Do Women's Self Defense Classes Actually Work?

A feature article by Shirleyb, Jun 16, 2007         

Women's self-defense classes can be invaluable for protection, but care must be taken that the self-defense techniques taught are right for the students in question. Because self-defense is an extremely popular topic these days, even those who are not experts in women's self-defense can be teaching classes. It behooves you, therefore, to find the right training and instructor for you, based upon what you want.

First of all, many self-defense techniques taught to men will not work for women, because women are both faced with different situations (i.e., rape) that men are generally not faced with, and they lack the physical brute strength that most men have. In short, women have only about half the brute strength of men (although they often do tend to have greater endurance strength, which is nonetheless unfortunately not often useful in attack situations). Pound for pound, because men have more muscle than women do, they are simply stronger for "short burst" strength situations, such as lifting -- or fighting off an attacker.

Second of all, while men are likely to be punched or kicked in the attack situation, women are more likely to be slapped, grabbed and pinned. This means that women need different techniques to get out of particular situations and to protect themselves than men do.

Martial arts techniques comprise one way to somewhat even the score for women, despite their generally smaller size and diminished brute physical strength compared to men. Martial arts can not only increase women's sense of security and safety because they are better able to defend themselves, but it also comprises a way of life that will help them manage challenges in general, not just in dangerous situations.

In order to best utilize martial arts in the area of self-defense, women need to find an instructor that specializes in self-defense. Although many martial arts instructors do, each woman should do her homework and find an instructor who particularly focuses on this for at least some of the class. If it's not possible to find a martial arts instructor who can specialize in self-defense, then you can still find a self-defense instructor separate from martial arts, but take martial arts training nonetheless to both increase physical endurance and help you manage and diffuse the mental challenges that go hand in hand with a physical attack situation.

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In this case, you'll want to find a self-defense instructor that does NOT focus on tough guy tactics, such as fighting off your attacker. In most self-defense situations, this is not practical for women, since as stated before, it's the wrong way to react in a given situation that involves women.

Rather, the instructor needs to focus on women's strengths, including intuition, and focus on the ability to size up the situation and get out of it early so that an attack doesn't even happen. Should an attack occur, the woman should practice "distract and run" techniques, such as throwing your keys in the opposite direction and then running the other way. Another tactic is to learn the ability to "talk your way out of" a particular situation should it begin to escalate.

One of the biggest things a good self-defense class should do is to put the kibosh on a woman's tendency to be "nice" in difficult situations. Should you find yourself in the face of an attacker, that simple pause where you hesitate because you don't want to "hurt" someone may lead to your undoing. Therefore, you should always follow your intuition and get out of the situation as quickly as you can, even if it means hurting your attacker to get away.