Through proper self-defense training, students can have the skills and power to take control of any aggressive situation.

Larry Reynosa’s self-defense/assault prevention class empowers students to lead a safer life through proper self-defense training.

Offered through Ventura College and taught at Reynosa’s Makoto Dojo facility in Ventura, the class enables students to get out of their comfort zones and acknowledge the dangers of the world around them.

“I want to show students what it’s like to be attacked while they’re out and about doing everyday things,” said Reynosa. “The truth of the matter is statistics in assault are increasing. Things are getting worse and they’re not getting better. Students need to heighten their awareness of these dangers and prepare themselves for what’s out there.”

Reynosa’s techniques do not focus on an individual’s physical power. Instead, he teaches his students the presence of mind, the idea between having to make a choice and having to make a decision. Many of the students who take his class have had their own experiences in assault and the decision to take action is based on those reasons in the past, he said.

“I’ve had students who’ve been raped multiple times, beat up multiple times,” he said. “But these horror stories don’t apply to all my students. A lot of them hear these stories and say, ‘That’s not going to happen to me,’ and an education on self-defense is what I can give them.”

Reynosa has been teaching this class for over 10 of his last 33 years at the college. He currently serves as the Chief Instructor at Makoto Dojo and travels frequently to help supervise and manage dojos in South Africa, England, France, Canada, Germany, Belgium and Spain, among others.

“I go to these places every year and I take the same stance for safety and preservation,” he said. “People get turned on to join because they know I’m taking a stand for them, for saving their lives.”

The Makoto Dojo puts a great emphasis on the teachings of Aikido, a Japanese form of martial arts that focuses on its four virtues: kindness, compassion, honesty and integrity. According to Reynosa, the Aikido methods closely resemble those of his self-defense class at VC.

“The training is very similar in that it allows students to recognize and act in the face of danger,” he said. “It’s all self-defense, but it takes on a more cultural experience.”

Students in Reynosa’s self-defense/assault prevention class are given insight into the various forms of danger. Students who join the class are taught the best techniques to avoid being grabbed, choked, punched, kicked, shot, molested, stabbed or physically injured in some way.

Throughout the semester, students are taught how to divert attacks with blunt weapons such as bottles and baseball bats and bladed weapons such as knives. They are also trained to deal with handgun assaults, given information on the mechanics of various handguns and participate in crisis simulations, including hostage and victim scenarios.

Kathleen Leonard, 35, has taken Reynosa’s class for the past three years and feels as though it has empowered her to be the woman she is today.

“Many people take this class because they feel like they’re weak or that they don’t have a voice,” she said. “At the start of the semester, so many people begin with that sort of mindset and come into the class extremely shy and quiet. By the end of the semester, they have so much strength and power and self-confidence.”

Reynosa also acknowledges the effect that self-defense training has on people.

“I’ve seen girls, little, quiet girls, completely come out of their shells,” he said.

While the self-defense class sees a variety of students who join today, Reynosa says that only one particular group found interest in the class when he first began teaching through the college.

“They were the Goth kids, dressed in all black from head to toe, the gay kids who were so timid and sat away from everyone,” he said. “They were basically the outsiders, and that’s when it hit me. Of course these students would take this class! These are the people who are being suppressed in our society. They’re the kids who are being yelled at and made fun of.”

Reynosa’s passion for helping others is evident among his students, who encourage their fellow classmates to join Reynosa’s class.

“Students should take this class if they’re looking for a way to become more self-confident, become physically fit and if they’re looking for a way to defend themselves that’s positive,” said Leonard. “Students should open their minds and take this class to stand for their own self defense and their own awareness of what is happening in the world. They need to face reality and break down their denial that violence doesn’t happen in Ventura and violence can’t happen to them.”

Those interested in learning Reynosa’s techniques can either join the Makoto Dojo, School of Aikido or sign up to take the class at VC in the fall. Due to budget cuts, the self-defense/assault prevention class will no longer be held at the dojo but on campus in the small gym.

“It’ll be different,” said Reynosa of the switch in facilities, “but as long as I can help students prevent assault through proper teaching, we’ll manage. For me, I’d do this for free. I’d train people for free. My greatest moments are when I know I’ve saved a life.”