THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, December 18, 1995 TAG: 9512140019
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 45 lines
An article Nov. 14 was titled ``Father finds way to fight back after daughter's death.'' The story was very unsettling to me, not because of Amber Zajac's tragic death, although that is unsettling.
What I found unsettling was the way that the father has found to deal with his grief. His idea is a good one, but the direction it has taken is flawed.
Tae Kwon Do is a martial art that requires years of earnest practice to develop true proficiency. Although the basic kicks and punches can be learned in six months, the basics aren't what is needed.
What really needs to be developed is instinctive responses to a surprise attack, because that's what victims deal with most of the time. That doesn't happen in just six months or a year with martial arts; it takes a very long time.
Meanwhile the girls in training are having their heads filled with untrue ideas that now they can take care of themselves, which has the chance of becoming another tragedy.
It may have been a better idea to try to start a self-defense class for girls within the school system, not something that teaches bowing and respect as Tae Kwon Do does, but something that teaches kick-them-while-they're-down, anything-goes tactics that are proved to be effective - something that uses shock and surprise as a training tool so that the student freezes in training, not in a real situation.
I'm not putting down martial arts. I've been studying for more than eight years. Of all the things I've learned that are effective, it's the alley tactics that I've picked up from people who haven't always walked the straight line that have shown me an amazing effectiveness. Why? Because they relied on surprise and just enough brutality to get the job done.
Shouldn't we make sure that we teach the kind of technique that works on the street on a walk home rather than the kind that works in a padded-floor dojo? I think it's something to consider.
K. W. ZIEGLER
Norfolk, Nov. 18, 1995 by CNB