MOUNT PLEASANT - Black belt karate instructor Kurt Klingenmeyer didn't have many students to teach Saturday. But the couple who came to his free seminar got some great

self-defense tips.

Klingenmeyer is a band and orchestra teacher at Schulte, Jones and Fratt elementary schools. He is also owner of Black Belt Karate Studio, 6233 Durand Ave.

He gives free workshops from time to time and thought there might be an audience for teachers.

"I have teacher friends that have said they always wanted to learn self-defense," Klingenmeyer said.

The techniques he taught Saturday at his studio were definitely for fighting off a serious attack with

no-nonsense responses.

"I like to do the stuff that's attacking from behind," he said, because most attacks will come from there.

He started with a rear bear hug that pins the victims arms to her side, then a rear hair grab, before moving to a frontal two-handed lapel grab.

"You want to go for soft targets" on the body, Klingenmeyer told the women. He showed them how to deliver blows to the groin or stomach or gouge the eyes with the thumbs in a frontal attack.

Encouraging them to fight back aggressively and with multiple blows, he said, "We don't want to be the defender anymore - we want to be the attacker in order to defend yourself properly."

When Klingenmeyer had shown the women how to fend off the frontal grab, he said, "After this one we're going to teach some eardrum-breaking stuff."

Besides his wife, only two other women took the free class - but both teachers said they have been physically attacked.

One said the attack by two men occurred as she was walking into a

theater.

The other, Saunnie Yelton, said a masked man once walked into her classroom after school, twisted her arm behind her back and put a knife against her body. The assailant wanted her purse, but Yelton said she was able to convince him there was no purse around.

Yelton is now a counselor a Harvey Elementary School, 2012 19th Ave., Kenosha. The attempted robbery occurred elsewhere, she said.

Klingenmeyer said his next free class will be for police and fire personnel. The purpose will be to teach them how to quickly take someone down and make them submit.