Elicia Ybarra: How can martial arts stop an assault before it becomes physical?

Elicia Ybarra is proud to announce Pretty Hands, Hard Punches! A self-defense curriculum tailored to the physical and mental dangers women face in society today. After 25 years in martial arts and experiencing firsthand the struggles with physical and emotional abuse, she has decided to help other women learn how to defend themselves. She has worked with experts in Hapkido, TaeKwon-Do, and Jiu-jitsu to develop a unique program to teach women to fight back. She believes that every woman has the right to choose to defend herself. In combination with physical self-defense, Elicia is working with experts in women's rights to offer a comprehensive approach to violence prevention by utilizing boundary-setting skills and other strategies to stop an assault before it becomes physical. In episode 318, we find out how Elicia fell in love with martial arts from an early age, why there is a lack of female martial arts instructors today, how martial arts has helped Elicia personally, how martial arts can stop an assault before it becomes physical, an example of an effective martial arts technique that you can teach a beginner, whether we are framing sexual assault as a women's problem by teaching martial arts as a defense, how we can change the culture on college campuses as it relates to sexual assaults, what happens if we "freeze" when trauma happens, and if women Elicia works with happen to use martial arts as a form of healing. Enjoy!