Fit for the Fight

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Caelynn Ferguson
  • 17th Training Public Affairs
Members of the Mommy Fit Camp gather around the program manager. She smiles as the member’s conversation creates a white noise inside a room with mats and punching bags lying on the ground. The women are waiting in their workout gear for the upcoming workout for that Saturday, self-defense. As the women converse eagerly, Staff Sgt. Adriene Anderson, 315th Training Squadron instructor, begins to direct their attention to the upcoming workout.

“I think I realized how much of a need for females to know self-defense,” said Anderson. “I’ve always wanted to take a class and I never really felt comfortable doing it because I didn’t know anybody.”
Anderson came to Goodfellow roughly a year ago. Permanent Change of Station means a lot of things for service members: a new place, new people and their friends are sometimes far away. Anderson decided she was going to create a program in which women, such as mothers, could create a community that worked towards their general fitness.

“I love fitness but I also needed to find friends,” said Anderson. “I wanted to build relationships.”

In August, the program hit off and eventually gained its own website for Goodfellow families. Dependents, key spouses and even enlisted female service members turned up for the program’s fitness days. In November, Anderson decided to take the program out into the San Angelo community.

“We opened up to all persons here in San Angelo,” said Anderson. “When expanding in the community we saw a growth in our numbers. We have over a hundred members now on our social media site.”

On Feb. 27, Anderson gave women the opportunity to learn skills that could save their life. The workout focused on target areas of the body to attack in a self-defense scenario such as the eyes, bridge of nose, chin, ears, throat and groin. Females could learn punches, upper body and lower body strikes, fighting postures and how to get out of being choked.

“What I have seen is a drive and initiative where she has gotten all of this together and compiled it from my understanding, all on her own,” said Mark E. Ledesma, 315th Training Squadron emerging technologies chief and trainer of Target Hardening Self-Defense classes. “She’s gotten outside sources to assist and has done an incredible job. She’s definitely been recognized for it on more than one occasion.”

“This is for all fitness levels,” said Anderson. “We put modifications in the workouts. This is for beginners all the way to expert fitness. It’s for anyone who wants to get a free workout.”

For more information, please contact Staff Sgt. Adriene Anderson at 325-654-1539.