April 25, 2024

R.A.D. Self-Defense Course Offered to UMW Faculty and Staff Women

The following message is from the UMW Police Department:

UMW’s Police Department is now offering the R.A.D. Basic Physical Defense Program to Faculty and Staff Women.  R.A.D. (Rape Aggression Defense) for Women is founded on four basic principles:  Risk Awareness, Risk Reduction, Risk Recognition, and Risk Avoidance. These principles are the basis for 90 percent of self-defense education.  R.A.D. for Women is a female-only class.

The R.A.D. Basic Physical Defense Program is a self-defense class designed for women of all ages and taught by women to teach methods to defend against potential attacks as well as to educate women about risk awareness, risk reduction, risk recognition, and risk avoidance.  The R.A.D. Systems Basic Physical Defense instructional objective is “to develop and enhance the options of self-defense, so they may become viable considerations to the woman who is attacked.”

R.A.D. Basic is a four day course offered to female faculty/staff of the UMW community free of charge. It is taught by Sgt. Sharon Delval, who is a certified R.A.D. Instructor through R.A.D. Systems and has been teaching for over 10 years, along with Officer Kelly Ernst.  The course dates are May 23, May 30, June 6, and June 13 from 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.

Sgt. Delval states:  “While this course educates women in self-defense and techniques to use in situations, the true reward I receive in teaching the course is the level of self-confidence that I see develop in each of my students. These are skills that can be used every day in everything they do.”

If you interested in taking this self-defense course, please contact Sgt. Sharon Delval by email at smullen@umw.edu to register.  Spaces are limited.