Beating the Fear : Self-defense: For-credit course at all-girl school emphasizes ‘full contact’--from words to physical blows.

The masked attacker had the teen-ager on her back and tried to pull her legs apart. But with a quick roll of her body, she broke free of the “attacker,” who was nearly a foot taller and 70 pounds heavier than she, and began pummeling him with the soles of her feet.

Nearby, 13 other high school girls cheered and clapped.

The occasion was a self-defense class at Marlborough School, a private all-girl middle and senior high school in Hancock Park. The students, ranging from ages 14 to 17, each took turns fighting the faux attacker during the hourlong session.

Since September, Francine Russell of IMPACT Personal Safety, a self-defense firm based in Tarzana, has been teaching the elective physical education course at the school. The classes emphasize “full-contact” self-defense--using everything from words to physical blows to fend off would-be attackers.

While other schools in Los Angeles may offer martial arts instruction, Marlborough is believed to be the only one to offer an extensive self-defense course for credit.

Julie Napoleon, Marlborough’s physical education director, suggested that the school offer the self-defense course after she had taken it herself last year. The “full-contact” course is more practical than martial arts, she said.

“In martial arts, you simulate action,” Napoleon said. “Here, they get a chance to actually hit and kick and punch.”

Organizers of the course acknowledge that going on the offense is probably not advisable if the attacker has a weapon. But if there is no weapon, organizers say, even young girls can escape harm if they know how to fight off assailants.

In Marlborough’s course, the punching bag is William Tucker, a male instructor who plays the part of the mugger. Working on a padded mat in the school’s gymnasium, Tucker verbally accosts students, and sometimes yanks their hair or tackles them to the floor.

His head is protected by a large helmet, his body by 30 pounds of padding. Even so, Tucker said, he is always impressed by the girls’ powerful punches.

Women, he said, often experience a burst of energy and adrenaline when it comes time to fight. He said a small woman can successfully throw a large man off her body without a great deal of brute force.

“It’s 25% strength, and the rest is leverage,” Tucker said. “When you have something flat and turn it sideways, nothing can stay on top.”

At the end of the semester, the self-defense class holds a graduation in which each girl tosses and beats up a 150-pound man. (Tucker shares duties with several male colleagues on graduation day.)

According to Russell, girls are rarely taught to hit or use strong language when they are physically threatened. And as they grow up, she said, young women live in denial, wrongly believing that they face little risk of being raped or beaten.

In 1992, the U.S. Surgeon General ranked physical abuse by husbands and partners as the leading cause of injuries to women ages 15 to 44.

Russell said at first the Marlborough students didn’t take her course seriously. “They took it as, ‘I just have to learn these moves, as if they were learning dance steps,’ ” she said.

In hourlong classes, which meet four days a week, the girls learned how to use their hands, elbows, knees and feet as weapons--and to look for opportunities to attack. They were also taught to yell at an assailant, and to stand their ground as a way to defuse a threatening situation.

Russell said the girls began paying closer attention when Tucker acted out rape scenarios. As the students gained more confidence in their abilities, she said, Tucker became more aggressive, using harsher language and more menacing physical attacks to test their skills.

Katherine Kerner, her pink hair ribbon still intact after repelling one of Tucker’s attacks, said the key is not to panic.

“I was surprised at first, (but) then I put one leg up, and rolled my hips. And I used full force,” said Katherine, 14. “You try to use all the weight in your body. And you use the sole of your foot to kick. If you use your toe, you could break it.”

Students in the class said the self-defense course has made them more aware of their surroundings and boosted their self-confidence.

“I used to think, how could someone vertically impaired like me fight someone so big,” said 16-year-old Shireen Oberman, who is 5 feet tall. “Now my attitude is, ‘How dare (an attacker) think he can take advantage of me.”