Sources: Arthur DeGroat, 785-532-0369, degroata@k-state.edu;
Dave Durnil, durnil@k-state.edu; and Capt. Pearl Phaovisaid, 785-239-8905
Pronouncers: DeGroat rhymes with "vote"; Durnil is dur NELL; and
Phaovisaid is FOW ve zayd.
News release prepared by: Andy Badeker, 785-532-6415, abadeker@k-state.edu
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
K-STATE COMBATIVES PROGRAM TO TRAIN FORT RILEY SOLDIERS
MANHATTAN -- More than 30 Iraq-bound female soldiers from the 1st Combat Aviation Brigade will take advantage of free self-defense instruction from Kansas State University's recently expanded combatives program.
The afternoon short course, scheduled for Thursday, July 12, in the program's renovated space in Ahearn Field House, is designed to increase the women's confidence and hand-to-hand skills amid the hazards of a war zone, said Arthur DeGroat, K-State's director of military affairs.
Those hazards include an increased risk of sexual assault early in a deployment, said Capt. Pearl Phaovisaid, personnel officer for the brigade's 3rd Battalion, 1st Aviation Regiment. Fort Riley officials want to increase women's awareness of the problem and their confidence in confronting it.
Although Fort Riley does offer a 40-hour course in combatives, not enough slots are available at appropriate times to accommodate a lot of soldiers from a single unit, Phaovisaid said. The training at K-State will supplement skills gained during basic training.
"For the most part, these people are all new soldiers who a year ago were still civilians," Phaovisaid said. The unit itself is only about a year old.
Dave Durnil, the program's senior instructor, said he avoids the term "self-defense" because it implies that a person has to wait for something bad to happen before she can take action. Durnil, who has a brown belt in Brazilian jujitsu and has trained at Fort Benning in Georgia, has spent the last three years teaching combatives at Fort Riley as a civilian employee.
"The same things that male soldiers need -- confidence and awareness of their bodies -- women need," Durnil said.
"The biggest thing we can do, in the amount of time we have, is to create an attitude that they're warriors," Durnil said, extending the Army's emphasis on "the warrior ethos." In addition to discussing the psychology of would-be attackers, Durnil plans to show soldiers how to escape submissive body positions, "rather than get them into a kick-boxing match."
In an afternoon session, "It's unrealistic to train a 100-pound woman to break someone's nose." Instead, the session will work on preparation and mindset: "Assuming the worst, how are you going to be able to reset the fight?" he said. "With the implicit understanding that you won't be in the best position to begin with."
Beyond that, "We're going to show them how to finish a fight, " Durnil said. "We want to leave soldiers with a sustainable plan of action, a handout of techniques that they can practice."
DeGroat's modern combatives education program, which draws from mixed martial arts, "ultimate fighting" tactics and military combatives, offered its first course to military science students last year. This summer a two-credit version of the course, DAS 198, was offered to other students, and more than 100 enrolled.
"We're growing this program rather quickly," DeGroat said. Five classes are planned for each of the upcoming fall and spring semesters, "and we're working on a pre-law-enforcement course, which makes use of techniques that the Army does not." He also is considering a course aimed at women.
"We're fortunate, because of the military connection with Fort Riley, to capitalize on some of the talent at the fort," DeGroat said. In addition to Durnil, K-State instructors Joe Wilk and Alex diBenedetto also teach at the fort. All three men will donate their time during the July 12 session.
"I'm excited to show the soldiers the facility and the instructors we have here," DeGroat said. "This education is very transformative, very powerful."