Before every class, our instructors get in touch with each other to decide on activities they want to cover and to create a class outline. They decide who’s facilitating what and discuss what kind of support they might like from each other. They also decide time allocations per activity and figure out what activities they plan to drop or add if they find themselves behind or ahead on time. After a class, they check in with each other, evaluate how it all went, and provide each other with useful feedback.
Here is a sample agenda we might use for aTHREE-HOUR BASIC CLASS(our most common class), offering both physical self defense and boundary setting skills:
BRIEF INSTRUCTOR INTROS/HOME ALIVE HISTORY
GO-ROUND: NAME, PRONOUN, ONE THING YOU’D LIKE TO LEARN
GROUP AGREEMENTS
BRAGGING
BOX EXERCISE
EXITS, WEAPONS, SHIELDS
STRETCHING
SHOULDER-KNEE TAG
FIGHTING/READY STANCE
VOICE AND BREATHING
LOUD PRACTICE
WHAT’S FREE, WHAT’S OPEN
TARGETS
STRIKES (PALM, KNEE TO GROIN)
<BREAK>
HAND ON THE KNEE GAME
THE FOUR SKILLS
RIDICULOUS REQUEST
BACK INSTRUCTORS UP
HUG DIVERTING
CLOSING: SELF CARE + PRACTICE
YES! STOMP
Sometimes we get asked to teach one-time classes that exclusively focus onBOUNDARY-SETTING. Here’s a sample boundary-setting agenda:
BRIEF INSTRUCTOR INTROS/HOME ALIVE HISTORY
GO-ROUND: NAME, PRONOUN, ONE THING YOU’D LIKE TO LEARN
GROUP AGREEMENTS
BOX EXERCISE
FIGHTING/READY STANCE
VOICE AND BREATHING
LOUD PRACTICE
WHO, WHAT, WHY, HOW? BOUNDARY DISCUSSION
HAND ON THE KNEE GAME
THE FOUR SKILLS
<BREAK>
SOLAR SYSTEM
RIDICULOUS REQUEST
ACROSS THE ROOM
ROLE PLAYS
CLOSING: SELF CARE + PRACTICE
YES! STOMP
We also occasionally teach series classes, which usually end up being a total of twelve hours experienced over 4, 6, or 8 sessions. These classes are able to cover a lot more material, a good portion of which we don’t have described on this website. Importantly, they’re able to offer participants the opportunity to come back to the material over several sessions, building on their skills and giving them time to absorb and integrate new skills between classes. They allow participants to build more rapport and comfort with each other. They allow time for questions to come up and get addressed, and time for review and reiteration.
It takes a lot more commitment and time from both instructors and class participants, as well as a reliable practice space that you can return to, to arrange a multi-session self-defense class. For those of you who have those in place and who also have other martial arts or self-defense experience that you plan to combine with the material on this website, we encourage you to plan a series class!
Some more details about how we go about our series classes. The instructors re-evaluate their agenda after each session to figure out how to best cover material in the remaining sessions, and also discuss how best to support, engage, and manage class participants. In all sessions after the first one, we review ground rules as well as main points from the prior week’s material, some at the beginning of the session and some interspersed throughout; it’s also helpful to ask participants if there’s anything in particular that they want to go over again. Sometimes in these classes, we assign “homework” for participants to reflect on (e.g. “think of a situation where you used self-defense and identify some techniques that you used,” or “think about situations you’d like to role play”), to help them reflect between classes. At each session, we do go-around check-ins at the beginning and end, and we remind folks each time to do self-care in-between classes.
To give you an idea of what we find useful and empowering to cover in our longer classes, as well as how we might go about arranging topics, here is an example of a general layout for aFOUR-PART SERIES CLASS:
Class one:
INTRO TO US AND OUR PHILOSOPHY (ground rules; box exercise)
START OF SELF-DEFENSE CONCEPTS (exits, weapons and shields; fighting stance; voice & breathing)
START OF STRIKE PRACTICE (what’s free, what’s open; targets; upper-body strikes [palm, elbow, hammer fist])
START OF GRAB RELEASES (wrist and body-grab releases releases)
Class two:
REVIEW
MORE SELF-DEFENSE CONCEPTS (bragging)
START OF BOUNDARY-SETTING (who, what, why, how?; hand on knee; four skills; across the room; ridiculous request)
MORE STRIKES (knee to groin; strike combos)
MORE GRAB RELEASES (choke releases)
MULTIPLE ATTACKERS PRINCIPLES AND EXERCISE
SELF-DEFENSE SUCCESS STORIES
Class three:
REVIEW
START OF GROUND FIGHTING (ground tag; falling; what’s free, what’s open from the ground; ground fighting stance; kick and hammer fist from ground; straddle releases from ground)
DEFENSE AGAINST WEAPONS PRINCIPLES
MORE BOUNDARY SETTING (following game)
INTUITION TALK AND EXERCISE
Class four:
REVIEW
MORE GROUND FIGHTING (choke releases from ground)
MORE BOUNDARY SETTING (role plays)
HIGH-INTENSITY MULTI-SKILL PHYSICAL DRILLS WITH INSTRUCTORS
MORE OF OUR PHILOSOPHY (self-defense continuum exercise)
PLENTY OF TIME FOR WRAP-UP & EVALS