Ron Esteller, the owner of Esteller Martial Arts in San Leandro and Pleasanton offers a special physical education class for eleventh graders at Amador Valley High School in Pleasanton.
The class is titled "Body Shaping" and is taught by instructor Dawn Silva. It literally teaches students to fight for their lives.
"We teach the techniques kids need to get away [from an attacker] and use 'adrenal stress training' to make it feel very real," Esteller told Patch.
In this Patch clip watch teenage girls fight off their "attacker" of the day, Justin Camara.
Camara is an instructor from the Delta Kajukenbo School of Self Defense in Tracy. Dressed in full protective gear he tried to drag each girl "to the van" as they attempted to fight him off.
Camara, 23, says he is happy to endure the kicks and punches dealt out by the girls.
"They are going to take something away from this," he said.
"I really wanted to take (the class)," said Syndey Gullo, an eleventh grader at Amador Valley High School. "I was a little nervous in the beginning but it felt very comfortable. Before this class I probably wouldn't have known what to do being attacked. I probably would have just screamed. Now I know what to do."
Esteller has been teaching the S.A.F.E K.I.D.S class free of charge to high school students for over ten years.
"S.A.F.E stands for 'survey, avoid, flee and engage'," he said. "And K.I.D.S is an acronym for 'kids in danger survive'."
This year, students paid a $20 donation, which Esteller says will be used for his scholarship fund available to students depending on their need.
The Kajukenbo martial arts he teaches at Esteller is a blend of karate (ka), ju jitsu (ju), kempo (ken) and Chinese boxing or kung fu (bo). Read his full story here.
Follow Esteller's blogs on Patch:
- S.A.F.E.K.I.D.S Anti-Abduction Strategies And Techniques
- BLOG: Esteller Martial Arts S.A.F.E Tip #1
- EMA S.A.F.E Tip #2 Security Systems
- Workplace Safety: A Martial Arts Instructor's Reaction to the Oikos University Shooting
- Martial Arts Blogger Discusses the Perils of Not Wearing a Seatbelt in the Wake of His Cousin's Death
