High School Self-Defense Classes
Over 200,000 Students Made Safer Since 1994!
Discover the Life Skill of Self-Defense & Personal Safety for Your Students in a Few Short Hours
As a teacher, the safety of your students is a top priority. And it’s ours too. We created our personal safety and self-defense education course for high schools, containing critical life skills that all students should receive.
Since self-defense classes and violence prevention training are essential life skills, our classes are part of the Personal Safety component of Healthy Living Curriculums.
We are a leader in preparing our youth for confrontation — whether it be abuse, sexual harassment, bullying, sexual assault, or other conflict forms.
Self-defense is a serious topic, and we take it seriously. But students remember information better when the experience is high energy and enjoyable. That’s why passion and humour are a vital part of our presentation.

ONLINE CLASSES
NOW AVAILABLE
SAFE International has taught more than 200,000 students since 1994! We are proud to announce we have designed an online course you can provide your students so they can still receive our life-saving education during these challenging times for educators.
Email us today at info@safeinternational.biz for further information
Consider these Statistics . . .
- 1 in 3 North American women will experience assault and abuse during their life — and the highest risk group is teenagers
- 60% of sexual abuse/assault victims, whether female or male, are under the age of 17
- 80% of assailants are friends and family of the victim, not a stranger
- 1 in 3 adolescent students report bullying
Student Benefits of Self-Defense Training
Your students will learn personal safety awareness training so they can recognize and prevent violence.
Simple aerobics or martial arts classes can leave students with a false sense of confidence. That’s why we approach the problem from multiple angles. As a credible self-defense program, we emphasize violence prevention rather than just training students in a few self-defense techniques.
We will introduce the students to basic conflict resolution training that will carry over to other areas of their lives, not just self-defense scenarios.
In our high school self-defense course, the students will learn:
- Defenses against the most frequent attacks in a simple, easy-to-understand manner, with practical, active drills
- The mindset to get home to their family
- Methods to strengthen their chance of survival if faced with a conflict, confrontation, bullying, or harassment
- The basic legalities of self-defense in Canada and its use in a legal, ethical, and moral manner
Benefits of Using Our Self-Defense Class
The SAFE International High School self-defense program addresses the Personal Safety section of the Healthy Active Living Curriculum.
You can rest assured that with us you’re providing your students with a self-defense course of world-class quality based on reality, not martial arts. While many martial arts courses state they’re teaching self-defense, they are not. Our courses are more than just kickboxing aerobics.
Teachers tell us that their students rate our program as one of the favourite activities in their physical education career. In fact, we’ve received countless endorsements from both parents and teachers including reports that the self-defense instruction these students have received has saved lives, often many years after receiving this training.
Topics Include:
- What is self-defense?
- Strategies to avoid violence
- Who attackers prefer and why
- Three reasons an attacker might choose you
- The purpose of appearing as a hard target
- Why you always trust your intuition
- Safety in elevators
- Distraction strategies used to deflect your attention
- How to know if you’re being followed and how to handle it
- Should I fight to preserve my valuables?
- Are cell phones a useful safety device or distraction?
- Conflict-resolution training
- Safe relationships
Basic Self-Defense Skills
Our classes always emphasize that awareness and avoidance are the most important aspects of self-defense.
However, sometimes physical interaction with an attacker is unavoidable. That’s why we teach students key, easy-to-perform self-defense strikes with the aim not to hurt or punish an attacker but to stop them from hurting you.
SAFE International keeps self-defense instruction simple. After all, when you’re under the stress of an attack, it’s challenging to remember or perform any strikes or moves that are not basic and easy.
Instead of teaching a memorized set of self-defense techniques as you see in martial arts self-defense classes, we show a few basic principles and concepts meant to address all likely attacks:
- The legal implications and physical effects of self-defense strikes
- The Stun & Run philosophy (an attempt to escape an attack as early as possible)
- Palm strikes
- Double palm strikes
- Alternative strikes targeting the most vulnerable areas on the attacker
- Wrist grabs
- Bear hugs
- Chokes
- Ground attacks
SAFE Simulated Attacks
During the last hour of our self-defense classes, the students practice their new skills in a safe environment with an instructor who wears the Spartan Training Gear. The instructor simulates an attack and students respond with the skills and concepts we’ve taught them.
Students feel some stress similar to what they may experience during an actual attack, which is an important component of what we do. People often freeze under duress, so by instructing students while simulating those feelings, we increase the chances that they will recall what they’ve learned if ever faced with a real-life confrontation.
These simulated attacks are always a highlight of the course with the students (the instructor might disagree!). And by the end, they feel challenged and empowered and leave with lifelong skills.
In fact, we often hear from students years later that this day helped build confidence in other areas of their life because the students learn how to face a challenge head on and beat it. We like to think our self-defense classes teach much more than just self-defense — but how to grow as a human being.
High School Principal Testimonial
For several years now, our TDSB school’s phys. ed. department has invited SAFE International to visit its classes and provide workshops to all grade 9 students. In response to our growing concern that our students lacked the awareness of potentially dangerous situations which may put them at risk, we began to place more emphasis on personal safety in our health and physical education classes, including units on personal safety, injury prevention, conflict resolution, decision-making, and reducing vulnerability.
The workshops from SAFE International complement our program in a way that is useful and relevant for youth. Students and parents alike have expressed their gratitude and praise. These workshops have given students valuable information on detecting dangerous situations, diffusing or deescalating potentially dangerous situations and reacting in ways that would improve their chances of “getting away” in the event of confrontation or danger. The staff are knowledgeable and professional, and they’ve been an excellent resource for our teaching staff.