THE IMPACT TECHNIQUE

Impact is the name of a unique form of self-defense, which differs from traditional self-defense programs in several ways:

• Impact was designed specifically for women. Impact was created from research into how women are actually attacked and uses a woman's strengths against her assailant's weaknesses.
  
  
• Impact is self-defense for the mind, body and voice. Impact strengthens a student's natural abilities by teaching a student how to use her intuition, body and voice as her defenses. As a result, women and girls of all ages, sizes and fitness levels benefit from our programs.
  
  
• Impact addresses the emotions around assault and self-defense. Most people who sign up for our courses are nervous, afraid or both. We recognize that fighting back is an emotional as well as physical process, so our courses are emotionally supportive environments for healing and learning. Courses include opportunities to explore societal expectations, personal fears and boundary setting through exercises, informational materials and discussions. Our focus on the emotions around assault has allowed countless rape, assault, child abuse and domestic violence victims to use our courses as a beneficial part of their healing process.
  
  
• Impact provides real practice. Each Impact course is designed to incorporate opportunities to practice our techniques in realistic mock assault scenarios.
  
  
• Through practice, our students become familiar with the adrenaline rush that accompanies being attacked and are able to practice fighting through the "freeze response" that paralyzes many assault victims.
  
  
• Our courses give students the opportunity to practice full-force on a well padded "mugger" instructor who enacts the role of assailant. By repeatedly practicing techniques full-force our students experience the benefits of "muscle memory" - their bodies will remember the techniques in a crisis situation.
  
  
• Impact creates lasting change. Impact students nationwide have effectively used their skills even years after a course.
  
  
• Impact works. 100% of our students surveyed reported an increased ability to defend themselves against both verbal and physical assault after taking an Impact Bay Area course.