Sal Gentile, The Examiner
2007-07-09 07:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

Columbia, Md -

An instructor tells 80 girls ages 6 to 18, assembled in pairs, to “unleash fury” on punching bags held by their partners.

The screams — they’re instructed to scream — are almost deafening.

The Girl Scouts of Central Maryland spent Sunday afternoon learning Krav Maga, the official self-defense system of the Israeli Defense Forces, at Krav Maga Maryland, a gym and fitness center in Columbia.

“It’s really, really fun, because it feels like it’s my brother and I can beat him up” said Stacie Ross, 12.

Her punching partner, Cindy Ertter, 10, agreed.

“It’s really fun because, if you don’t like someone, you can pretend it’s them that you’re punching.”

Anyone can use this little-known form of self-defense, developed in the 1930s by a Hungarian citizen fending off Nazi militias, said Bryan Inagaki, Krav Maga Maryland’s chief instructor.

“It’s very practical, very simple to use,” he said. “Our No. 1 rule is: Don’t get hurt.”

That ethos, Inagaki said, will help transform the otherwise dated image of the Girl Scouts as an organization incompatible with a society of computers, cell phones and MySpace.com.

“Girls get turned off by the Girl Scouts,” he said. “It’s not cool anymore.”

Krav Maga Maryland is “helping them change that,” he added.

“A lot of people think of us in a very narrow way,” said Meaghan Airel, a program specialist with the Girl Scouts who coordinated the event. “Girls walk of out of these seminars feeling like they’ve learned some life skills.”

The program, Inagaki said, is appealing because it was specifically designed for use by civilians who have little technical knowledge of hand-to-hand combat.

“It’s the simple, easy way to apply self-defense,” he said. “Because it’s so unique, so different, it draws people in.”

sgentile@baltimoreexaminer.com