course will include non-invasive and invasive segments. Our program aims to arm seniors with the mental awareness to avoid a potentially physical or life threatening situation, as well as prepares seniors with practiced physical strikes that may help reduce the severity of an attack. All the moves are geared to work for people who have no prior fighting or martial arts experience, and specifically for our senior citizens. There will also be assistant instructors walking around holding pads for everyone to practice the moves on.

The world is a broken place and it’s unfortunate the horrors that our AAPI elders are forced to experience. We hope our participants leave the event feeling empowered and find comfort that there are people looking out for them.