Caitlin Figueiredo

Shouts echo around the basketball court as about 20 young women fine-tune how to kick an assailant, how to use speed to their advantage and how to harness their strength, no matter what they might have in terms of muscle.

But this Jasiri Australia self-defence class is not only about learning martial arts techniques—although it certainly is that, with class variations including a high-impact six-week course, and another that covers fundamentals