Last week I spent two mornings inflicting pain on total strangers in a discrete room in a Hamilton back alley.

And after I was done they took turns inflicting pain on me.

But no, I haven't joined a Sado-masochist club - I have been learning the art of non-deadly force.

Taught by head bailiff and karate black belt Bob Smith, the technique could be a live-saver for his staff, three of whom joined a fellow karate enthusiast, a security guard and myself at Bermuda's first Compliance, Direction, Takedown (CDT) course (see definition in box).

Bob begins by warning us about the point of no return - where people break their attacker's limbs while defending themselves.

Despite Bermuda's liberal legal attitude to the concept of self defence Bob says: "This is a place where you don't want to be." And he only has to mention the Rodney King's name to show where this can end up.

CDT is the opposite, about subduing an attacker with the minimum amount of fuss simply by manipulating painful pressure points.

Injuries to the attacker or the defender is a sign of failure. The idea is you both walk away, only with the attacker now subdued.

Bob teaches us to negotiate with would-be assailants in the side-on "interview" stance with our hands open and up in a calming gesture.

Calming it may be, but the stance also presents the attacker with less of a target while having the hands in position to fend off blows.

First we learn to deal with the roundhouse swing by using both arms to block before reversing the attack.

We are taught the horse bite grip and learn that simply grabbing a handful of arm flesh is surprisingly painful.

Bob demonstrates how to insert digits into pressure points on the neck and under the cheek bone as well as how to apply immobilising force under the nose.

It looks innocuous enough until you experience the searing pain of having two thumbs jabbed underneath your jawbone.

Then we are paired up and I am asked to start torturing bailiff Shirley Smith, a likeable, cuddly five foot mother.

At that precise moment there is no one on earth I would less like to inflict pain on. It is like being asked to bludgeon a kitten with a hammer.

I am surprised to learn that I make a better masochist than a sadist and to motivate the less aggressive among us Bob gets us to imagine the would-be attacker is about to harm a child.

But for bailiff Frank Roberts it is not hard to imagine the reality.

He says: "On my first job a guy raised a machete at me."

Frank managed to talk the man out of it and he dropped the machete and ran but Frank realises he won't always be so lucky.

Handily we are soon learning how to counter a thrust to the stomach by darting sideways grabbing the attacker and bringing them down.

However I am not exactly nimble in dodging the imaginary knife and calculate I would have lost my life about 20 times in just the first morning, although I might just be able to thwart a particularly slow attacker with a short reach and a two-inch knife.

We quickly learn there is no end of tender places on the human body, after ruling out all the obvious ones which are out of bounds under CDT.

At first it is easy to underestimate the agony which can be caused with a deftly placed thumb and Bob is careful to teach us how to slap our thighs or the mat when we are reaching our breaking point.

Soon the room reverberates to the sound of heartfelt grunting and slapping.

Shirley has to grab the flesh on the inside of my thigh and I am gratified she can find no grip - years of football have clearly left me with legs of steel.

However my ego is quickly deflated when she has to apply a horse bite grip underneath my biceps. But first she has to locate my biceps which is no easy task and frankly we just don't have that kind of time.

Now it is my turn to reach between Shirley's thighs - but we have only just been introduced.

She laughs at my sheepishness. "Your so British," she says.

Some of the manoeuvres have a distinctly euphemistic quality. Indexing sounds like some clerical task but in reality is a sharp jab to the stomach while shin and knee insertion describe distracting, sharp blows to the legs.

We also learn the importance of a well placed knee in the junction box. I was worried this might be CDT lingo for the lunchbox but thankfully it describes the back of the knee.

But there's no point in all this pain without any gain so Bob demonstrates the art of "gift wrapping" your opponent after flooring them.

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