Women in Clane invited to attend free self-defence classes starting in GAA hall tomorrow

By Kim O'Leary

Women living in Clane and its surrounding areas are being invited to take part in women's self-defence classes which will be taught by three well-trained martial arts practitioners, with the free classes to start at 10am tomorrow

The free classes follows a horrifying incident involving a young woman in the town on June 12, 2018.

MMA practitioner Rob O’Connor, Muay Thai coach Nate Right and MMA fighter Joe Jordan have decided to teach classes for women in the Clane area, while Clane GAA has donated the use of their hall for the classes with the first class to commence on Saturday 7 July at 10am at Clane GAA.

Speaking to KildareNow about the women’s defence classes, Rob O’Connor explained: “The first class will be at 10am on the 7th of July. Starting at 10am for roughly 1 hour, people should bring water and be in active wear. We hope to accommodate for everybody and will be available for private conversations about any concerns. This is purely a charitable programme being run to benefit women in the local communities. There will be no memberships, no fees and no obligations. We will work with whoever turns up whether it’s one person or 50. The only people that will benefit from this will be participants. It's OK and normal to be afraid but it's not OK to live in fear so if you have been affected by recent or past events now is the time to act.”

It is understood that the defence classes are for women of all ages and abilities, although teenagers will need a consenting adult with them for the duration of the class.

Women will be taught react, escape and get help methods in order to protect themselves during the course of the classes.

Rob has been practicing mixed martial arts (MMA) for over a year, firstly practicing jiu jitsu and then moving onto MMA. The other martial arts practitioners include Muay Thai coach Nate Right who is the main coach, as well as MMA fighter Joe Jordan.

Speaking of their hope that the classes will give women living in Clane confidence and to bring the community together, Rob said:" We will run it as long as we need to and as long as we can. It's all coming together as we go. But we would like to do at least 6 weeks of it hopefully more."

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