Des Plaines Park District hosts women's self-defense class

As a Des Plaines resident, you may know Katie Skibbe. She lives in Des Plaines and is also the superintendent of Business at the Des Plaines Park District. What you might not know is that Skibbe is also a self-defense instructor.

Skibbe will be teaching IMPACT self-defense at the Des Plaines Park District on Friday, April 29; Saturday April 30 and Sunday May 1. The course is open to women ages 16 and older.

According to Skibbe, "Every woman has a right to feel safe within her own body. I look forward to helping women and girls learn to use their physical and spiritual power to defend themselves successfully."

Skibbe will be leading a team of instructors to teach and practice self-defense in realistic simulated scenarios with one instructor playing the role of an aggressor and Katie in the role of a personal coach. The program allows women to gain a maximum of self-defense skills in a short amount of time. Training progresses from distinguishing harmless and dangerous situations to verbal boundary setting to physical responses appropriate in an assault. Women learn and drill effective awareness, verbal, and physical techniques and then practice using their voices, managing their adrenaline, making moment-by-moment decisions, and, as a last resort, delivering strikes and kicks with full-force, just as they would need to do in a real-life assault.

This will be the second time that the Des Plaines Park District has hosted the IMPACT program. Registration is only through the IMPACT Chicago website, www.impactchicago.org; the organization offers a sliding scale and payment plans. For information, visit the website, call (312) 971-7119, or email info@impactchicago.org.

• Submit 'Your News' at www.dailyherald.com/share