I got this thread idea from the armlock posts. If “YOU” were to give a women’s self defense seminar. Lets say a one day 8 hour event with a mix of females from different backgrounds and ages.
What would you speak about and impart to these women to the best of your ability?
That chances are, no matter what they know, they still are not going to beat a man.
Kick him in the nuts, and run. Then let me know.
Least thats what I tell my female to do…
Bite, kick, take off your top, run.
Gender physical differences and training ideas aside for a second.
Don’t you think that might bring on a defeatist attitude?
I’ve been at a 2 hour seminar my Sifu gave once. Here’s some of things he did.
1: Situational awareness—We did drills where the women had to yell at us if we approached too close while trying to talk to them. Some of the women had a hard time telling us to get away from them.
2: Aggression Training—We did drills where they had to hit a dummy hard in the eyes and then run. We stood still and made them attack the dummy, rather than waiting for them to be attacked and then react.
3: Blind Training—They laid on the ground, and we got on top of them and covered their face with a pillow. At the same time, we held a dummy head within arm’s reach. They were taught to cup their fingers around the dummies ears, and then jab their thumbs into the attacker’s eyes. A lot of the women freaked when the pillow went over their head.
4: Basic Chin Na. We went over some basic escape and counters from chokes and grabs, and made them practice against heavier, resisting opponents.
Have them practice these tried and true remedies:
Have her carry an engagement ring and say, “Not until you commit to me.”
Have her carry a picture of her family and her date book and say, “So, when are you available to meet my parents?”
Good thread, Black Jack.
A woman CAN beat a male - BADLY.
Were that not the case, my student (herself a violent crime survivor) would not’ve left a powerful would-be kidnapper incapacitated on the sidewalk. He was hospitalized for at least two weeks before being set to jail.
I don’t know if I’d do eight hours all at once. , as that’s a very long time with a great deal of information. I might split it into about 8 sessions of one hour or 4 sessions of 2 hours (if only to break up the learning patterns).
In general, I’d focus on basic physical maneuvers. Since the goal is to be able to respond to any attack anytime anywhere in any setting, having strong fundamentals is key. This goes beyond merely punching and kicking - it includes escapes, grappling, submissions, and even how to do fatalities. I’m a traditional Chinese kung fu teacher, so I’d probably tie the knowledge in with any one of the short sets that I teach in my school.
Awareness of common scenarios is very important. Knowing the mentality of who you’re fighting - be it male or female - is also important. Weapons - there are “weapons” all over the place. All of these need to be addressed at some point in one’s training.
Basically, it comes down to applying the lessons of a martial art to real life scenarios.
Apologies, that was maybe a little of an over generalization.
But, you have to agree, very few women can take out a man attacking them, and you dont want them leaving with the misconception and false sense of security that they can take out a 250 lb gorrilla of a man who wants to rape/kidnap them.
And robinf, parents love me.
But that engagement ring, no @ss till we’re married thing could be a bit of a clencher…
basic awareness
target areas to look for
why you shouldn’t try to rely on a shot to the nads
grappling
effective use of the elbows, knees and palms
pros and cons of various self defense tools, like pepper spray (or foam), the kubotan, etc.
Yet my student (who was 95 lbs) took out a guy who was 6’5" and about 300 pounds!
Those who really train LOSE that sense of “false security”. When you get accustomed to training against huge multiple opponents, you realize how easy it is to get hurt no matter how skilled you are.
If anything, training makes you MORE vigilant of what’s going on around you. That in itself can save you, as it did this same student who was approached in a parking lot by two young men trying to corner her.
She didn’t have to resolve to violence that time, but her “b1tchwalk” and spacing stopped them from moving in on her. So did the key in her hand, which she held like a dagger.
Self defense for women (or anyone for that matter) seminars that focus on techniques and ‘how to’ actually do more harm than good.
To defend yourself, you have to know when to strike, how to strike, and be able to generate sufficient power to make the strike do damage. You also have to know when to run.
All of these things are developed in much more time than a one time 8 hour class.
If this is all you do, you are likely teaching a group of people to have a false sense of security…and that leads to making stupid mistakes.
If, on the other hand, you deal with the ideas involved…it may be worthwhile.
For example:
Question:
Should I pursue something that will enable me to actually defend myself physically?
Answer with a question:
How do you feel about the sight of blood - YOURS. you will see it and you WILL have to deal with that and the repercussions of doing bodily harm to another person…and that other person WILL want to do serious bodily harm to you.
If the student is uncomfortable with any part of that answer, they should NEVER try to do the defense route. They will fail and it will make things worse.
Deny privacy:
Stressing how important it is NOT to be caught alone with no escape. Things from not being in stairwells, getting off elevators if someone gets on and they make you uncomfortable, etc…
Why not to Yell HELP…but FIRE instead:
People ignore calls for help…but everyone reacts to FIRE.
Why the guy in front of you is not your only worry…
Not every mugger works alone and if your approach in awareness is to focus on the one - you will miss the many.
Be aware…
Most important idea.
THINK BEFORE…it saves reacting blindly.
