Rusty Solomon, a fifth-degree black belt, of the Tampa Bay Martial Arts Academy in Apollo Beach during the academy’s kickboxing class on Saturday.
Monday mornings after nice-weather weekends were always the worst. Walking to the skyscraper in which I worked revealed the worst of human fault and frailty, with everything from partially eaten food and other trash to vomit, to sometimes even men left behind on the sidewalk.
Janna was our receptionist. She was a cute, tall and somewhat lanky young woman. She was shy, painfully shy, and the walk in to work was far worse for her than for me. She often had to interact with it — in the form of harassment. She was a gentle soul and a ripe victim for those bereft of a sense of decency. She often arrived at the office appearing to be exhausted and stressed beyond reason.
And then one day that changed.
Janna came into work smiling one morning. There was an air of confidence about her, the shy, mouse-like demeanor had diminished.
“I walked by those guys today but they didn’t bother me,” she said, and then added with a smile: “If they had done anything, I knew that I could kick their kneecaps out.”
She was still a gentle soul. But she had also decided to no longer be a willing victim. Some time ago, she had signed up for self-defense martial arts training. And with the physical skills she learned, her confidence soared — not just regarding a few street punks but in everything she approached. She was no longer a potential victim at all.
Good and decent people become victims often because those lacking such qualities exploit those qualities in others. The last thing someone approaching you demanding your wallet, purse, wristwatch or iPhone under the threat of violence expects would be for you to use a ballpoint pen or even the jewelry on your hands as a weapon to defend yourself. The very last thing such a person would expect would be that you would pick up and fling a discarded television set from a nearby trash heap or use a jagged broken compact disc to counteract their violence. The last thing they would expect is that you would defend yourself at all. And an old television set, a CD — or even a garbage can — could make an awfully effective defense for someone prepared to use them against a bad guy.
A student in Saturday’s first self-defense class begins to learn how to defend herself.
But if you can safely run away, that is a good option, too. There is no shame; that, too, is defending yourself, if it can be done safely. It’s just that sometimes it can’t be done safely, and in those situations, it is best to be prepared to defend yourself.
On Saturday at the Tampa Bay Martial Arts Academy in Apollo Beach, Rusty and Nancy Solomon, both in their sixties and both multiple-degree black belts, began teaching a 10-week course on street smart self-defense. The course doesn’t formally involve intensive martial arts training but it teaches the good and decent people among us how to fight back, should it prove necessary, against those who are not.
The point is definitely not to be aggressive or to look for a fight. The point is to feel better about your ability to defend yourself in a sometimes troubled, sometimes violent world.
“The key is defending yourself or someone else in danger should you need to,” Rusty said in the opening moments of the self-defense class. “The big point is to stay alive. And sometimes that involves whatever it takes.”
Students in the kickboxing class represented all levels of skill and experience. These students were advanced.
“We run a family school, we don’t run a fight school,” Nancy Solomon said. “We are not an aggressive fight school. If we found out our students were going out and being a bully with the skills they’ve learned, we would ask them to leave. That would not be responsible of that student.”
The skills and abilities to be learned and earned encompass a broad spectrum — from health to confidence to respect for others. But it also covers the ability to defend yourself. Their scope covers traditional martial arts, kickboxing and self-defense — as well as their children’s summer camp. In fact, respect, discipline and self-confidence are all particularly important for their summer camp.
“For the summer camp, they have to be going into kindergarten and it ranges up to middle school — both boys and girls,” Nancy said. “I love to see girls going into martial arts — it’s for confidence and self-esteem. It’s very important. Girls have to be self-aware enough and confident enough to stand their ground if they need to.”
The summer camp program, which is tailored to the time and abilities of the individual child and his or her parents, is more than just martial arts training. It also includes exercise, learning skills and abilities, discipline, and building both self-confidence and self-respect. And then there is even more.
“We have the most awesome summer camps — we take field trips and the students get inside tours of area grocery stores because I think it’s so important for children to know more about our food and where it comes from,” Nancy said.
The field trips are frequently “behind the scenes,” and have taken place at multiple venues in South Hillsborough and greater Tampa Bay, including MOSI, South County farms and even Elmira’s Wildlife Sanctuary.
During the school year, the Tampa Bay Martial Arts Academy offers after-school programs that include transportation from several area schools. The summer program is designed for varied schedules.
“Kids can do two days a week, three days a week, they can even do an odd week here or there,” Nancy said.
Nancy and Rusty work with each student individually, at each child’s skill level and experience. As such, children can start in the summer program at any time.
On Saturday, a kickboxing class ended, containing students of widely varied experience. Rusty provided personal instruction to those who needed it, and provided guidance and voice instruction to those who did not. Afterward, the students, encompassing a broad range of ages, filtered out slowly while the self-defense class students filtered in. It wasn’t long before their worldview might have been changed somewhat. It can be a dangerous world out there but that doesn’t mean you need to be hyper-vigilant and always expecting the worst. But you should be prepared. You should not make yourself a victim. In a world with people absorbed in smartphones and personal electronics, becoming a victim is almost becoming too easy.
“We hold a self-defense class every Saturday at 11 a.m. for 10 weeks,” Nancy said. “Martial arts is fun and it’s good. But this is the true nuts and bolts of self-defense. It prepares students for situations that could happen on the street, putting a person under pressure, in stressful situations, and how they can deal with those situations safely.”
Although many people may say it is best to avoid bad situations in the first place, sometimes bad situations come to you — and when you least expect them. In Apollo Beach, people of all ages and from all walks of life are learning how to be prepared. Bad guys should probably take note — they may not know with whom they are dealing.
The Tampa Bay Martial Arts Academy is a family-owned business located at 6038 U.S. Highway 41 North, on the intersection of Flamingo Road in Apollo Beach. For information, visit their website at www.tbmaa.com or call 813-649-0020.