By Teri Carnicelli

When North Central resident Lisa Grafitti won in a silent auction a certificate for a one-day, self-defense class for 10, the first thing she thought of was an acquaintance whose young daughter was kidnapped by a stranger when she was 11 years old. Luckily, the story had a happy ending as the child was safely returned home. But Grafitti wondered, would she have been take in the first place if the young girl knew how to protect herself, even at that young age?

Grafitti decided to invite the daughters of friends and family members—including that kidnapping victim, now 17—to attend this two and a half hour class, which she hosted in her home on Aug. 16. Eleven girls, ranging is age from 11 to 19, listened as Cory Kahabka, a certified Level-2 instructor and 4th Degree black belt, showed them how to “Fight Like A Girl.”

Cory Kahabka, a certified Level-2 instructor and 4th Degree black belt, shows 17-year-old Tiana Grafitti how to keep an attacker away by lying on her back and kicking with her legs (photo by Teri Carnicelli).

The course does not focus on the familiar mantras of “walk with confidence” or “don’t go to the ATM late at night.” Fight Like A Girl has been designed to offer the best and most effective self-defense techniques for women in realistic personal assault situations. It discourages techniques like eye gouging or fighting that enables the bad guy to hit back. “If you try to fight the guy like a man would, the guy is going to win,” Kahabka emphasized to the girls.

Through a series of demonstrations, Kahabka showed each girl how to break away from a handhold on their arm, and if that doesn’t work, how to drop to the ground and kick hard in the groin and abdomen areas. He also showed them how to break a chokehold, and again drop to the ground for protective kicking, pivoting on their bottoms in case the attacker tries to circle around them.

After putting on protective gear, Kahabka went through scenarios with each of the sometimes-giggling girls, making them repeat the lesson until they did it correctly.

As she looked on, Grafitti remembered when she was in middle school and took a one-day self-defense course provided by her local police department. “I still remember a lot of that advice, to this day,” she says. “The way the world is, it doesn’t make sense not to teach your children to protect themselves against predators. You may think they are too small or too young, but the fact is there are effective things they can do to fend off an attacker.”

At the end of the day, Grafitti presented each girl with a certificate of completion of the course and a pocket-sized can of pepper spray, purchased (at a nice group discount) from Spy Headquarters at 1235 E. Northern Ave.

For more information on the Fight Light A Girl self-defense training course, contact Cory Kahabka at 480-215-8166 or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it