Have an out…
Etc…
The best lessons do not involve anything other than the mind…
And then…if they want a more active response, you can introduce them to the idea that such training does not happen in a few hours…but it IS possible for everyone to do…provided they can deal with the emotional aspect…their blood, fear, hurting another person, etc…
LOL!!, this is the second topic that spun off comments I made in another thread!! (In the same week no less )
To answer the question, I have no idea what I would teach.
The “Royal Dragon school of Mind and Body” is sort of like a sub contractor buisness. I run martial programs or Tai Chi for health classes for park dists, Kid’s Kung Fu programs for elementary school etc… When I sit down, and interview a client, and they ask “What can I do for them”, I always ask “What do you need?” as I can offere programs to fit a variety of needs, and customise my standard programs to fit even more. Inevitably, there are aways two requests, Some sort of Tae Bo, or Women’s Self defese classes. I refuse to teach both.
Why you ask? Because the Tae Bo stuff no one wants to pay attention to doing the moves right, and I see too much risk of hyper extensions and other such related injuries. If you take the time to really teach them right, they quit because they just want to bounce around and pretend they are “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”. I have offred the class, but only on the prerequisite that they complete the first Level of my basic Kung fu system (Minus the form). No one was willing to do it then.
As for Women’s self defense, I KNOW in order to make it work, comercially, I’d have to be instilling a level of false confidance. I’d be teaching a fantasy. If I had a school, I’d consider it, but ONLY as an intro to the regular Kung Fu clasess. I wouldn’t even charge for it (Well, maybe like $5 to cover insurance costs and such). The reason is that in order for someone to REALLY be able to defend themselves, they must be going through the full training program. It takes hours of boring drills, sweat and serious effort to be able to sucessuly defend yourself to any sort of reliable degree. It’s not possible to do anything more than hope to stimulate an intrest in the arts in a 2 hour seminar, or a series of 1 hour classes for 6 weeks. At least, they will learn a few things, that they don’t possibly hope to appy under any real pressure, but still, they won’t be able to apply any of it, except the grossest of moves.
It does nothing to prepare them for an encounter, unless that encounter happens within a few days, or maybe a week or two of the last class. If they really want to accomplish something worth wile, the best course is to follow the Kung Fu program from step one, to at least the completion of the 3rd level (That’s when I do the free sparring). Anything short of that is pointless except as a marketing tool for me.
I would tailor mine as a workplace to start their learning.
I would have a booth setup at the seminar with information from community education centers, local and national victim assistance groups, local firearm training facilities, police department offered civilan courses, first rate martial art/self defense schools.
On this line of thinking I would also have available a list of books on personal safety, crime prevention and stalking easily purchased from Amazon that would include such titles as:
The Truth About Self Defense-Massad Ayoob
Gift of Fear- Gavin de Becker
The Women, The Plan, The Gun- Gila May Hayes
Her Witts About Her- Denise Caignon
I would also have a small display table which showcases a few self defense items first hand so they can get a look at what kind of tools are offered in the field. Aerosol Spray, Taser, Kubotan, Folder, Firearm (rubber training model), etc.
The seminar would focus on prevention, evasion and assertion skills backed by actuarial data on crime followed by simple, effective and easy to remeber strikes and their vulnerable target areas done both standing up and on the ground, after some practice hitting on the target pads, it would then go on to full contact adrenal stress scenrios, using the mugger suit, so the women could experiance the psychological/physical effects of woofing and an attacks following adrenaline dump.
Next would be a general overview on weapons and their importance. Looking at both pro and con. With a class focus on a kubotan/yawara style fist stick which if possible with funds would be provided to each class member with purchase of the seminar. Basic striking techniques would be shown with the kubotan, carrying principles, weapon retention.
(I am a huge fan of fist sticks)
Then followed by a section on improvised weapon principles, keys, pens, hairspray, rattail combs, credit card, etc, more in the vain of creative awakening than physical training.
This is a rough draft of course-
For those that are interested my strikes would include some ww2 style methods-
Fouling Tactics like screaming in the ear, set-positions, etc.
Just thoughts
I would say that Black Jack’s #4 suggestion is pretty close to the mark on offering something of real value.
The biggest problem I see with many workshops of this nature (along with most of the answers on this thread) is the perpetuation of common myths associated with these issues.
I would suggest anyone interested in specifically teaching women’s self-protection go out and actually educate themselves on the issues involved. Most domestic violence shelters or victim advocacy agencies offer free volunteer training for the asking.
Most of the answers on this thread would only really apply to what is termed “stranger assaults”. According to the Department of Justice more than 80% of all known sexual assaults against women are perpetrated by someone the victim already has an established relationship with (ie. family member, co-worker, aquaintance, romantic partner, etc.). All the “awareness” coaching about avoiding dark places and carrying your keys in your hands when you go out to your car only addresses a very small factor in the whole equation.
