When Catrina and Robert Wylie were in charge of first aid at Girls Camp, a camp for young women ages 12 to 18 for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they got to know some of the burdens the girls carried.
One of these burdens was domestic violence.
“We got to know these girls quite personally, and realized after we saw some of them go on and get married and deal with things even when they were still in high school, dealing with some abuse situations, we just had decided that we really needed to do something to make people in our area aware and to help those who needed it,” Catrina said.
One of the young women the Wylies helped came back to visit them. Robert said she asked him what he would do if he did not have to worry about money.
The couple realized teaching self-defense was how they wanted to spend their time.
The Wylies then opened DPP Defense in 2020 and have been teaching people how to defend themselves since.
DPP stands for “daily, practical, personal”.
Robert said the best self defense is staying out of dangerous situations and teaches people how to notice signs of aggression.
“I do a lot of hunting as well and discovered that both animals and humans have a lot of the same body language, a lot of the same mindset,” he said. “And, when we understand what mindset they are in, we can be able to identify where they’re coming from and be able to de-escalate situations a lot quicker.”
DPP Defense is now located in areas beyond Rexburg, including Idaho Falls and Boise.
For more details or to sign up for classes, visit their website here.