The students are walking along a stretch of
"street" - first in a frightened attitude, then as self-confidently as possible. The "street" is a stretch of floor in the room.

When all have finished, the group discusses which kind of walking and posture are looking self-confident and which not.

The Procedure

All students are sitting side by side on the floor. The stretch of floor in front of them represents the street they will be walking along. You explain what kind of street it is: busy or quiet, in an area the girls know well or in an unknown area. You tell also the time of day, especially if it is light or already dark.

Now the exercise starts: One student gets up and walks along the street. While doing this, she tries to look and move as timidly as possible. At the end of the street she turns and goes back moving as self-confidently as possible. The rest of the group are watching her posture, her movements and the expression of the face. When she has finished, the others walk twice along the street, too.

When everybody has finished, there will be a discussion: What kind of posture, expression and movements are looking timid - which of them are looking self-confident? It will be good for the discussion to ask directly about details like that: the posture of the whole body (bent/ upright), of the head, the size of the steps, position of the shoulders, movements of the hands, the line of vision, the expression of the face and so on.

Tip:

Working with a partner: When this exercise is done in one of the first lessons, it can happen that some students don´t want to play alone in front of the group. It´s a good idea then to let them do the exercise with a partner. If a student doesn´t want to do it at all, it will be OK, too, of course, like in all self defense exercises.

Repeating the Exercise in Small Groups

If there is still enough time, the exercise should be repeated in small groups immediately after the discussion. So the girls can work the results of the discussion into their acting. In this second stage they get a feedback by their team members.

A worksheet that can be used in this stage of the exercise can be called up by the link "Feedback Sheet".