Renée Champagne could not fight back. She froze when member of her military unit drugged and raped her in 1997.
Champagne has a long history with sexual assault, dating back to an incident when she was 8. The Virginia native grew up to join the U.S. Air Force, a place where she felt safe until the attack.
“It stripped a part away from me that I never thought I’d get back,” Champagne said.
Today, she and other local women are turning to a new women’s self-defense program to learn how to protect themselves. STACT — Specialized Tactical and Combat Training — offers group and private training, including the women’s self-defense class at the Williamsburg Dojo on Richmond Road each Monday night.
Since the sexual attack in 1997, Champagne has suffered from chronic severe post-traumatic stress disorder, with grief and trauma triggers barring her from leading a healthy, happy life. Turning away from prescription medication, she began to embrace a more holistic approach – practicing yoga – and a friend invited her to come to a defense class.
If she had the self-defense skills then that she has now, Champagne said she believes she would not have frozen.
Carol Marley leads her Monday night women’s self-defense class (Hannah S. Ostroff/WYDaily)
STACT founder Chris Robinson, a certified ninja with 37 years of experience, trained military members before looking to educate the population at large.
“I started finding there were other people besides martial artists who appreciated being able to take care of themselves,” Robinson said.
Champagne is now training with STACT to become an instructor, with costs covered by Wounded Warriors, a national nonprofit that seeks to ease the transition for service members entering civilian life. Through their Warriors to Work program, Champagne is learning about self-defense as a piece of her journey; she is also studying at the College of William & Mary for a graduate degree in counseling with a focus on trauma and PTSD for veterans.
The STACT curriculum boasts a mix of martial arts practices in a format that can be absorbed by the layperson in a few hours, rather than years of hard study. Robinson and instructor Carol Marley stress the program can be catered to any individual’s skill level or particular concerns, but there is a strong focus on being aware of one’s surroundings and reacting quickly.
As in Champagne’s case, Robinson said many people freeze when attacked. He and Marley point to a fight-or-flight approach – and knowing which to choose – as being critical to personal safety.
“Your first defense is more psychological than it is technique,” Robinson said.
He teaches women to comply then run away if someone wants their belongings. If an attacker comes after you, he said, it is time to fight back.
STACT was not initially targeted to women, but Robinson became concerned for his community when a William & Mary student was raped in December.
He expanded the offerings from a four-hour women’s defense seminar every few months to a weekly class taught by Marley.
Marley got involved with the program almost seven years ago, nearly five years before STACT was officially incorporated. Not interested in wearing the martial arts garb or solely to earn belts, she wanted to learn how to protect herself.
When it became important to her to share that knowledge with others she pursued becoming an instructor, and now leads the women-only class held every Monday.
Martial arts Guru Ismail Sujadi from Indonesia visited Williamsburg Dojo last week, seen here with Robinson. He invited the STACT group to travel next summer to train with him in his village in Bandung. (Photo courtesy of Chris Robinson)
Women with a wide range of training and skill sets convene from 7 to 9 p.m. to talk through different scenarios and ask questions. Marley said students can jump in at any point in the season to get the value of a session.
In addition to the regular class, Marley and STACT give back with a program at Avalon: A Center for Women and Children. They started with an eight-week course over the summer and hope to have more volunteer childcare support to continue this year.
In getting the project at Avalon up and running, Robinson was “aghast” to hear of the real-life attack situations that women at the shelter had faced. In addition to applying the technique in a variety of locations and conditions, Marley said she is passionate about sharing her knowledge with a group of people who can use the confidence as well as the skills.
The class was voluntary, but Marley was gratified residents found value in the training and continued to return.
“They’re smart women, funny women, very hard-working women – and they really got into the program,” she said.
Part of what drew Champagne to STACT was the premise of women educating other women, as Marley does at Avalon and in her class. Champagne’s ultimate goal is to integrate mind and body practices into a program that gives hope and light to other women veterans who might have had similar experiences.
She is working now with STACT for a spring workshop at Body Balance Studio that would combine yoga and martial arts, and will be speaking along with either Robinson or Marley on March 31 at William & Mary.
While she is still on the road to a complete recovery, Champagne said it is important to work through her diagnosis rather than feeding on fear and perceptions of weakness. After a few months of self-defense instruction, she has experienced a decrease in PTSD symptoms, and she credits STACT for a newfound sense of strength and outlet for negative emotion.
“I’m not scared so much anymore,” she said.