There was something profoundly shocking about sitting on the sidelines to watch a hefty adult male throw himself between the legs of a teenage girl and then try forcibly to get into her underwear. How could this be right? Self-defense techniques for women are to be applauded, but this was too close to the bone.

"Yes, it can be very disturbing," agreed Alex Mordine, founder of Back Off!, which he says is the world's No. 1 self-defense program designed specifically for women. "But to assist women in empowering themselves so they can address the most common situations where aggressive physical conflict is imminent or has occurred, it has to be as real as it can get. The hardest thing to accept is that a woman has a better chance of defending herself if the guy is between her legs. You'd think the opposite, right? But lying on her back, legs in air -- 'floating' the attacker -- offers the best chance of survival."

Mordine, assisted by two fellow Americans, was about to begin a two-hour session -- the third in a series of eight -- with a group of girls aged between 13 and 16 at the Deutsche Schule Tokyo Yokohama. "Up to now we've been largely building trust. Now it's down to business. Our demonstrator, Sheri (Stevens), has been through this course seven times. The girls see just how confident and proficient an 18-year-old can be. As for my assistant Ken (Pitchford), he's a fully accredited instructor in the Back Off! program, with 20 years' experience in martial arts."