Suggestions for short course/seminar

[Spartacus Maximus]

Have anyone been asked to put together a short term course or self-defense seminar? The time is limited to 8 weeks, 3 hours per week. What sort of techniques would be the most useful and easiest to teach? The target audience ranges from young adults to older people up to 65years old.

Initially the proposed content is this:

1. General target areas

2. How to strike correctly(natural weapons, making a proper fist etc..)

3. Releases and escape techniques for common grabs and holds

4. Drills to train contents of #3.

The total number of individual techniques should not be much higher than 12.

Anyone have ideas?

[Nidan Melbourne]

I was asked to do a self-defence seminar early this year and went through various things. It included:

1. Target Areas (against Men AND Women)

2. Basic Escapes (Chokes, Wrist Grabs, Bear Hugs etc)

3. Basic Techniques (Kicks, elbows, etc)

4. Defence against Weapons (Knives and Guns)

5. Use of Keys and other items as self-defence tools

5.1 Used:

5.2 Keys

5.3 Rolled up newspaper or magazine

5.4 Bag

5.5 Shoes (i.e. heels)

[Spartacus Maximus]

That seems reasonable. How much time did you have to work with and who was the target audience? Are such seminars expensive in your area?

[Wado Heretic]

Self-defence starts with common sense; you should probably have your introductory session start with statistics, and discussion. What are the primary dangers of your society and community, and in what ways are the people coming to your session making themselves vulnerable.

Then you need to address the common forms of physical attack from a stranger, and how they initiate their attacks. What sort of deceptions are often used or in what ways to might make yourself vulnerable to an ambush.

After that is established you can work more towards the technical side. I would say that I would place emphasis on the grappling or body-to-body range; how to escape when someone is trying to restrain you or has already initiated their attack, and of-course include "dirty" fighting tactics in these methods but remember to emphasise technique over quick solutions. Maybe include some methods of restraint that do not require excessive use of strength and energy; such as the ashi sankaku garami (omoplata to use it's better known name). You do not exactly want a criminal getting away if you have the opportunity to stop them after all.

In terms of 12 techniques; hammer-fist, palm-strike, fore-arm strikes (Tools which you do not have to harden or condition to hit hard with), basic deflections with the arms, the outside 90 (S.P.E.A.R), how to clinch and break it (with an emphasis on arm and head control over head control alone), how to sprawl, how to pull guard and use it to dissuade an attacker if you are knocked to the ground, how to escape being mounted, the technical stand-up, the omoplata and other restraints from similar positions (as mentioned prior), and maybe one or two very simple take downs or sweeps to force an attacker away and off of you.

I concede the above is probably best geared towards younger adults than those on the older spectrum, but I would say conceptual based teaching will help better than focusing on specific techniques. The issue I take with specific techniques is that the training experience does not always scale to reality; plus refining techniques takes a huge investment of motor memory. However, broad ideas and drilling said broad ideas are often more quickly absorbed. Plus, you reduce the burden on techniques if you spend time on educating the group on how to reduce the chance they will suffer a physical attack to a minimum.

Weapon awareness could also be a factor, and thus training with regards to weapons should be implemented, but with regards to knives and hand weapons. Every time you cover a new technique you should cover how knives and other weapons inform the use of the technique.

Saying all that; your original concept, and what is suggested by Nidan Melbourne, are not a bad direction to go with the time you have available.

[Nidan Melbourne]

That seems reasonable. How much time did you have to work with and who was the target audience? Are such seminars expensive in your area?

Was primarily towards women, but also towards children.

And seminars are far and in between where i am in australia and rarely advertised.