Ensuring Safety for All Through Self-Defense

How self-defense can empower park and recreation professionals and create safe spaces

This article was published in the May 2023 issue of Parks & Recreation magazine.

For some, the term “parks and recreation” brings to mind images of wide-open green spaces, remote trails or solo trips to the local recreation center. However, much of the work of park and recreation professionals is about making connections and fostering a sense of community. Parks and recreation is collaborative and people-oriented at its core, and many of those who work in the field do so because they want to bring its immeasurable benefits to the people in their community.

As part of these efforts, it’s important to ensure safety within parks and recreation, both for patrons and the professionals who work tirelessly with and for their community. To that end, understanding self-defense and learning useful techniques can help you navigate these relationships with confidence and ensure park and recreation professionals, and the people you serve, feel secure and safe within these spaces. By cultivating an atmosphere of safety, we can ensure people of all backgrounds and identities feel welcome to participate and that parks and recreation is a coveted field in which people are excited to work.

According to a study, titled “U.S. women’s choices of strategies to protect themselves from violence,” 71 percent of women avoid doing things they want to do because of concerns about being victimized. According to Nicole Snell — CEO and owner of Girls Fight Back, founder of the YouTube series “Outdoor Defense” and lead instructor for self-defense company IMPACT Personal Safety — this doesn’t need to be the case. “I think the importance of self-defense and preparedness is for confidence building and for empowerment, and for the knowledge that we are capable of managing our safety in a wide range of environments and in a wide range of situations,” she says. “Having the skills and the knowledge of what options we have available if we are faced with something that ranges from uncomfortable to potentially dangerous can allow us to walk through the world with more confidence and less fear.”

Self-Defense Is a State of Mind

The first step to self-defense, according to Snell, is to be aware of our surroundings and learn to recognize when our intuition is sounding the alarm. “Our intuition is designed to protect us from danger, so trusting it is a benefit to us. That’s one of the foundations of safety,” she says.

Once we learn to recognize when our intuition is signaling danger, we must develop the confidence to trust the feeling and act on it by speaking up, despite any societal messages that may label us as “dramatic” or “paranoid” for doing so. Snell says one key to embodying that confidence is to know that we are worth fighting for. “It’s OK for us to use our voice; it’s OK for us to set boundaries; it’s OK for us to say ‘no’ and not give any explanation beyond the word; it’s OK for us to tell someone that they’re making us uncomfortable. We should have a reasonable expectation of people respecting our boundaries, and we don’t need to apologize for expressing what we need, being assertive and standing in our power,” she says.

Carrying ourselves with confidence is a great way to deter malicious people who may be looking for vulnerabilities. However, Snell says, “Confidence is not a summit; it’s a journey. There are going to be situations when you feel more confident and some when you might feel less confident. So just understand that it’s a journey and no matter where you are on your journey, that’s OK.”

Supporting Safety at Work

When working in public-facing or customer service-oriented roles, it can be difficult to navigate tense situations while acting in a professional manner and representing our organization — especially when we are worried about relaying the story to leadership and having our actions analyzed. “But our safety is paramount. Even in a situation where you’re at work, if you’re getting a weird feeling about someone the first thing to do is trust that feeling. Then one of the things you can do is make sure there’s distance between you and the person. If you have a colleague, maybe call them over so that you don’t have to be alone with this person. If this person continues to encroach on your space, you can say, ‘I need you to stand right there,’” explains Snell. “Be assertive with what you need. There’s nothing unprofessional about that.”

Snell also says one thing organizations can do to help create a safe environment is to foster a culture of trust, in which managers respect employees’ boundaries and don’t require in-depth explanations for why staff members may have felt uncomfortable with a certain person or situation. “The concern that the employee might have is: ‘If I set a boundary — if I tell this person to stop calling me sweetheart or making lewd jokes — that we’re going to lose the business.’ That’s the worst thing,” says Snell. “The companies that I’ve worked with have made it very clear that they would rather lose a bad customer than sacrifice their employee’s safety to have a bad client. I think that is really key, having the employee know that, ‘If this customer walks out, or even if they leave a bad review about me, and I know I was doing what was right for safety reasons, that I am believed and that I am supported by management and I won’t face repercussions later.’”

