• Impact at Prepare, Inc.

  147 West 25th Street, Eighth Floor, 212-255-0505

  The first thing they teach you in Impact class is that it is better to walk away from a fight than to win one. So during the course’s five three-to-four-hour sessions, instructors teach you how to keep your composure while they hurl personal insults at you. But when they come at you in their padded suits, they make it crystal-clear that sometimes turning the other cheek has its limits—they encourage you to poke, kick, and, whenever possible, go hard for the groin. Though some of the teachers are trained in martial arts, the emphasis is less on style and form than on practical maneuvers that will get you out of hostile situations. Classes are single-sex (men and women tend to be attacked differently), small (no more than sixteen), and cost $495. When you’ve mastered the beginner course, you can move on to advanced topics, like how to subdue a pack of assailants.

From the 2003 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine