It's 11:15 a.m. and retired wrestling head coach Rich Lorenzo is standing in front of 30 eager students in the Rec Hall wrestling room. The light atmosphere of the class lends itself well to the subject matter, but the serious undertones do not go unnoticed. The subject couldn't be more serious -- it is self-defense.

Exercise and Sports Activities 214 -- Personal Defense, is only one of many classes that teaches personal defense methods to University students and State College residents. The popularity of these classes is growing despite a decrease this year in the number of reported crimes.

Lt. Carmine Prestia of the State College Police Department said the number of reported crimes has decreased over the past years. But a false perception that crime is on the increase exists, and may be the reason for a general increased interest in personal defense, he said.

"It's a general trend, especially seen in the national media," Prestia said. "People are more worried about violent crime and are taking measures to defend themselves."

Lorenzo, a personal-defense instructor in the department of exercise and sport science, said the self-defense trend is probably a result of people becoming more aware that they need to be trained to protect themselves.

"This is a very important subject," he said. "People are becoming more and more aware of the fact that this is a type of training that they should have."

Amy Eisman (senior-psychology) said she took Lorenzo's class for the most basic of reasons.

"On a campus it's really important to know self-defense techniques, and I didn't know them before this class," Eisman said.

This semester's personal-defense class is almost 75 percent female -- but that doesn't seem to bother Craig Sweeney (senior-quantitative business analysis). Sweeney said self-defense is important to both men and women.

"There's situations you can get into even though you are a guy. There's parties and bars -- where guys get drunk, and the testosterone flows," Sweeney said.

Bill Gebhardt, owner and instructor at the State College Martial Arts Academy, 412 W. College Ave, said the martial arts put a heavy emphasis on control.

"A lot of it is just common sense, like if you see people getting heated temperatures at a bar, step outside for a minute," Gebhardt said.

Lorenzo said that, like the martial arts, his personal-defense class teaches both the mental and physical aspects of self-defense, with a heavy emphasis on prevention.

"We want to prevent people from getting into a situation where they don't know what to do," Lorenzo said. "But you do also have to deal with the physical aspect of self-defense."

Of course, a bad situation can't always be prevented. That is the type of situation that these students are trying to prepare for.

"We're giving them a good knowledge if they are going to use physical force as to where to direct the force," Lorenzo said. "We want to hurt the person in a way that is vicious and necessary to get away."

Corey Miller (junior-business) is one of Gebhardt's Jun Fan Gung Fu students. Jun Fan Gung Fu is the martial art that was taught by Bruce Lee and is one of the disciplines taught at the academy. Miller said he took the class to learn how to protect himself and gain discipline and focus.

"I know don't ever start anything," Miller said. "If someone comes after you, defend yourself, but don't get carried away with it."

Lorenzo said the skills he teaches his students will stay with them for the rest of their lives.

"It's like a swimming class," he said. "If we teach you how to swim, then you don't swim for 15 years, you'll still be able to swim from one side of the pool to the other."