Attack on Tampa woman inspires her gym to offer free self-defense classes

CARROLLWOOD — An attack on a young woman at her apartment complex gym has sparked a statewide movement by YouFit Gyms to offer free self-defense classes.

During the week of March 20, YouFit Gyms around Florida will offer a complimentary self-defense class as a collaboration with Nashali Alma, a 24-year-old Tampa resident who survived an attack while working out at her apartment gym. The Carrollwood YouFit Gym, 14350 N. Dale Mabry Highway, Tampa, will have a class hosted by Krav Maga South Tampa on March 21 and 23.

The public can find more classes by visiting youfit.com/events.

“Nashali has been a longtime member here at YouFit, and since we had a relationship with her, it hit us even harder,” said Nathalia Ferreira, social media manager and content creator for YouFit Gyms.

She continued, “It’s one of our own and it’s devastating for anyone to see. We wanted to ask the question, what can we do as an aftermath to make an impact alongside you? (Alma) has her Never Give Up! campaign, and she’s mentioned that her and her friends want to take self-defense classes so they know what to do. We said, what if we do this for the community? What turned out to be, ‘let’s do it for the Tampa community’ turned into, ‘let’s do this companywide.’”

Public response to these free self-defense classes has been overwhelming, according to Ferreira. With classes filling up quickly, Ferreira said YouFit Gyms is interested in hosting additional classes. You don’t have to be a member of YouFit Gyms to attend a class.

Jason Bleistein, owner of Krav Maga South Tampa, offered a preview of the self-defense class to the media on March 14. The class was all women. Bleistein taught some techniques involving how to use the palm, forearm, and knee as methods of defense.

“If you saw what happened, she had her hands up, she had the opportunity to strike him, but she hit him in the shoulder because she panicked,” Bleistein said. “She just wanted to get out of there, and that’s what most people think, ‘I want to get out of here.’ She was trying to convince him not to do it but that was the time when she should have busted him in the face and then gotten out of there.”

Alma was attacked on Jan. 22 at the Inwood Park Apartment on West Waters Avenue. Security cameras recorded the incident and helped her identify 25-year-old Xavier Thomas-Jones to the police. Thomas-Jones, who lived at the complex, was caught the next day.

It was 10:40 p.m. when Alma was working out that fateful night. She opened the gym door to a stranger, whom she said she believed wanted to work out but had forgotten his key fob. She also said she had recognized him as a resident of the complex.

“If I forgot my key fob, I would have wanted someone to let me in,” Alma said. “I didn’t think much into it. I went back to my workout and the next thing you know, that’s when everything happened.

“At first, I was a little confused as to what was going on,” she added. “There wasn’t a single word exchanged, he came up to me and he tried to grab my waist. That’s when I pushed him and said, ‘Bro, what are you doing? Get off of me.’”

He began chasing her around the gym and Alma recalled how difficult it was to try and unlock her phone to call 9-1-1. She was unsuccessful in that attempt and called the police after she escaped.

Deputies said Thomas-Jones told her he didn’t want her to call the police, and that’s when the one-on-one interaction picked up. Alma said she knew at that moment she had to fight him, and instead of being fearful, decided she had to defend herself.

“After watching the video of what happened, I realized having Siri call 9-1-1 can make a difference when fighting someone off,” Alma said. “I had gotten my phone unlocked and was trying to click the phone app to open it while he’s trying to grab my phone. I’m trying to watch him climb on me, trying to watch him grab my arm to grab my phone, so I was trying to do three things at once. I got to the point where I couldn’t call anymore, so I started fighting him.”

The event has inspired Alma, a nursing student at Rasmussen University, to campaign for the problems caused by sexual assault. Her goal is to organize rallies, fundraisers, and events, push for legislation that will call for much harsher punishments on criminals, and make self-defense and readiness for women something that is as popular as general fitness and regular gym memberships.

“It’s not the attack that’s going to define her, but what she’s doing with it,” Ferreira said.

Alma added, “I never actually learned self-defense. When it happened, it was me reacting like a fight-or-flight response. After that, that’s when I realized taking self-defense classes would help a lot more and it would help a lot of women realize they’re stronger than they think they are.”

To learn more about Alma’s campaign, visit www.gofundme.com/f/zpna8-womens-empowerment-movement.