Women's Self Defense

[bushido_man96]

You need to not be concerned with winning. You need to concern yourself with escaping and surviving. They are not the same thing. That is what I would have you focus on.

[sensei8]

How could I possibly win a fight against someone bigger and stronger than me?

Because you're a MAist!! In time, you'll not even ask this of yourself. You'll be amazed, and a bit angry, with yourself for having to have asked this. It's normal. What you're asking is asked by student of the MA from time to time, mostly when they're beginners.

What's your level of experience? What style of the MA?

Train hard!!

[tallgeese]

How could I possibly win a fight against someone bigger and stronger than me?

I will agree with a lot of the thoughts here. First up, train hard is right. And train effectively and train a long time. That's gonna go a long way. Make sure that you're training in something that works well for you and your mindset.

On mindset, as someone else said about the fight in the dog, train as if you're life depends on it. It does. How you mentally prepare will dramatically effect your physical capabilities in a fight.

Now for the bad news....

Fighting someone bigger and larger (and most often in the case of male v. female violence- predatory) is a losing proposition. I don't buy into the the "size doesn't matter" line of thought. Attributes matter. Always.

It's why there are weight classes in combat sports. Because people who train and compete against full resistance and not theory understand this intrinsically.

In this, I agree wholeheartedly with bushido man. You MUST focus on escape and evasion in these cases.

Even perfect technique can suffer against raw aggression. We see this over and over when high level, elite BJJ players jump into MMA unprepared for their new environment. Despite, in most cases, have far better jiu jitsu than their opponents some of these athletes just do not function well when jiu jitsu starts to include getting hit in the face.

Even people who train RSBD can be behind the power curve when first engaged in actual hand to hand combat. The aggression level is overpowering and because we so often train at lower, playful levels, it's hard to make that switch go off.

We all say we can, but until it's on one really can't explain the reality of it without safety.

So, not to be divisive, or derogatory to smaller stature people, but the reality is that it's a massive problem to deal with the aggressive, large predator animal.

The way you train can help to mitigate this, the tools you choose can have an effect (but probably less than training methods.) But understand the major disadvantage you're at in this situation.

[sensei8]

How could I possibly win a fight against someone bigger and stronger than me?

I will agree with a lot of the thoughts here. First up, train hard is right. And train effectively and train a long time. That's gonna go a long way. Make sure that you're training in something that works well for you and your mindset.

On mindset, as someone else said about the fight in the dog, train as if you're life depends on it. It does. How you mentally prepare will dramatically effect your physical capabilities in a fight.

Now for the bad news....

Fighting someone bigger and larger (and most often in the case of male v. female violence- predatory) is a losing proposition. I don't buy into the the "size doesn't matter" line of thought. Attributes matter. Always.

It's why there are weight classes in combat sports. Because people who train and compete against full resistance and not theory understand this intrinsically.

In this, I agree wholeheartedly with bushido man. You MUST focus on escape and evasion in these cases.

Even perfect technique can suffer against raw aggression. We see this over and over when high level, elite BJJ players jump into MMA unprepared for their new environment. Despite, in most cases, have far better jiu jitsu than their opponents some of these athletes just do not function well when jiu jitsu starts to include getting hit in the face.

Even people who train RSBD can be behind the power curve when first engaged in actual hand to hand combat. The aggression level is overpowering and because we so often train at lower, playful levels, it's hard to make that switch go off.

We all say we can, but until it's on one really can't explain the reality of it without safety.

So, not to be divisive, or derogatory to smaller stature people, but the reality is that it's a massive problem to deal with the aggressive, large predator animal.

The way you train can help to mitigate this, the tools you choose can have an effect (but probably less than training methods.) But understand the major disadvantage you're at in this situation.

Solid post!!

[bushido_man96]

Great post by Alex. All solid information. Another option, being a smaller person, is to consider some kind of what Alex would refer to as a "force multiplier;" carrying a bladed weapon, or looking into training for conceal and carry. Something to give you a bit more of an edge.

[jaypo]

One thing I can't believe hasn't been mentioned is confidence. I always ask my new women self defense students if they would be able to jam their finger in someone's eye sockets until their finger touches the attacker's brain. Most of them reply, "Yuck! No!" Then I tell them that taking a self defense class probably isn't for them. Because if you're not willing to do something like that if it's your only way to escape, then you lack the confidence in yourself and are pretty much defeated before the attack starts.

I suggest to them to play different scenarios over and over in their minds. Mentally visuallize being attacked and being in a situation that you HAVE to do something for self preservation. Because I can teach anybody the right way to do a flicker jab to someone's eye or to side kick someone's knee 90 degrees the wrong way. But it's a little more difficult to teach someone the willingness to do those techniques to another human being.

[sensei8]

One thing I can't believe hasn't been mentioned is confidence. I always ask my new women self defense students if they would be able to jam their finger in someone's eye sockets until their finger touches the attacker's brain. Most of them reply, "Yuck! No!" Then I tell them that taking a self defense class probably isn't for them. Because if you're not willing to do something like that if it's your only way to escape, then you lack the confidence in yourself and are pretty much defeated before the attack starts.

I suggest to them to play different scenarios over and over in their minds. Mentally visuallize being attacked and being in a situation that you HAVE to do something for self preservation. Because I can teach anybody the right way to do a flicker jab to someone's eye or to side kick someone's knee 90 degrees the wrong way. But it's a little more difficult to teach someone the willingness to do those techniques to another human being.

Solid post!!

[bushido_man96]

One thing I can't believe hasn't been mentioned is confidence. I always ask my new women self defense students if they would be able to jam their finger in someone's eye sockets until their finger touches the attacker's brain. Most of them reply, "Yuck! No!" Then I tell them that taking a self defense class probably isn't for them. Because if you're not willing to do something like that if it's your only way to escape, then you lack the confidence in yourself and are pretty much defeated before the attack starts.

I suggest to them to play different scenarios over and over in their minds. Mentally visuallize being attacked and being in a situation that you HAVE to do something for self preservation. Because I can teach anybody the right way to do a flicker jab to someone's eye or to side kick someone's knee 90 degrees the wrong way. But it's a little more difficult to teach someone the willingness to do those techniques to another human being.

Solid post!!

Agreed. Its easy to teach the techniques. Not so easy to convince a sheep to become a sheepdog in a moment.