For 20 women inside the Concepcion Academy of Martial Arts at 8909 Thornton Road, their focus was intensely set on self-defense and preparing for anything.
They worked on kicking, punching, learning to break free after being pinned to the ground and various Muay Thai drills.
Tina Tagorda, an assistant taekwondo instructor at the martial arts center, hosted the class. While she typically teaches children, she’s become passionate about teaching self-defense.
“The way I carry myself now, and the way I stand up straight and look up straight, is because of martial arts,” Tagorda said. “It has made me learn that I can defend myself, whether it’s against a man or a woman.”
Since 2017, Tagorda has taught four self-defense workshops. The most recent workshop was organized to help Asian women feel safer amid a nationwide increase in hate crimes targeting their community.
“I grew up on the south side of Stockton for literally my whole life,” Tagorda said, “so I was always afraid as a woman, but now that I have learned martial arts … I feel more OK now.”
Saturday was Lailani Chan’s first self-defense class.
“I took introduction to karate in college, but I don’t remember anything,” Lailani said.
Lailani, who has lived in Stockton for 40 years, said she moved to Stockton from the Philippines when she was only 6 years old. She said she believes it’s important for all women to be able to fight back.“I wish my niece was here,” Lailani said. “She’s going away to college and you can’t help but to worry about them with all of those stories. I definitely think I learned a lot today.”
Hate crimes against Asians on rise
The workshop was in partnership with Empowering Marginalized Asian Communities, Healing PUSO, The 209 API Coalition and Little Manila Rising.
“Really what we’ve been seeing, especially with the hate crimes against the Asian community, is not understanding the basics of keeping yourself safe,” said Nikki Chan, executive director of Empowering Marginalized…
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