Maryland Systema Offers Personal-Safety Workshops for Colleges and Adult Educational Organizations

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Rockville, MD — July 29, 2026 — Maryland Systema is making practical personal-safety workshops for educational organizations available to colleges, universities, adult-education programs, and other institutions throughout Maryland and the Washington, DC area.

Designed for adult students, faculty, administrators, and staff, the workshops focus on situational awareness, personal boundaries, positioning, movement, breathing, and responsible decision-making. Training emphasizes recognizing developing problems, protecting mobility, and preserving useful options rather than competition or memorizing fixed responses.

Maryland Systema can adapt each workshop to the needs of the participating organization, including program length, subjects covered, physical contact level, group size, and available training space.

Personal Safety Begins With Awareness

Self-defense does not begin only when someone strikes or grabs another person. Many difficult situations develop through smaller changes in behavior that provide useful information before physical contact occurs.

Someone may repeatedly enter another person’s space, ignore a clear boundary, block a path, conceal their hands, follow someone, or continue escalating an interaction after being asked to stop.

Workshop participants learn to pay attention to factors such as:

• Changes in posture, tone, distance, and movement
• The position and movement of another person’s hands
• Available exits and nearby obstacles
• Areas where movement can become restricted
• The presence and movement of additional people
• Their own physical reactions to increasing stress
• Opportunities to leave, seek assistance, or create distance

The purpose is not to encourage unnecessary suspicion. It is to help participants recognize when an ordinary interaction begins to change and respond while useful choices remain available.

Boundaries and Clear Communication

College campuses and other educational environments require regular interaction with classmates, coworkers, visitors, contractors, and members of the public. Most encounters are routine, but some can involve unwanted attention, intimidation, harassment, or escalating behavior.

Maryland Systema workshops can include exercises that allow participants to practice setting clear boundaries while continuing to pay attention to distance and position.

A boundary does not require a lengthy explanation. In some situations, a direct statement combined with movement toward an exit, other people, or a safer location provides more useful options than remaining in place and continuing an argument.

Programs can also discuss when concerns should be reported to campus security, administrators, supervisors, law enforcement, or emergency services.

Movement and Positioning Create More Options

Where you stand can affect how much time and space you have to respond.

Participants learn how small changes in position can improve their view, protect their balance, and preserve access to an exit. Training emphasizes moving the whole body rather than trying to solve every physical problem with the hands or upper-body strength.

Workshop exercises can address:

• Managing distance
• Moving away from direct pressure
• Avoiding becoming trapped against walls, corners, furniture, or other obstacles
• Maintaining balance while being pushed or pulled
• Protecting personal space without unnecessary escalation
• Positioning yourself when assisting another person
• Moving toward populated or more visible areas

The movements do not need to be dramatic. Moving early and preserving space can provide more useful choices than waiting until movement has already become restricted.

Responding When Physical Contact Occurs

Depending on the goals of the organization, workshops can introduce controlled responses to common forms of unwanted physical contact, including pushing, pulling, wrist grabs, clothing grabs, crowding, and attempts at restraint.

Participants learn to keep breathing, protect their balance, recognize the direction of pressure, and identify what movement remains available. Instead of concentrating only on the point where someone is holding or pushing them, they learn to reposition the body and look for opportunities to create space.

Physical exercises begin slowly. Speed, resistance, and complexity increase only when participants demonstrate sufficient control and understanding.

The purpose is not to turn the workshop into a test of strength or toughness. Partner work allows participants to experience weight, resistance, timing, and physical pressure while observing how stress affects breathing, posture, movement, and decision-making.

Using Breathing to Manage Physical Stress

Stress can quickly change the way a person breathes and moves. People may hold their breath, become rigid, focus too narrowly on one problem, or use more physical effort than necessary.

Maryland Systema uses breathing as a practical part of movement and partner training.

Participants can practice breathing while walking, changing position, working from the ground, becoming physically tired, or responding to controlled partner pressure. The purpose is to recognize physical stress reactions sooner and reduce unnecessary tension that interferes with movement.

Breathing does not eliminate danger or guarantee calm behavior during an emergency. It provides another tool for managing effort, restoring movement, and maintaining attention when pressure increases.

Programs Adapted to Adult Educational Groups

Maryland Systema can adapt personal-safety workshops for a range of adult audiences, including:

• College and university students
• Faculty and administrative staff
• Resident assistants and student leaders
• Continuing-education participants
• Campus organizations
• Health and fitness programs
• Workplace professional-development groups
• Community organizations serving adults

Programs can be offered as introductory workshops, multi-part courses, or focused private instruction. Content and physical contact levels can be adjusted based on the organization’s goals, available space, participant experience, and group size.

Maryland Systema does not currently provide classes or programs for participants under 18.

A Realistic Approach to Personal Safety

No self-defense workshop can guarantee personal safety or provide one response that works in every situation. Real encounters involve changing distance, resistance, surroundings, physical abilities, and incomplete information.

Maryland Systema teaches participants to recognize developing problems sooner, protect their ability to move, seek help when appropriate, and use physical action only when circumstances require it.

“Personal safety is not only about learning what to do after someone attacks,” said Jim Eglin, founder and Chief Instructor of Maryland Systema. “It also involves recognizing changes sooner, protecting your space, maintaining access to an exit, and making clear decisions before your options become limited.”

The workshops give educational organizations another way to address personal safety through practical exercises rather than relying only on classroom discussion. Participants have opportunities to work with awareness, boundaries, movement, breathing, and controlled physical pressure while considering how those skills apply to situations they may encounter on campus, at work, while commuting, or in other everyday environments.

About Maryland Systema

Maryland Systema provides practical adult self-defense training based on awareness, breathing, movement, balance, controlled contact, and responsible decision-making.

Founder and Chief Instructor Jim Eglin began training in Systema in 2013 and earned his Full Systema Instructor Certification in 2019 under Vladimir Vasiliev, Head Instructor at Systema Headquarters in Toronto. He renewed his certification in 2022 and 2024.

His broader training includes more than five years of Krav Maga through Krav Maga Worldwide, Krav Maga Global, and Krav OZ. He has also trained in Judo, Knight Jiu-Jitsu®, and Boxing.

Maryland Systema offers regular adult group classes in Rockville and Takoma Park, Maryland. Private lessons, workshops, and specialized training are available throughout the Washington, DC area.

Organizations interested in personal-safety workshops for educational organizations can work with Maryland Systema to develop adult programs based on their group size, goals, available space, and preferred level of physical participation.

For information about arranging a workshop, visit marylandsystema.com or contact:

Media Contact

Jim Eglin
Founder and Chief Instructor
Maryland Systema
301-326-9146
jim@marylandsystema.com