Self-defence class to tackle crime

In the last 5 years there has been over 50,000 violent crimes against women reported, and a further 8,000 sexual crimes.

Frank Markham has begun a female self defence class after noticing a gap.

Fitness has always “been in his blood” with having a father in the forces.

He said that family holidays would include lots of running and following his father like “ducks in a row”.

They would play games from an early age which Frank called “rough and tumble”.

This included arm locks, boxing and how to wrestle.

In his life Frank has felt like “the odd one out”, and always left people watching.

Coming from a family involved with the forces Frank would often help out karate instructors with self defence lessons and felt they were not teaching true self defence.

This feeling of isolation and misunderstanding led him to set up his own program.

Through a lot of research his aim was to “make women more than an equal”.

Kinson community centre is the home base for the classes though Frank hopes to expand this.

His lessons teach the theory of self defence as well as how to deal with a knife, which can be “an emotional topic”.

He said that “it doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor everyone needs this”.

Frank hopes to develop his lessons and further those who get to learn.