Photos by Miranda Pederson/Daily News Tom Pardue, owner of East West Kung-Fu Academy, teaches children some anti-bullying techniques Wednesday at Cumberland Trace Elementary School.

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Ever been in a dark, quiet parking lot and had that uneasy feeling when you saw the man across the parking lot peering at you?

Did you wonder what you would do if he approached and you wanted to get away?

Tom Pardue, owner of East West Kung-Fu Academy in Bowling Green, can teach you what to do in such a situation through a Compliance, Direction and Takedown Training for Life class he's certified to teach.

“It's a different class than anything anyone else does,” the ninth-degree black belt kung fu master said.

The self-protection - not self-defense - class teaches men and women 14 and older how to get away from someone without harming them.

“We're living in a litigious world,” Pardue said. Training for Life is “a protection system that keeps your bank account safe, your integrity safe, your reputation safe from excessive force.”

In short, he said, it's “full-circle protection.”

Training for Life was developed by Tom Patire, one of the world's leading self-protection experts, who has done security for the Grammy Awards and provided protection for entertainers from all over the world.

Pardue will be teaching Training for Life classes from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Nov. 6 and from 10 a.m. to noon Nov. 11 at East West Kung-Fu at 6045 Scottsville Road.

The cost is $49.95 a class, which is a half-price discount.

“We're wanting to offer it so it will get out more to the public,” Pardue said.

CDT classes often are offered at a lower price during the holidays, when the crime rate increases.

According to Pardue, each of the self-protection moves he teaches in class is based on motions we all make naturally.

One is similar to knocking on a door. Another is like turning a key.

“There's a variety of spots - nerve activation points - that work on everybody,” Pardue said. “It doesn't matter the size of the person or if they're inebriated.”

In fact, someone high on methamphetamine, for example, will be even more affected when their nerve activation points are affected because the drug makes them more sensitive, Pardue said.

In addition to teaching such moves, the Training for Life class will also include a preview of a carjacking protection program Pardue will teach, as well as some information from a family protection program that “teaches you how to align your family and get away” from a bad situation without harming your attacker, Pardue said.

“I'm a ninth-degree kung fu master, but when my daughter was small, I would've hated for her to see me unload on someone,” Pardue said. “I don't want my family to see me pummeling someone and I don't want them to see me being pummeled.”

Pardue said he would recommend Training for Life to anyone 14 and older who wants to know more about how to protect themselves.

When his daughter, Cassia, now 21, was 19 and wanted to go on spring break, Pardue encouraged her to take the course.

“After she did that, all I was worried about was her driving,” he said.

Chrystal Wilson, who teaches and trains at East West Kung-Fu, said her whole family has taken Training for Life.

“I had two teenage daughters at the time,” she said, “and I wanted them to know about self defense.”

Now the girls, Rebecca and Keren, are in college out of state and Wilson is glad they know how to take care of themselves.

“They've both had some martial arts training” as well, she said, “and with this training, even if they're not cognizant of it, their instinct will kick in. They've been trained so they stand a better chance of getting out of a bad situation than someone who's never been taught what to do.”

Colleen Hathaway, who teaches tai chi and helps with kung fu classes at East West, also teaches Training for Life there and said she made sure her daughter, Erin, took the class before she went to college, too.

While Hathaway has been in martial arts for nearly 20 years, “Training for Life is the best thing I've ever seen” when it comes to self-protection, she said.

“It's something you can learn without practicing it” over and over, she said, “and anybody can do it.”

In the class, students learn how to get away during:

• A choke hold
  
  
• A bear hug
  
  
• A hair grab
  
  
• A wrist grab
  
  
• An instance when you're forced to the ground and an attacker is on top of you
  
  Pardue said taking the two-hour course is very beneficial because it takes a lot less time to learn to get away from an attacker than it does to learn to fight successfully with martial arts.

He said the class is particularly good for those who don't have the time or money to take a lot of martial arts training.

And it's not the only Patire-developed class Pardue is certified to teach.

Other classes he can provide are specifically for teens, Realtors, children and teachers.

In fact, there's a class for most every group and Pardue must be re-certified to teach the classes, after taking continuing education about them, every year.

One Wednesday, Pardue taught Bullyguard non-combative self-protection class to kids at Cumberland Trace Elementary School.

“It teaches kids how to walk away from bullies without feeling like they're being a coward,” he said.

And it puts the school's faculty, staff and students on the same page when it comes to handling bullying.

Pardue also offers free maintenance classes for those who've gone through the Training for Life class, because even though you can learn to protect yourself in the two-hour course, “everybody wants to feel better about it,” he said.

- For more information about Training for Life or the other self-protection classes developed by Patire and taught by Pardue, go to http://www.tompatire.com/Courses.asp or call Pardue at East West Kung-Fu at 783-0800.