To Alycyn Culbertson and Tracy McDaniel personal safety should be top of mind.
In an effort to keep their neighbors safe and informed on the importance of situational awareness, the pair first joined forces in 2022 to teach the Personal Safety Program and have been doing it ever since.
McDaniel is a retired Federal Law Enforcement Training Center defensive tactics instructor who still demonstrates lifesaving self-defense in classroom settings.
“This is what I love to do,” said the Village of Fenney resident. “I felt we could help people to protect themself and we see people that need it here.”
A small group gathered on Jan. 23 to learn new safety tips or to refresh their memory during a nearly two-hour class at the Wildwood Community Center.
Culbertson, of the Village of DeLuna, worked as a federal law enforcement agent for 28 years. She teaches prevention and personal safety with the goal of helping people avoid becoming a victim of assault.
“I was a little more on the streets — making arrests, doing investigations, executing search warrants, those kinds of things,” Culbertson said. “That’s my specialty. We actually spend about 80% of the class using that knowledge on situational awareness.”
“We want you to be aware of your surroundings,” she said. “Put your phones down and pay attention to where you are. We feel like we can save some lives if we can just get people to pay attention.”
Culbertson and McDaniel started class by going over terms, concepts and tactics used by law enforcement in the field that keep them safe — including always being aware of alternative exits and the “reactionary gap.”
Considered to be a key aspect of self-defense, the reactionary gap is the window of time a person has to perceive the amount of danger they are in and react effectively by the distance maintained between them and a potential threat.
“There’s a lot of basic things that we want people to start to think about,” Culbertson said. “Do you know where the exits are when you walk into Publix or the recreation centers? We don’t want to think about ourselves in that situation, but we have to. We do tornado drills and fire drills. Even today they do active shooter drills in churches and schools. You have to visualize yourself, because if you don’t, then you don’t know how you are going to react if it actually happens to us.”
After reviewing key concepts, McDaniel demonstrated how to escape wrist grabs, bear hugs and ponytail grabs. She also shared safety tips including there is power in the core, circular motion is the key and most times, strength on strength is not going to help you escape an attack after someone has has grabbed you.
“We don’t want people to get too close to us,” McDaniel said. “You want to be far away. If they get a hold of you, the first thing to think about is, ‘How am I able to get out of this hold.’”
“The whole point is to get away,” she said. “You have to move quick, fast and in a hurry. Even though we don’t think bad things happen inside our little bubble, we still have to be prepared. We have to get out of our comfort zones.”
Throughout the interactive class, Vangie Tatum, of the Village of Hillsborough, both asked questions and shared ways she tries to keep herself safe in public.
“I’m always very aware of my surroundings,” Tatum said. “But I think it’s good to think about these things because you don’t know what will be around the corner tomorrow, so you want to be prepared today.”
Participants of the class were encouraged to share the information, including handouts featuring tips and reminders, with people they know.
“You can pass this on to your kids or your grandkids. This information is also not just for women,” Culbertson said. “I think a lot of people that take it end up walking away with something new. Some people have taken it twice or three times because they want a refresher.”
Sonia De Morais, of the Village of St. James, said knowing these techniques is very useful.
“I always crave this type of information. I took a class like this a few years ago and it was very useful,” De Morias said. “You need to always protect yourself and be aware. You have a duty to keep yourself safe.”
There will be another Personal Safety Program at 1 p.m. Feb. 20 at the Wildwood Community Center, 6500 Powell Road. To register, which is required, contact Culbertson at alycynculbertson@msn.com or McDaniel at tracymccrory@yahoo.com. Cost for the class is $30 per person.
Staff writer Brea Jones can be reached at 352-753-1119, ext. 5414, or brea.jones@thevillagesmedia.com.
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