Book excerpt: Most people have no clue how to defend themselves against a physical attack; they just hope it never happens to them. With Teaching Self-Defense in Secondary Physical Education, you can equip your students with the knowledge and skills to minimize their chances of being the victims of violence and handle an attacker with minimal confrontation. Even if you have no knowledge of self-defense strategies, with this book you can teach your students personal safety, conflict-resolution techniques, and self-defense tactics. Joan Neide, a physical education teacher with a seventh-degree black belt in Uechi-ryu karate, has created an easy-to-use resource that will help you increase your students' awareness and avoidance abilities and learn the basic physical skills they need in order to defend themselves. Teaching Self-Defense in Secondary Physical Education is an ideal match for California physical education content standards, but it's equally effective for use in any state. With it you can help students - think critically and make sound decisions about their homes and personal safety, - learn the motor skills and movement patterns they need in order to defend themselves, - develop poise and confidence to react effectively in dangerous situations, and - define their own limitations as they apply to self-defense. Neide supplies 19 detailed lesson plans that cover up to 20 days for a two- or four-week unit. These plans are designed for coed classes in 50- to 60-minute periods, but Neide provides practical strategies to adapt the plans for any class size and setting. This flexibility makes it easy for you to use these plans within your own curriculum. The book also offers in-depth safety guidelines and suggestions that will enable you to create a safe and nonthreatening learning environment. Further, the plans are well illustrated and easy to follow, and they include all the handouts, overheads, and assessments you need for teaching a self-defense unit. Neide includes a detailed description of each self-defense skill and release in a simple, structured format. You are shown step by step how to perform each stance, step, technique, and release. Teaching cues and class organization are also included. Finally, Neide includes activities that focus on home and personal safety. Teaching Self-Defense in Secondary Physical Education contains clear-cut, well-organized, and flexible lesson plans that allow you to teach self-defense and leave your students prepared and poised to defend themselves.