Women's Self Defense

[cathal]

Hey all,

Looks like I'm going to be teaching a women's self defense class. As I have not done this before I'd certainly appreciate input and ideas

[joesteph]

When I took a course called Street Survival, the instructor being a police officer with a dan ranking in Isshinryu, it was for adult men and women.

The first hour was how to prevent being caught in a self-defense situation, and the second hour was the fighting applications.

When we were kicking the heavy bag, the men went first, and we were encouraged to kiai when were striking, the explanation being to expel the air to add to the power of the kick.

When the women were about to take their turn, the instructor said that they had an option. They could kiai just as the men did, for the same effect, or they could yell "No!" instead. Every single woman who kicked away at that heavy bag blasted out a "No!"

[tallgeese]

Some thoughts from having done this a few times:

-Deal with awareness and mental preparedness more than anything. They should really be focused on avoidance strategies.

-Work off the platform of fighting to escape. This is much easier for most average people to make the jump to.

-Deal up front with the fact that there is no "minimal" response for most of these situations. Teach them to accept and expect the physical outcomes of the responses you're giving them.

-Keep it to things that can be quickly learned and deployed and even more easily retained. Eye gouges, groin strikes are the core. Fast furious and repetitious with lots of different drills for each.

-Stay away from punches and deal with forearms and elbows more. Stay away from any tactic that involves kicking. This lets you keep them moving and focused on stances. It's a sd class, they need feet down and movement to run and circle away.

-Utilize some simple escapes from realistic grabs. Work integration of strikes and talk about the absolute necessity of using both together.

-Build the learning progression so you go from drills, to limited engagement work, to a full armored opponent. Nothing instills confidence like maiming a guy in High Gear armor.

-Touch on ground avoidance. It's really a subject that needs it's own course but you should talk about some basics. They should be able to do these against armored guy as well.

-All contact drills should contain verbal components, from mitts to armor. This must become automatic. Not kiai's and such, but forms of no, back, off, help, ect.

-Train in escape with each encounter they have with armored guy. Each group should always have an exit they are looking for and trying to get there. This is the only form of "sparring" you'll do. It's limited engagement on the part of the attacker, but full on and realistic in outcome for the trainee.

-If you're going to do weapons, stay away from the gimic stuff of keys and key chains and such. Pepper spray is your friend. Work on access and deployment. Get a trainer unit if you can. Hitting with a flashlight and such would be ok. Anything else is outside the scope of the class.

-Try to train outside for a day. In a car, near a car, ATM. Get it as real as you can.

This is just some stuff I've used or built classes around over the years. Hope it helps.

[Kruczek]

When I helped teach a women's only self defense class, I remember the one time these older women were making sound effects when they'd do the moves and just being goofy. DO NOT shut them down on stuff like this. The more they enjoy it the more they will remember it.

My advice.

[cathal]

Fantastic advice, thank you!

[JusticeZero]

Teach about fringe areas and how criminals identify targets. Teach about how to recognize warning behaviors, and teach that once things go sour, get away, don't try to 'teach them a lesson' or anything of the sort, just break and go.

[Tiger1962]

I've taken a womens only self defense class and what I would recommend is to first and foremost keep it real. My other recommendations are below some of which might have already been mentioned by others.

Secondly, advise crucial strikepoints where one can immediately disable the attacker (eyes, groin, etc.)

How to use everyday objects as weapons of self defense (pen, pencil, etc. objects in purse that one could carry or conceal in hand.

Emphasize being vocal so others around can hear if one is being attacked.

Always to be walking down the street in an alert and aware of one's surroundings state...not to be in a "daydream" type manner.

Those are just a few that I remember.

[cathal]

Thank you

.

[Tiger1962]

Sure