Stand YourGround
An eight-week self-defense and wrestling fundamentals course taught by Michael Grijalba, head wrestling coach at Chabot College. Not a seminar. Not a highlight reel. Sixteen hours on the mat learning the handful of things that actually work when someone puts hands on you.
Pick the group you'd actually train in
Both groups run Monday and Wednesday, back to back on the same nights, and cover the same core material. They differ in pace, in partner matching, and in what the room is preparing for.
High School & College
Ages 14–22 · co-ed
An athletic room. Hard drilling, live positional work at controlled intensity, and the wrestling base that makes everything else in the course work — if you can control where a body goes, you can leave.
- Full-speed drilling and positional live goes
- Conditioning built into every session
- Partners matched by size, not by age
- No experience required — no wrestling background assumed
Women's Self-Defense
Adult women, all fitness levels
A different room with a different job. Scenario-driven, taught standing and from the ground, with the physical answers to the situations women actually report — grabbed from behind, cornered, pinned, walked toward a car.
- Awareness, distance and voice before contact
- Escapes from wrist, waist, hair and choke grabs
- Getting up off the ground with someone on top of you
- Repetition over intensity — you leave able to do it, not just recognize it
Michael Grijalba
Coach Grijalba runs the wrestling program at Chabot College, where his job is taking athletes with no background and making them competent in a contact sport inside a single season. That's the same problem this course solves, on a shorter clock and for a different reason.
He teaches from the position you're most likely to be in — not the one that looks best on video. Hands already on you. Not enough space. Someone bigger. The course is built around a small number of techniques drilled until they're automatic, because under adrenaline you don't rise to the occasion, you fall back to what you've repeated.
Built like a season, not a workshop
Each phase is two weeks — four sessions. Nothing new gets introduced until the last thing is repeatable under pressure. The last two weeks are spent testing what you've built, not adding to it.
Stance, Base & Distance
How to stand so you're hard to move, how to read the gap between you and someone else, and how to close or break it on purpose.
Breaking Grips
What to do the second contact happens. Wrist grabs, bear hugs from front and behind, shirt and hair grabs, and being pushed against a wall.
Off Your Back
The position everyone fears and almost nobody trains. Getting out from underneath, creating space, and standing back up facing the threat.
Pressure & Scenarios
Everything at once, with resistance, while tired and talking. Scenario work with padded partners, then a final session where you run it clean.
A short list, drilled deep
Most self-defense courses show you forty techniques in six hours. You remember none of them. This one teaches about a dozen and makes you do each one several hundred times.
Before it's physical
- Reading distance and exits in a room
- Assertive posture that ends most of it early
- Using your voice — loud, clear, on command
- Recognizing the moment to leave
Standing
- A base that doesn't get walked backward
- Wrist, lapel and hair grab releases
- Escaping a rear bear hug
- Breaking a front choke and creating space
- Underhooks and the whizzer to control a bigger person
On the ground
- Falling safely, forward and backward
- Framing so weight can't settle on you
- Bridging and hip escapes to make room
- The wrestling stand-up, to your feet and away
- What to do when both wrists are pinned
One price, sixteen sessions
Paid once, covering the full eight weeks. No monthly contract, no enrollment fee, no belt fees, nothing to cancel at the end.
$249 Early bird — first 10 spots in each group, then $249. Works out to $14.06 a session.
- 16 one-hour sessions with Coach Grijalba
- Mat, equipment and padded gear provided
- Capped at 20 — real coaching attention
- Miss a session, make it up in the other group's hour
Registration is final — all sales non-refundable. Coach pay and room booking are committed for the full eight weeks the day the group fills.
What else $249 buys around here
Bay Area rates for comparable adult instruction, as listed publicly in 2026.
| Option | Cost |
|---|---|
| Drop-in self-defense class | $15–45 each |
| Martial arts monthly membership | $110–275/mo |
| Two months of that membership | $220–550 |
| Intensive weekend women's course | $345–1,045 |
| This course — 16 hours | $225 |
Sources: Lessons.com 2026 self-defense cost guide; IMPACT Bay Area published tuition. Bay Area rates typically run 20–50% above the national figures.
Details
- Where
- Chabot College wrestling room, 25555 Hesperian Blvd, Hayward
- When
- Mondays & Wednesdays, 8 weeks. Group A 6:00–7:00 PM, Group B 7:15–8:15 PM
- Bring
- Athletic clothes without zippers or pockets, a water bottle, bare feet or wrestling shoes
- Provided
- Mats, focus pads, and padded suits for scenario weeks
- Waiver
- Agreed to at registration; a printed copy is signed at session one. Under 18 requires a parent or guardian
- Payment
- Paid in full at registration. Non-refundable — if you can't finish, we'll roll your remaining sessions into the next 8-week block
- Questions
- support@facility-pass.com
Common questions
I'm not in shape and I've never done anything like this
That describes most of the people who sign up, and it's the group Coach Grijalba teaches for a living. The women's group in particular is built around technique and leverage rather than strength or speed. There is no fitness test and nobody is watching.
Is this going to hurt?
You will be tired and you will be sore. You should not be injured. Everything is taught on mats, falls are taught in week one before anything else, and intensity is set by the coach rather than by your partner. Anyone going too hard gets corrected immediately.
Why wrestling, for self-defense?
Because most real assaults become a grappling situation within seconds — someone grabs, someone closes distance, one or both people end up on the ground. Wrestling is the sport built entirely around controlling where a body goes at close range and getting back to your feet. It is the part of self-defense most courses skip.
Can I bring a friend or my daughter?
Yes, and it helps — having a consistent partner you trust makes the drilling better. Register separately and tell us you want to be paired; we'll keep you together. Group A takes 14 and up; Group B is for adult women.
What if I miss a session?
Tell us and you can make it up in the other group's hour that week when space allows. Miss more than four and we'll roll you into the next 8-week session at no charge.
Can I get a refund?
No — registration is final. The coach's time and the wrestling room are both booked and paid for the full eight weeks the moment a group fills, so a late withdrawal costs the same whether you attend or not. What we will do is move you: if something comes up, your unused sessions roll into the next 8-week block at no charge. Tell us before you disappear and we'll make it work.
What happens after the eight weeks?
A second 8-week session starts, and returning participants get priority registration and a reduced rate. Facility Pass members also get open mat access at the facility's standard rates.
The skill you hope you never use
Eight weeks. Two nights a week. One hour at a time. You will walk out of the Chabot wrestling room knowing what to do with your hands, your feet and your voice when it matters.
Register for a group