I ran the class through hell. Throws, ground escapes, choke defenses. We trained until the windows fogged. At the end I gathered the women into a semicircle.

“Listen to me.” I locked eyes with them. “The world conditions you to be accommodating. To be quiet. To shrink. Leave that garbage at the door. The violence we learn here is not for bar brawls, and it isn’t for punishing anyone.

It’s a shield for your dignity. Your kindness must never become a weapon your abuser gets to use on you.”

I looked around the circle.

“We don’t train so we can hurt somebody. We train so the monsters can never touch us again. You hit hard enough to be free — and then you go. Free is the whole point.

Anything past that isn’t strength. It’s just them, wearing your face.”