How would you structure a women's self-defense course?

Hi hafer34,

I co-teach a women's self-defense with two other people. We've broken it down as follows:

Section 1: Security Awareness

I teach that avoidance as the most effective tool for self-defense.
for our course this includes:

A. 4 Risk Management Strategies
B. Assessing Personal Risks
C. The Anatomy of an Attack
D. Prevention Guidelines


Section 2: Defensive Tactics

Taught by my MA Instructor.

He introduces the students to:

A. Verbalization
B. Evasion
C. Blocking
D. Striking

Section 3: Relaxation

Taught by a Yoga Instructor

She covers

A. Stretching
B. Cardiovascular Health
C. Isometric Resistance
D. Relaxation Techniques

The course is pretty flexible in that it can be done in as little as four hours and in as much as eight hours.

___________________________
SecurityAdvisor

 

Great thread. Just my personal experience. I have tried a variety of self-defense programs and methods such as Tony Blauer, CDT, RMCAT/FAST, and played with the Macho Redman suit. They all have their strong points, but for the average, non martial arts oriented person, I found the RMCAT/FAST Defense extremely effective. After teaching self-defense for over 15 years, I switched to the FAST training methology. It is the first time that I have had women call me back saying that they actually used it and it worked. I liked the Tony Blauer program, but the suit cannot take a full contact hit from a well trained participant.

Mike

 

What she said. Getting (most of) the women to HIT someone can be the most frustrating single thing I've ever tried to do. true story = a woman mid 40's comes to our school and starts silat. Being the school BUT (big ugly thug) she gets to practice on me. She weighs maybe 110 comes to my shoulder. EVERY time she "punched" at me she stopped and asked if she hurt me - I'm not sure it would have kiled a fly. This went on for weeks and weeks. Just before Thanksgiving doing the same drill (I punch she parrys, strikes and throws) she managed to actually hit me sticking her finger in my eye, drag me down, and get ready to start again without a bit of concern. That was the happiest day I had all year in class.

This is so important. My margin for error is MUCH larger than the vast majority of women. Thus, IMO, the women need to be taught how to maximize how they hit.

I have 2 daughters, 1 granddaughter, and 1 wife. Forgive me if I get a bit cranky about women's self defense.

 

Even if the first shot is an sucker punch groin shot don't count on it putting someone down. IMO, it's vastly overrated. A finger in the eye up to the middle knuckle OTOH is reported to work rather well (we have a max securtiy guard who works the cell extraction unit in our school).

 

That's kinda the idea of the suit. I can take the punishment. But the person inside of it get's punished as well. Personally, I dig that. I think it's important in a sparring fight scenario to understand what hurts and what doesn't. The other plus side is that the person executing the technique against some one in the igh gear suit alos gets to understand if the technique would have effect or not.

That's just my 2 cents,

- Matt

 

concealed weapons? there is no end to the usefulness of an iridium nibbed fountain pen

 

I cringed when I saw the title of this thread and thought to myself "Oh crap, here we go again!"

But upon reading it (especailly the coments by aikijudo) I was pleasantly surprised by the enlightened answers!

I just hope more people can take the advice given and actually ask the women what they think they need. Most of the time (sadly) men try to teach women to defend themselves as a man would do. And through no fault of their own they can never understand what it feels like to be a woman in a threatening situation.

The only true advice you can offer in this situation is to try and remain calm (!!) and remember it is better to try something and get hurt than not try anything and die!

No one deserves to be a victim whether it is male or female.

 

I definetely agree with Matt. Getting hit in the nuts HURTS, yes, but it's usually not debilitating. A woman should use techniques that break a limb or put him to sleep.

 

What about a hit, grab and twist to the nuts? We were told to go for this as an option, if u grab, twist, crush and yank on them surely this is a little more painful?

 

Surely it is painful and hurts a compliant, nonresisting person very much.

BUT even assuming that he even lets you touch his groin (men have a natural protective instinct for that) AND he's not wearing thick pants it's still not debilitating. That is, it doesn't put him out of the fight.

A pain based technique may or may not disable your opponent. It is, however, practically physically impossible for a man to continue fighting if he has a broken limb, and certainly if he's gone to sleep.

 

I like that!!! Now you're thinking like a woman!! LOL!!

That's the type of thing I generally teach as a last ditch attempt given that you've got to be close to the attacker to do it and ideally you want to be as far away as possible!!

The other thing to remember in this day and age is if you are going to bite someone, do it through clothing. The last thing you need is to get away from the attacker to find out a month later you've caught something horrible like Hep B or worse!