Taekwondo team hosts self-defense seminar for female students

Thursday, August 27

Lynchburg, VA

7:00 PM

Liberty University Club Sports

Women's Self-Defense Class

Head Coach Tom Childress plays the attacker as senior captain Jackson Hale tries to escape his grasp during a demonstration. (Photos by Ted Allen)

Taekwondo team hosts self-defense seminar for female students

9/1/2026 5:51:00 PM | Taekwondo

Photo Gallery

Now in its 11th year, the seminar led by Head Coach Tom Childress is designed to educate women in personal safety on and off campus.

Liberty University's taekwondo team hosted a self-defense seminar Thursday night geared toward equipping female students with techniques for staying safe on campus and in the community. The two-hour class, held in the team's practice facility in the former Liberty Mountain Skate Park in Candlers Station, touched on the importance of awareness, quick action, and confidence in the event that a student finds themselves in precarious situations.

"Awareness is a key part of self-defense," said Liberty Head Coach Tom Childress, who has 34 years of experience in law enforcement and has been a defensive tactics instructor at the Central Virginia Criminal Justice Academy for the past 30 years. "We get so used to daily life that it can be easy to miss obvious signs that can give you an advantage in a bad situation."

Throughout the seminar, Childress and team members explained and demonstrated the eight points of balance and how students can use them to their advantage, along with different quick moves that can be executed regardless of size difference, and simple ways to get people's attention in the event that help is needed.

"Victimization is always very bad, but especially the victimization of young women, and if we can give them just simple tools that they can remember, that's the goal," Childress said.

One simple tactic that was taught was a swinging palm strike, using the bottom of a hand to hit an attacker on their jaw or nose to trigger their tear reflex as a diversion to escape the scene unscathed.
Ava Grau, a senior pursuing her B.S. in Digital Media and Journalism, attended the seminar to broaden her martial arts skills in case she ever feels threatened with bodily injury.
"I run alone a lot, and I wanted to come and learn self-defense mechanisms to make sure I could defend myself if anything like that were to happen," Grau said.

Throughout the seminar, team members explained and demonstrated moves, and the attendees had the chance to practice them and ask questions. Grau said she learned steps to take if someone tried to grab her from behind or tried to use her ponytail to attack her while on a run.

"You place your hands on top of theirs where your ponytail is and turn your body then spring straight up, and it will dislocate their elbow," she said.

Other suggestions made for students to protect themselves when they are by themselves include carrying pepper spray or a self-defense tool and only wearing one headphone so they can stay more alert and aware of their surroundings.

"I would definitely recommend this (seminar) to other people," Grau said, "It's so awesome to know this type of thing because you never know when you could be put in a situation like this, and it comes at the most unexpected time."

The taekwondo team will host another self-defense seminar at the start of the spring semester.

By Amory Doyle/Student Writer

Gallery: (9-1-2026) Taekwondo self-defense class