The Daily Pennsylvanian is a student-run nonprofit.

Please support us by disabling your ad blocker on our site.

taekwondo

College freshman and DP reporter Catherine de Luna joined Penn Taekwondo to learn lessons of self-defense and the importance of community and teamwork.

Credit: Natalie Kahn

After I climbed to the fourth floor of Pottruck, I had made it. Penn Taekwondo was having its very first self defense seminar. I was expecting to be intimidated by the team and was anxious that my nonexistent Taekwondo skills would be looked down upon.

Fortunately, I could not have been more wrong. Penn Taekwondo created an environment that was welcoming to all skill levels and made me, and others, feel comfortable asking questions.

Engineering junior and Treasurer of Penn Taekwondo Angelina Risi embodied this cheerful spirit and expressed her love for the program.

“The people here are great. I want to be a bigger part of [the club] in the future and help it grow,” Risi said.

College sophomore Benjamin Silva lightheartedly shared that the only reason he first tried Taekwondo was because it rhymed with “cookie dough.” College junior and co-captain Aarsheya Hooda, on the other hand, said she has been involved in the sport since she was five years old.

“I was a black belt before I came here and I wanted to continue doing Taekwondo,” Hooda said.

Both Hooda and Silva stressed that in any violent confrontation, the key to escaping is leveraging the attacker’s power. I was paired with College freshman Nana Berkoh to do the first exercises that focused on escaping wrist grabs. The seminar also included escaping shoulder and shirt grabs.

My favorite exercise was one that focused on being an active bystander. One person laid on the ground, representing the victim, and another acted as the perpetrator. My job was to grab the perpetrator’s shoulder and drag her onto the ground.

Berkoh was also new to Taekwondo and said a friend had recommended that she come to the seminar.

“I like it, I think it’s cool. I feel like I can walk at night a little bit more.” Berkoh said. “Campus is relatively safe, but it’s nice to know that if something did ever happen, I’d be okay.”

In light of a string of racist group messages targeting black freshmen at Penn, as well as other racist incidents across the country, many students have been left feeling vulnerable.

“After we saw some of the hurtful things that were happening on campus and all of the hate, and the actual fear in some of my friends, some of our team members came to practice one day and were very concerned,” Hooda said.

Hooda and her fellow teammates decided that a self defense seminar was a great way to help Penn students. The Penn Taekwondo team emphasized that we need to learn to defend ourselves, but never indulge someone’s violence. She explained that in its purest form, Taekwondo is an art and does not involve much self-defense.

“Basic self defense moves [that can be used] to escape from a dangerous situation is something that can be universally be learned in under an hour,” she said. “We decided to do something because we were all very sad and afraid. We want to see how we can impact the community as a whole.”

I came into the seminar fairly confident in my street smarts and left feeling prepared to actively defend myself and others if a serious situation should arise. Hopefully I will never have to use these skills, but it is nice to have them.