Effective women’s self-protection training should begin and end with offering tools on how they can manage interpersonal communication with men, more specifically how they can recognize and acknowledge abusive personality traits. If they can spot when men are attempting to manipulate them into compromising positions they can stop the assault before it ever fully develops. With that principle in mind, most of the physical training really becomes an empowering device that supports the psychological training - rather than the end-all-be-all of the program.
Perpetrators go through a great deal of planning and set-up in order to get what they want, which means there are plenty of warning signs to be seen if only they are acknowledged for what they are. Gavin DeBecker’s work is the best primer on this subject. After reading it you should sit down with a licensed family therapist who specialized in treating sex assault trauma, or sit in on victim’s support group sessions.
One thing that is very important to realize when conducting courses of this nature is that in any group of women particpating in a “self-defense” class will statistically have around a full 25% that have experienced some form of assault in the past. Your material needs to address their healing process and offer solutions for them to process their trauma. It’s a big responsibility. I have had students dip into full-blown flash backs in the middle of classes before where they were re-living the assault. You have to be prepared for things like that.
“As for Women’s self defense, I KNOW in order to make it work, comercially, I’d have to be instilling a level of false confidance. I’d be teaching a fantasy.”
I disagree. With the proper amount of research and understanding you can arm your course participants with an array of effective tools that address reality rather than myths.
Two skills…
Since the majority of assaults happen at the hands of acquaintances (see Watchman’s great post), awareness and assertiveness training is a must. Use of these skills can prevent many assaults and can be taught in just a few hours. After that, a full course of relationship skills should be taught. Unfortunately, many people aren’t really interested in this.
Against a physical attack, I believe knife skills are a woman’s best bet. A woman who carries and knows how to use a small tactical folder is a match for just about any man, or even a group of men. One or two folders can be carried at almost all times, are easily concealed, are easy to deploy, and can be taught in a relatively short time. A four hour class can effectively teach how to deploy and use the blade, how to retain it, when to use it to de-escalate a situation, and how to bring it into play without the attacker being aware.
People ignore calls for help…but everyone reacts to FIRE.
That sounds cute but I don’t think it’s true. Is that your own personal experience?
Watchman- thanks for the really good post. My idea for this topic was not really that I would run one but to just get people here to start playing around with the what-if and what their what-if would be.
Knifefighter- Good post. Tactical folders are a great self defense tool. My lady actually carries a tactical spyderco on here person. To her its not about intricate kali blade methodology but distraction techniques. Someone from behind grabs her around the throat lets say in her car and she can hopefully deploy the folder and cut down his forearm to help facilitate her escape.
Imagine how most people react to paper cuts. Kinda a enlarged concept.
That and their are other reasons to carry a knife on one’s person. Lets say you are in a car wreck and your seatbelt is jammed, you need to get out fast, using your knife you can cut through the caught up seat-belt.
“As for Women’s self defense, I KNOW in order to make it work, comercially, I’d have to be instilling a level of false confidance. I’d be teaching a fantasy.”
I disagree. With the proper amount of research and understanding you can arm your course participants with an array of effective tools that address reality rather than myths.
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See, here’s my problem with that, no matter WHAT you teach them, no matter how good it is, without “On Going” reinforcement, they won’t retain anything usefull under fire. Learning is done through repetiton. You can’t just expose women to a bunch of skills, work them for a few hours, and expect those skills to be functional during a crunch.
I like what Black Jack said, and I like the idea of going to women’s shelters and psycologists to really learn what goes on during the most comon assaults. That being said, “IF” I were to do it, I would have to make it a perminant, On Going course that teaches, developes and maintains the skills they are learning, not just a 6 week course or 6 hour seminar that barely introduces them to skills they have no prayer of useing in such a short time.
Black Jack,
I didn’t mean to seem like I was singling you out with my post - I used the singular terms to refer to anyone who happened to be reading.
After that, a full course of relationship skills should be taught. Unfortunately, many people aren’t really interested in this.
Knifefighter is right on about the relationship management aspect of women’s self-protection.
I agree that many people aren’t generally interested in that to begin with, however if you use other material as a primer that dramatically demonstrates how important learning to manage relationships and interpersonal communication is you’d be surprised to see how many folks work to aquire those skills.
One way that I have found is in using actual transcripts from sex offender treatment programs that dramatically show how the perps use their manipulative behavior and abusive tactics to maneuver their victims into the assault. Once you point it out, women start to see where they deal with similar behavior in a number of ways in their daily lives.
If you can convince folks that their daily lives will improve as a result of applying what you are teaching, they are more apt to work on retaining it and improving on it…hopefully.
RD,
We can go ‘round-n’-'round on this for a while. I would agree that, comparitively speaking, an on-going course is more “effective” in the long run. However, if this on-going course is solely physical in nature it doesn’t really address the specific issues that I feel are much more important. In that case an ongoing course is worthless.
With the right foundation and outlook, you would be amazed at what you can accomplish for people in a short amount of time - and what they are able to retain.
You can’t just expose women to a bunch of skills, work them for a few hours, and expect those skills to be functional during a crunch.
A lot of that depends on how you’re approaching the workshop format, the skills you’re teaching, and what you are using to emphasize them with.