Another thing Snell suggests employers can do to support their workforce is offer self-defense or boundary-setting classes. “I highly recommend empowerment-based self-defense classes because those balance the physical with the verbal and understand that they work together,” says Snell. “I would also recommend these because they are evidence-based and trauma-informed.”

De-Escalation Tactics

While park and recreation agencies provide offerings that often serve as a respite from the stresses of daily life, this also can include programs that are high-energy or competitive in nature, such as sports programming. These activities provide countless wellness benefits — including exercise, socialization, access to play and more. But when energy levels run high, emotions may run high as well. When this situation arises, there are some de-escalation techniques Snell says park and recreation professionals can keep in their back pocket to bring the environment back to stasis and ensure everyone feels safe. For example, if someone begins yelling or encroaching on other people’s boundaries, “asking questions is a great intervention strategy,” she explains. “In psychological terms, it’s known as pattern interrupt. They have to use a different part of their brain to answer you.” Questions can include things like “What seems to be the problem?” or even something unrelated to the situation, such as “Do you know what time it is?”

When employing this tactic, it’s important to remain calm, “which is not always easy when you’re dealing with someone who is very escalated, angry, frustrated or maybe even fearful,” she says. “But we have to try to keep our energy low because we don’t want to amp the energy up and up.” In addition to asking questions, Snell says we can offer firm but empathetic responses, such as, “I see you’re really upset. I understand; I would be upset too. We want to take care of this. Let’s go talk over here.”

Physical Self-Defense

Fortunately, we can prevent most difficult situations from becoming dangerous by being aware, using our voice and setting boundaries. “The majority of self-defense is non-physical,” says Snell. “It’s what we do on a daily basis to set our boundaries, speak up for ourselves, to be aware of our environment and take steps if we feel like our intuition has been sparked.”

However, in the rare case that an encounter does become dangerous, the next step is to assess what options we have available to us to get ourselves to safety as quickly as possible, says Snell. “[Self-defense] is not mutual combat. It isn’t a sports fight. It’s not a boxing match. It is trying to protect yourself as quickly as possible so you can get to safety.”

According to Snell, what this boils down to is identifying which spots on our body are the strongest, and which on the assailant’s body are weakest. “When we understand that we actually have all the tools available on our bodies right now to be able to protect ourselves, it can change how we walk through the world and how we interact with people,” she says.

Additionally, Snell says, external tools can be useful with practice but are far from required and may even be counter-productive to maintaining our safety without proper training. “If you want to carry something externally, like a self-defense tool or weapon, you have to train with it and you have to train with it often, because when you are faced with a dangerous or threatening situation in which your stress levels increase and adrenaline is released in your body, your fine motor skills are reduced, your logic and reasoning are reduced, and your gross motor skills are increased,” she explains. “So, unless you’re practicing with this tool consistently, there is a chance it may not respond the way you’re expecting it to.” Additionally, this creates the possibility that the tool could be used against you.

That’s why Snell advocates for other methods first. “Your body and your brain are always going to be your primary tools. I want to encourage people to avoid relying on external things and instead shift the focus back to themselves and put that focus and empowerment back in themselves. You are going to have the tools on your body all the time, 24/7, even in places where you can’t bring something external.”

Overcoming Stereotypes

Beyond teaching holistic self-defense tactics, Snell shares that it’s crucial that we overcome stereotypes and understand that everyone has the means to navigate park and recreation spaces safely and confidently.

“There’s a lot of stereotypes out there — and I’m going to speak in the binary because a lot of what we hear happens to be in the binary. Stereotypes say that women are weak, that we are helpless, that if we were to go up against a man we would lose — these are false. And then there’s this assumption, too, that men just know how to fight because they’re men.” But many times, this isn’t the case, says Snell. “So, I try to break down those stereotypes and instead give all people skills they can use — to reconnect women with our power and teach men ways they can use their bodies, and how to de-escalate situations.

“Whether it’s women, whether it’s people like me who are Black, or those who are Indigenous, or people of color, or people who are from the LGBTQIA+ community and may be worried about who they may encounter in the outdoors — if I can give people the skills to alleviate that fear, then we can get more people in the outdoors. We can get more people enjoying the benefits of nature.”