About us
We are dedicated to working to create a world where everyone can live full and meaningful lives. People in the U.S. who are not a part of dominant culture often live with fear. We regularly deal with a range of unwanted situations, from ones that feel uncomfortable to ones with physical violence, and we have stories to tell of the choices we made. People of all ages, sizes, genders, physical abilities, and cultural and economic backgrounds have the right and ability to defend themselves successfully. By discussing, learning and practicing a wide range of options that can help us feel more control in difficult and frightening situations, we can make choices in our lives to help us feel safer and more confident.
Debbie Leung's first exposure to "self-defense" was in a women's karate class in 1978. Tagging along with several co-workers out of curiosity and adventure, this class lead to a life-long commitment to martial arts practice (now centered on qigong and taiji as instructor and owner of Chinese Healing & Movement Arts in downtown Olympia) and self-defense for women and communities targeted for violence. The foundation of my self-defense programs is not based on martial arts, but on our experiences with violence, learning self-defense and resisting assaults with success. I was a part of F.I.S.T. (Feminists In Self-defense Training) in Olympia which developed programs accessible to larger numbers of women by recognizing that martial arts training was costly, time consuming and unrealistic for many. Its emphasis on physical skills did not apply to the full scope of violence we faced. The information and skills in its programs were brought together in Self-defense: the Womanly Art of Self-care, Intuition and Choice, a book published in 1991 which is unfortunately still a timely resource.
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John Baker is a fourth generation Olympianite. He began his study of the martial arts in 1991 at the age of ten in a soft-style karate known as Flying Eagle (no relation to the California kung fu school of the same name). In 1999 he received his blackbelt certificate and began to teach classes of his own. At this time he also began to study various other martial arts as well as cross-train with teachers of various other disciplines. Around 2010 he founded the style Five Gates which is a culmination of all the various techniques and skills he had learned over the years. He views martial arts as an ever-changing, growing, adapting thing, and still views himself as a beginner. He believes in making martial arts accessible to more people, especially those who might feel out of place in a typical dojo or gym. In addition to teaching his standard classes he has also lead many workshops and self-defense classes over the years.
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