Bender Defenders are a queer and trans martial arts empowerment movement confronting rising hate crime by teaching martial arts and running self-defence classes for our community.
Come and learn the basics of self defence with Bender Defenders . What to expect:
- A short briefing on the law surrounding self defence
- A warm up involving some games and exercises to raise your heart rate
- You will learn some physical techniques for self defence and have the chance to practise them
- We will discuss de-escalation and practise some techniques around using your voice
- We will finish with some more punching and physical moves!
Please wear clothes you can comfortable move in and bring some water. If you have any access needs, health conditions or injuries, please let the facilitators know before the workshop starts.
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Our Ethos
Bender Defenders take a holistic view of self-defence, remembering that keeping people safe means more than avoiding danger in the moment – it means creating community systems to heal from the harm hate crime causes in the long term.
We approach self-defence from a compassionate, trauma-informed and community-led perspective. We teach participants simple, effective strategies for using physical force to keep themselves safe.
We believe that queer and trans people already have a wide range of self-defence skills to draw upon, and we encourage participants to collaborate with trainers in sharing these skills, enabling them to feel more confident and empowered when they use them
Tickets are priced at Pay What You Can, starting at £3 (which includes the booking fee) for each session.
For those in need of them, we do have some free tickets available. No questions asked - please message us by clicking the Contact Organiser link on this page or by emailing hello@galleonartscentre.org to secure one.