From karate, courage, confidence

By Kelly Riner
N.C. State University

Karate students who milled around their Raleigh studio after classes intrigued Kathy Olevsky as she peered through the steam-covered windows of her school bus every afternoon. But in the ‘70s, girls did not take karate lessons.

 

Contributed photo Kathy Olevsky, right, praactices a kick with a student Mary Biscoe.

Olevsky describes herself as “a little left of center.” When she decided to enroll in a karate class, she did not think about breaking barriers. She just wanted to try something new.

After she graduated from college, Olevsky remembered her fascination with the karate students and signed up for a karate class. After only one week of lessons, Olevsky learned the value of karate training.

One evening, she opened the back door of the laundry facility at her apartment complex and noticed a man standing silently in the corner of the room. Olevsky maneuvered her laundry basket through the narrow doorframe. The man did not move.

“I should have suspected something, but I was young,” Olevsky said.

With her back toward the man, Olevsky silently filled the washer. Suddenly, the man whisked across the laundry room toward Olevsky and forcefully grabbed her arm. Her instincts took over.

“Just the night before in karate class, my instructor had us practice low fast kicks for a long time. As the man grabbed me, that’s all I could think of, and so I kicked him in the leg,” she said.

The attacker’s kneecap popped, and the cracking sound pierced the quiet laundry room. In obvious pain, the man immediately released Olevsky from his tight grip, and she frantically ran out of the laundry building to her apartment.

She did not immediately report the crime to police, and the assailant was never apprehended. When Olevsky did report the attack, police concluded that the incident was an attempted rape.

“I didn’t even realize what had happened. I definitely should have reported it sooner.”

Olevsky’s fast thinking and karate training prevented her from becoming a crime statistic, but many people in North Carolina do become victims of violent crime each year.

Staggering statistics

According to Tim Parker of the State Bureau of Investigation, there were 2129 rapes in North Carolina in 2000. Young women are especially at risk.

AWARE, an organization for Arming Women Against Rape and Endangerment, reports that women now 21 years old or younger have a one in four chance of experiencing violent crime during their lifetimes.

Olevsky’s attack drove her to become more involved with karate and self-defense.

The attack served as a turning point in her life, and now Olevsky works to teach other women the techniques they need to protect themselves.

“When I graduated from East Carolina University, I planned to become an elementary school teacher, but I didn’t get a teaching job right away.”

Consequently, Olevsky applied her teaching skills to karate. Now a sixth degree black belt, she and her husband own the Karate International Studio in Raleigh.

“This job gives me the opportunity to teach people of all ages a skill that will be so valuable to them in the future.”

Olevsky’s karate school offers classes suitable for students ages 3 to adult. Both males and females in enroll in Olevsky’s classes.

Throughout the first years of Olevsky’s karate career, few women committed to the requirements of their karate classes. “Sometimes women would show up for a couple of lessons, and then quit. But slowly, women saw me as I made my way to black belt and realized that it would be possible for them to achieve the same goal,” Olevsky said.

Now, close to half of the students are female, and they see Olevsky as a role model.

“Mrs. O is my mentor. She lets me teach with her. She has just done so much to teach others about self-defense and karate,” said Mindy Mayernik, a 20-year-old black belt who hopes to own her own karate school one day. “I think, if she could do as much as she’s done, then I can be a success too.”

“Mrs. O is a role model for all women, especially those of us in karate. She started out when there were not very many women in karate. Now there are even all female classes. She never had that, yet she’s providing it for young women like me,” added Shelby Wheatley, another of Olevsky’s students.

In addition to karate, Olevsky also teaches self-defense classes and seminars at the karate school and at local colleges. “I divide my students up based on whether or not their parents have discussed sexual assault with them. Also, I like teaching college-age girls separately.”

Students at risk

Olevsky believes that college students face a unique set of pressures and risks. “These girls are away from home for the first time; they are at parties; and many have to deal with alcohol-related incidents as well. I teach them what to look out for.”

United States Attorney General John Ashcroft and the US Department of Justice report that one in 36 college-age women is a victim of an attempted or completed rape each academic year.

Olevsky teaches self-defense and karate classes at Meredith and Peace colleges. Both colleges offer the courses as physical education electives.

“I took karate for a PE because I thought that it would be fun,” Wheatley said. “Also, if someone is attacking me, I want to be the one who has control over what happens.”

“At Meredith, I’m always telling my friends to take the karate class that Mrs. O teaches. It’s fun, interesting, and a good way to ‘knock out’ those credit hours. There are just so many benefits,” Mayernik added.

Get confident

“I want people to know how to defend themselves, and I also promote fitness. Karate is a great sport, but also it is so good for building confidence. I think that’s its number one asset,” said Olevsky.

“When I began taking karate, I was uncoordinated, and now I win competitions. My two older brothers who started with me dropped out when I surpassed them in rank,” Mayernik recalled. “I think that experience gave me the most confidence.”

“I see students become so much more secure after taking a karate or self-defense class,” Olevsky said.