HANCOCK PARK : Students Get a Kick Out of Karate Class

Seventeen-year-old Charlene Song’s attacker struck from behind, pulling her ponytail hard before attempting to close his gloved hands around her neck.

But in a split-second, the teen-ager whirled around, kicked him solidly in the abdomen and with a few quick punches, knocked him to the ground.

Then, amid shouts of approval, Song returned unfazed to her place among her classmates. Her instructor pulled himself off the floor, ready for his next victim.

The “attack” was part of a new elective self-defense course at Hancock Park’s private, all-girl Marlborough School. The school’s administrators say their latest physical education elective is believed to be the first such course offered for a full semester of high school credit in the country, and its popularity has spread quickly throughout the middle- and high school campus.

“In a rape situation, this will come in a lot more handy than badminton or any other P.E. elective I could have taken,” said Virginia Lincoln, 16, of Hancock Park.

The self-defense course is provided by IMPACT Personal Safety, a Tarzana firm that holds similar classes throughout the city. Working on padded mats in the school gymnasium, girls 14 to 17 learn how to fend off attackers with strong language, and if that doesn’t work, with fists and feet.

Dressed in 30 pounds of protective gear that included football shoulder pads and an enormous spaceman-like foam helmet, IMPACT “attacker” Ron Vizansky approached his victims mimicking real-life attack situations.

“Hey, ya wanna drink?” he slurred, staggering toward one girl like an aggressive drunk.

IMPACT instructor Francine Russell stood nearby, coaching the teen-ager in her moves as Vizansky lunged at her. With a few swift kicks and elbow thrusts to Vizansky’s padded sides and chest, the unruly “drunk” was on the ground. The girl’s classmates cheered as she finished him off with a kick in the face.

“It’s like earthquake and fire drills,” said Vizansky afterward, looking sweaty and slightly out of breath after an hour of playing human punching bag. “If you (the victim) know what to do, it takes away some of the fear and turns it into more of a controlled situation.”

Marlborough’s physical education director, Julie Napoleon, who attended IMPACT classes five years ago, brought the course to the school by inviting instructors to conduct occasional workshops. The workshops became so popular, she said, that the administration decided to make the classes permanent.

Although tae kwon do was also taught at the school for some time, Napoleon and her students agree that full-contact self-defense classes are much more practical.

“I took tae kwon do for a little while, but there was nobody you could hit,” said Song, of Gardena. “We would just practice our drills, and that wasn’t really effective.”

She said that simulating a dialogue with an attacker helps makes the situation more realistic.