Miley Cyrus is taking up kickboxing so that she can protect herself in case she ever runs into trouble with a purse snatcher, car-jacker, or an agressive fan with a bad case of B.O. when she’s away from the watchful eye of dad Billy Ray or one of her hired handlers.

Miley gushed to pals that the martials art’s a real kick, and also a great stress-buster, The National Enquirer resident snitch Mike Walker wrote in his this week.