Martial arts barrier to violence

A Tauranga martial arts organisation is giving local women the tools to defend themselves from violence - from how to exit your car safely to how to defend yourself in a knife attack.

Calls for women to learn personal safety skills are reverberating in the wake of the recent abduction and murder of Auckland woman Blessie Gotingco.

Sensei Les Scott, instructor at Kiaido Ryu Martial Arts in Tauranga, said training armed women with the confidence and skills to handle themselves in a violent situation.

"We're a multi level martial art centre. We teach karate, we do stand up jujitsu, we teach judo throws, ground fighting, traditional Japanese weaponry. Self-defence is our main thing.

"We teach how to create space, how to overcome your fears, how to be safe getting in and out of cars. A lot of people don't think about those things."

Mr Scott said short courses were on offer but an ongoing approach was preferable. Such an approach helped cement the skills women and girls needed to protect themselves.

"They develop self-confidence."

The regular 90-minute evening sessions run twice a week at the Otumoetai College gymnasium.

The death of Mrs Gotingco has shocked her North Shore community in Auckland.

Responding to the crime, Mile High Karate North Shore has invited women and their daughters to a free personal safety course this week to learn techniques to defend themselves.

Owner Paul Bryant said the school was "taking a stand" to help mothers, wives, partners and daughters not become victims.

"Sadly, there are too many news stories about women being abducted or assaulted and beaten, or worse."

He said attacks on women were terrifying and potentially life changing, but with the right knowledge and basic skills, women could escape and help others.

While devices such as pepper spray and tasers are outlawed in New Zealand for personal use, some self defence instructors encourage women to use perfumes and aerosols - which can have a similarly painful effect - in their place.

Coalition for the Safety of Women and Children spokeswoman Leonie Morris said self-defence classes were just one tool in the fight against violence towards women.

She said the biggest problem was our culture, which perpetuated outdated and sexist ideas about women.

"What we really need is men to stop being violent towards women. To achieve that, we need to challenge the many misogynist ideas which underpin that violence."

Outdated ideas like it was OK for men to have power and control over women were still prevalent, Ms Morris said.