Originally a teacher of Judo martial arts at the Sacramento Judo Club, Midge Marino has made it her ultimate goal to raise awareness of self-defense with women of all different ages in the Sacramento area.

Born May 23, 1938, and raised on a farm in Vacaville, she loved her horses and growing up in a relatively small town. Marino realized her “life’s work” her senior year of high school.

“The bus driver asked a group of us young women if we wanted to take a Judo class. He planned to make a boy club in Vacaville since he heard about the guys in the Air Force that had been doing Judo tournaments in Japan,” Marino said. “He decided he wanted to ask the women to do it, which was unusual for that time.”

The organization was known as Hoka Udaja Kaiya, which is a Northern California association of Judo. Marino said a lot of women in the Bay Area were practicing Judo, so the organization formed a women’s section.

But growing up in the 50s, women had stereotypical limitations as to what they could and could not do.

“Women weren’t allowed to do that (Judo) so we developed something called Kata contests which is a form of Judo,” she said. “Kata goes through all these different things in slow motion.”

In 1968, the San Juan Judo Club flew her out to Japan to learn all that she could from Judo masters; since then she has been to Japan an astonishing eight times.

Marino recalled a time in high school when she had to psychically defend herself against a past boyfriend.

“I was breaking up with my boyfriend and he got so mad at me he started to pull my hair,” she said. “I managed to yell and scream and maneuver my way out of his grasp? I chased him out of his car into the fields.”

Since this violent experience, Marino fears no man and has made it her life mission to make other women fearless too.

She continued to practice Judo and increasingly became more involved with the art that she began teaching at the San Juan Judo Club as well as the Sacramento Judo Club.

But in the 1980s, Marino stopped teaching Judo mainly because her students were switching to Karate, she said.

Marino had been teaching self-defense at Sacramento State for 38 years when the women studies department contacted her and asked her if she would teach self-defense classes, “I’d love to,” she said.

So many women were interested in learning how to defend themselves that at one point Marino was teaching seven classes a semester. “That was overwhelming,” she said.

At 70, Marino is very aware of her strength and ability to kick butt.

“I can throw a man 230 pounds over my shoulder in a second just like that,” she said.

The passion she shares for teaching self-defense is quite apparent; when she talks about all the women she has helped, her eyes beam with intensity.

“Self defense is my life’s work; I think teaching self-defense has made me who I am,” Marino said.

Marino said that over the years she has had to change the way she teaches self-defense to keep up with different women she teaches.

“My classes consist of three steps: psychological preparation, awareness and prevention, and finally, psychical techniques,” she said.

Using all of the steps together simultaneously makes a woman fully prepared when faced with an attacker, she said. Her main goal is to teach women to not have to resort to violence but to be fully aware.

Marino said that the important thing women need to remember is that violence should always be a last resort. That is why she teaches things like awareness and prevention in her classes as well as self-defense.

Rita Maningo, past student and longtime friend, recalled Marino’s teaching skills.

“She is a great instructor. She makes us very aware and sometimes we get carried away,” she said. “She gave me a lot of tips that I always carry in the back of my head.”

Jill Ostrom, former student, said that Marino teaches classes for the most unsuspecting of people.

For instance, Ostrom is a real estate agent: “She taught me ways to be aware at all times when I show strange people homes,” she said.

Ostrom, who is also her cousin, said “she does classes for children, she even did a class just for me, for real estate agents.”

She recalled a time when a man was following her down the street at night, practicing all that Marino had taught her.

“I turned around and made eye contact with him and let him know I wasn’t afraid, and he walked away,” she said. “Sometimes that’s all it takes.”

Sarah Berg, senior communication studies major, who is also a current student in Marino’s 1 p.m. class of 35 in Solano Hall, said she is not only a great teacher but also someone who can definitely hold her own.

“The class is great because it’s hands-on, but at the same time good because she talks about emotions,” she said. “She’s confident in her ability to attack a man.”

Ricco Ozarki, former student and lawyer said Marino’s class wasn’t like anything she’s ever taken before.

“It wasn’t just physical, it was mental as well and I really liked it,” Ozarki said. “She talked about gender socialization and how these problems were created, so it was very interesting for me to experience.”

Amber Wertman can be reached at [email protected]