Judo against violence against women

Juan Pablo Olivares

Johana Véliz has been practicing judo since she was 7 years old. She has two gold medals obtained at the 2013 World University Championships in Russia and 2015 in Korea. He teaches this martial art to children and young people, and for three years he has been a teacher at the judo workshop at the San Pablo Catholic University (UCSP). She is also her, an industrial engineer, graduated from said university house.

Johana is still capable of continuing to win medals and “knock down” any rival on the mat, but now, her main objective and opponent is a society that is systematically hostile and violent towards women.

Self defense as a tool for equality

With her experience in martial arts, she decided to train girls and young people, not only so that they learn the secrets of judo and become great athletes, but also so that they can defend themselves against different types of violence. Somehow, she seeks to empower them, turn them into leaders and influential people to change things.

Véliz, tells that he began to face this enemy since he suffered two attacks. The first was her at the age of 15, when some criminals assaulted her. The second, occurred 5 years later, that time, a taxi driver wanted to get past her and assault her. On that occasion, judo practically saved her life.

“It was when I was 20 years old, I remember that the taxi driver came over me. At that moment, I grabbed his hand and performed a technique on his wrist, then I gave him a well-aimed blow to the throat to make him stay still and thus I managed to escape, ”he narrates.

Since then, the desire to combat inequality and violence against women has accompanied her. Johana, she is a first degree black belt and her philosophy is teamwork, respect and helping her partner. That teaches and encourages her students from the San Pablo workshop.

college judo

During the development of the classes, the students learn foot and ground techniques, rehearse how to fall, throw the opponent and perform hand-to-hand competitions. Self defense is also an important part of his teaching.

Johana believes that both women and men should know self-defense techniques because, at the least expected moment, they could face a risk to their physical integrity. To this end, she teaches judo to young people not only as physical exercise or as a way to deal with aggression, but also so that they, especially women, have confidence in themselves.

“I think that in all colleges and universities there should be more and better sports workshops, because these are part of personal and professional development, and it is also good for health,” he said.

engineer and teacher

Véliz never thought of becoming a teacher. Giving judo classes at the university was a challenge that he does not regret, because he considers that this martial art is a tool to keep young people away from vices, even more so, in the university stage.

As a teacher, Johana considers herself sociable, charismatic and seeks to encourage her students to practice sports and lead a healthy life. The objective that she set for herself this year is to form a selection of judokas that will participate in the next university and world games.

“Sports in the university stage have a greater impact on the student; In addition, the student who satisfactorily completes the workshop automatically acquires the yellow belt”, he explained.

For Johana, judo is not only her favorite sport, it is her passion and now, with teaching, she has been taking a greater role than she imagined. For this reason, she is determined to continue teaching this martial art, which gave her great satisfaction and, above all, saved her life.