After a spate of recent murders and attacks on women in New York City, one gym is offering women free courses on self defense.
FIT HIT founder Matan Gavish said the training, which he incorporates into his daily training style, gives people real-life skills to fight off an attacker.
“We create a place where women can get fit, dial in their nutrition, dial in their mindset but also learn real life-saving skills,” Gavish told PIX11.
FIT HIT recently taught free two-hour seminars showing women how to mentally and physically prepare for an attack.
“By changing the way that we think, we create change for what we do and when we create change for what we do, we create a complete change for how we live,” said Gavish.
Gavish served in the Isreali Defence Force, where he learned skills to train federal agents, the military and police around the world.
“After years of working exclusively with law enforcement I felt like the universe was conspiring to show me there was a problem. In a span of 10 days I witnessed three assaults on women in New York and it was completely coincidental it never happened before and it never happened after that,” said Gavish.
After recent deadly attacks on women and on people using public transportation in the city, Gavish knew he had to do something.
“What we see in real life when people who are untrained are attacked, they don’t fight. They don’t flight but they just freeze and accept the victimization. Even though their bodies go through the fight or flight changes which means their body is gushing with adrenaline, adrenaline alone doesn’t turn you into a fighter. There’s got to be a skillset to back that up,” said Gavish.
Gavish hopes the skills will stop someone else from being a victim.
“I know when we talk about violence against women, it doesn’t just affect women. It affects me as a father to a little girl, it affects me as a husband, as a son and it affects me as a brother. So for us it’s really a mission to equip and reduce victimization overall,” said Gavish.
