
Friday of Healthy Relationships week, the ladies of Alpha Chi Omega joined FSU PD for RAD Training. VP Member Programming Leah and VP Risk Management Ryleigh coordinated the chapter’s training. R.A.D. is a program of realistic self-defense tactics and techniques for women. The R.A.D. system is a comprehensive, women-only course of instruction that begins with awareness, prevention, risk, and risk avoidance. It then progresses to teaching hands-on self-defense training, but it is not a martial arts program.
The course is taught by nationally-certified R.A.D. instructors, and provided each sister with a workbook and manual. The manual outlines the entire physical defense program which facilities women students’ personal growth, and further serves as an information source after completion of the course.
The University Police Department also permits women students, who have graduated from the R.A.D. course, to attend R.A.D. training sessions without charge at any time throughout their lives.
The R.A.D. system’s instructional objective is to develop and enhance the options of self-defense, so such options become viable considerations to the woman who might be attacked. R.A.D. is a twelve-hour course, which is broken up into four, three-hour sessions offered during evenings, or two, six-hour sessions offered during weekends. The students are dressed in special protective gear when they are attacked by an aggressor, who is also dressed in special protective gear. Students must fight their way to an exit or designated safe place upon being attacked. This dynamic simulation empowers the women participants by teaching them the essentials of fighting back, and fighting back effectively!.
R.A.D. is offered all over the United States and Canada. Once graduating from R.A.D., students can return and practice their self-defense skills at any location where R.A.D. is offered. Therefore, the women participants acquire self-defense skills in a relatively short period of time, and, moreover, are offered the opportunity to relearn, master, and practice these skills throughout their lives.
At Florida State University, R.A.D. has been offered since the fall of 1996. R.A.D. classes are open to any woman student, faculty, staff, or local community member. Currently, R.A.D. has been taught to over 1,500 women at FSU! We are proud to share many of those women are Alpha Chi Omegas!
Note we took no chapter photos at the training at the request of FSU PD Officers.
