Two Vancouver sisters are learning self-defence so they can be ready for any situation

Two sisters in Vancouver say they are learning self-defence moves so they can be prepared to get out of different situations.

Training together at the Gracie Barra Jiu-Jitsu studio, they say that they are learning important skills.

“You never know what we’re going to be facing out there, and it’s a really good way to kind of be prepared if anything were to go wrong when you’re walking at night or during the day,” Tamara Gopal explained.

Chanel Gopal says even having the basic skills to get away from an attacker is important, especially when the days are short and it gets dark early.

“You have this automatic fear of like, who’s walking behind you…or someone’s going to grab behind you. So like, those are the typical fears that I have,” Chanel said.

The sisters say having the ability to protect themselves gives them both confidence.

Sisters Tamara and Chanel are learning Jiu-Jitsu. (Angela Bower/CityNews)

“[It feels] so empowering. I can walk down the streets and…be able to handle whatever. Hopefully [it] doesn’t happen, but being able to handle a situation that I might get into, so having that sense of power for myself, it’s very relieving,” Tamara said.

“Honestly, this has given me a lot of strength mentally and physically too…to be able to support myself.”

“When we’re walking from the SkyTrain station at night, or during the day, and it’s always good to know self-defence and to know that sense of confidence here in the arena,” Chanel added.

Sisters Tamara and Chanel are learning Jiu-Jitsu. (Angela Bower/CityNews)

In 2022, there were just under 4,800 sexual assaults, and over 600 sexual offences, the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) website reads.

The VPD also says that online dating can sometimes be dangerous.

Shaoli Choudhury, the transition houses manager at the YWCA, an advocacy group that helps support women and families, says the organization has seen an increase in cases where phones and social media are being used in assaults.

“Online-facilitated violence is not an anger issue, it’s a control issue,” Choudhury said.

“What our research has shown us is that men who are violent towards women, or people who are violent towards other people, it’s generally premeditated. That’s what we’re seeing in cases that are coming up, specifically in online dating, men are coming up with isolated locations or wanting to know women’s addresses going there.”

Sisters Tamara and Chanel are learning Jiu-Jitsu. (Angela Bower/CityNews)

Police say that some tips to help facilitate safer online dates include arranging to meet in public places away from where you live, and consider double dating for the first few times before spending time alone together that’s not in public.

But Choudhury says that more needs to be done.

“Talking to young men, talking to young teens about what healthy relationships look like. What ways we can perpetuate them, ways to understand masculinity as something that is healthy, and welcome, and okay, but also that there’s a side to it that could be potentially really harmful,” she said.