A 4-week Self Defence introductory course running from 18:30-19:30 in Vane Tempest each Friday from the 06/11/2026 to 6/11/2026.
The course will be delivered by our BCA (British Combat Association) accredited instructor Lee Somerville, and will cover the basics of reality-based Self Defence, including but not limited to:
- Situational Awareness
- Identifying a threat (Pre-combat indicators)
- Understanding how strikes and grappling work, how to generate force, keeping opponents off-balance.
- Verbal and non-verbal de-escalation strategies and pre-combat stances
- Disengaging from combat/situations (the importance of prioritising getting home safely)
- Use of pre-emptive and counter strikes, lawful use of reasonable force and how that varies between people and situations
- Using forward momentum, exploiting body mechanics and building instinctive responses to attacks and threats
- Responding to basic scenarios such as a threat trying throw a punch at you, a threat trying to grab you, escaping from a grab/grapple.
We aim to provide a safe and inclusive environment where students of all body types will be able to train with partners of a similar size or practice dealing with a larger or smaller opponent, at their discretion. Protective equipment and training aids which is owned by the society (knee pads, gloves, wrist pads, strike pads) will be made available for participants where necessary.
IMPORTANT - Participants will need to buy a membership and ticket (£40 total) via the SU at least 1 week prior to the course start date, this is to cover the costs of hiring our instructor. The course will be confirmed once we reach the minimum number of signups (~10 participants), tickets will be non-refundable once the course is confirmed.
We cannot do a singular taster session with our instructor due to it not being enough time to cover all essential aspects of an introduction to Self Defence.
Please arrive promptly (i.e. 10 minutes before the course start time) to ensure everyone gets the most out of each session and ensure you wear clean exercise wear with minimal or no zips and buckles. Jewellery and piercings must be removed or taped. Do not attend if you are sick or have external infection (athletes foot), please inform the exec team of any injuries or health conditions prior to the event, or if you have any other accessibility requirements at kravmaga.exec@durham.ac.uk.
Options for additional, more tailored lessons will be available during the course and follow-on courses will be made available based on what skills and scenarios people would most like to learn. These will take place on the additional room booking slots for this term or the next term.