Vickie Jacoby groans whenever she sees a movie with a woman grabbing helplessly at an attacker’s hands as he strangles her from behind.

“That is one of the easiest moves to break,” says Jacoby, who teaches self-defense at Clairday’s Karate Studios in Athens.

She wants women to know how easy it is to learn to defend themselves from assailants.

Athens police officers Greg Parnell, Christopher Mitchem and Christopher Rose teach children how to ward off molesters and kidnappers. Mitchem, a gymnast and former University of Alabama cheerleader, also teaches the children how to be aerobatic if they are into that.

Jacoby teaches the ladies self-defense class from 6:15 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. every Tuesday and Thursday night at the studio at 1206 U.S. 31 South. She also teaches kickboxing.

“It changes a woman, how they carry themselves – they are more confident,” she says of the lessons, which are a mix of self-defense and kickboxing. “They learn skills that they will probably never have to use because they know them.”

A self-confident woman who makes eye contact with a would-be attacker is less likely to become a victim, she says. Not carrying a purse and keeping purchases in one bag also helps, she adds.

She got the idea for the class while watching her husband and son, who are both black belts.

The police officers focus on “anti-abduction techniques,” as owner Robert Clairday calls them.

The officers have even broadened their scope of to include sessions with area elementary and middle school students. So far, they have been to Reid Elementary in Limestone County, Danville Elementary in Decatur, Priceville Elementary and Middle in Priceville and Union Grove in Marshall County.

On Monday, they head to Coward Elementary in Athens.

“The first thing we do is trick them,” Clairday says.

The officers coax the students into leaving the building or getting into a vehicle with them, just to show them how easy they can be lured away. Then the officers explain it was a trick and teach the children how to keep from repeating it. Finally, they teach the children how to stop anyone who tries to forcefully kidnap them.

On any given night at Clairday’s, you can see children dressed in their blue, black, white or camouflage karate gees practicing their blocking, eye-gouging, inside-out crescent kicks and various other kicks and strikes.

Their barefoot leader, Parnell, keeps them focused and well mannered. Occasionally they get distracted, as kids do, and Clairday makes one boy drop and give him five pushups for failing to call him “sir.”

It’s not boot camp, though; the kids have a great time.

The children range from prekindergarten to teen-agers. One 4-year-old in a black gee with a pink belt was trying to remember to block first and then gouge the eyes.

“Why do we keep practicing the moves over and over?” Parnell asks the children.

No one can remember the correct answer.

“So our muscles will remember when we need it,” he says.

For more information, call Clairday’s Karate Studio at 230-0524 or 874-0044.