The MTSU Police Department is offering more free sessions of its practical self-defense course this spring to help women across the campus community boost their safety and self-confidence.

The new spring 2020 Rape Aggression Defense, or RAD, basic course is set for Mondays from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. beginning March 30 for five weeks, ending April 27.

MTSU’s police department began offering the free RAD self-defense course to the campus community in 2003 and has trained hundreds of women with its practical safety techniques.

The university also sponsors regular seminars for all students, faculty and staff on preventing sexual violence.

MTSU’s nationally certified instructors teach participants in the introductory RAD course about awareness, prevention, risk reduction and risk avoidance, along with options to analyze situations and choose what may work best to help them escape, resist and survive an assault.

Class members learn helpful verbal skills and get hands-on training in basic defense and counteracting assaults by both strangers and acquaintances.

This spring’s free RAD classes are open to female MTSU students, faculty and staff and to the public.

More class details are available here. Participants also can register here.

Because instructors introduce new material in each session, organizers say RAD participants must attend all five classes to complete their training. Instructors will provide more class information when students register.

Class size is limited and there’s always a waiting list, so the MTSU Police 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.

A preview of the class is available in a video from the national RAD website at http://ow.ly/JNKr30oweyi. (Please note: The video depicts examples of aggressive behavior for training purposes, as well as self-defense tactics.)

For more information about MTSU’s RAD classes, email rad@mtsu.edu.

— Gina E. Fann (gina.fann@mtsu.edu)

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 five-week RAD course this spring for the campus community beginning Monday, March 30. (U.S. Air Force photo courtesy of Airman First Class David Bulkley/Luke AFB)