It was a course one might not think would be popular or necessary in a small community.
However, the one-day instructional seminar on tactical self-defence and situational awareness hosted on Feb. 3 by the Bashaw Light Horse Club not only drew around a dozen participants, but was also roundly praised for its benefits.
“Our little club puts on a number of courses and given a string of events around the region recently, it was thought that one about safety and being aware of one’s rights would be beneficial,” said club member Laura Talbot.
As it turned out, a nephew of one of the club members owns a company that provides this type of training and everyone was more than pleased with the day-long classroom and practical instruction from Erron Doering, founder and owner of First Contact: Security Training and Personal Safety Ltd. based out of Red Deer.
“Erron is a federal corrections officer and was able to provide us with real life experiences from his day-to-day life that we could put to use,” Talbot explained.
“Everyone was presented with knowledge they hadn’t gotten before and he kept all of the participants feeling happy, focused and engaged. And while the topic was serious, there was a little bit of fun and laughs to go along with a lot of hands-on instruction.”
The day was split into a classroom session in the morning, followed by the practical techniques instruction in the afternoon. Talbot stated both sessions could have been longer as those participating had much to learn.
“I never would have thought spending time going over the rights people have and need to know about protecting ourselves and our property would have been so great. We could have gone all day as there was so much to learn on property and protection rights and using guns or weapons in self-defence,” she said.
“He cleared up a lot of rumours on the topics and I now have a different outlook on what can legally be used as self-defence and what could be the consequences of using other methods.”
As for the actual physical self-defence methods, Talbot stated that the feedback from the others who took the course is about the same as herself.
“I have more confidence about the basics and both how and when to use the moves we were taught,” she said.
“It also showed how much force an attack might have, as I still hurt and cringe looking at the bruise I have several days later, just from using the techniques and we weren’t even going that hard.”