The MTSU Police Department is offering more free sessions of its realistic safety course on Saturdays this spring and summer to help women in the campus community add more tools to their personal defense plans.

The popular Rape Aggression Defense, or RAD, basic courses are set for Saturdays from 1 to 4 p.m. beginning May 4 for four weeks, ending May 25.

Women who’ve completed MTSU’s basic RAD course also can master a new series in the safety class: Advanced Self Defense, a two-Saturday training opportunity set June 15 and 22 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

A Rape Aggression Defense Systems instructor, wearing red protective gear, tangles with a student during a RAD course at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, in this file photo. The MTSU Police Department is teaching the basic RAD course this spring for the campus community beginning Saturday, May 4, and is expanding the course offerings to include Advanced Self Defense, too. (U.S. Air Force photo courtesy of Airman First Class David Bulkley/Luke AFB)

Students in the introductory RAD course learn practical, easy techniques for awareness, prevention, risk reduction and risk avoidance and receive hands-on training in basic defense and counteracting assaults by both strangers and acquaintances.

The Advanced Self Defense course builds on the common-sense strategies taught in the basic class and covers more prone defense techniques, how to stay safer when encountering multiple subjects, and even training with low- and diffused-light simulations.

This spring and summer’s free RAD classes, taught by MTSU’s nationally certified instructors, are open to all female MTSU students, faculty and staff and to the public.

More class details are available here, and you can register for the courses here.

Organizers say that participants in the basic RAD class must attend all four sessions to complete their training. The new advanced course also requires attendance at every session to ensure proper training and certification.

Class size is limited because of increasing community interest, so the department is encouraging participants to enroll as soon as possible.

The Rape Aggression Defense System, a comprehensive program of realistic defense tactics and techniques, is designed for women age 13 and older with no previous experience or background in physical skills training. Instructors also can accommodate any participant’s disabilities. You can get a preview of the class via a video from the national RAD website here.

MTSU’s police department is beginning its 16th year of offering the RAD self-defense course to the campus community.

After participants register for this fall’s MTSU courses, instructors will contact them with more details about class attendance. For more information about MTSU’s RAD classes, email rad@mtsu.edu.

— Gina E. Fann (gina.fann@mtsu.edu)