Women Self Defence Tips

I was just interviewed by a journalist from The West Australian on the topic of women self defence, and the following is what I had to say on the subject.

Many martial arts instructors when motivated to produce a self defence course for women will undoubtedly reach into their vault of techniques and then face a quandary. Which lethal technique could they teach a participant in a few hours which, without much practice, and after years of not thinking about it can be pulled out from their proverbial and level a thug who's just jumped out from some dark alleyway.

My research starting from the early 90s indicates most of all sexually oriented crimes against women are perpetuated by people the victim already knows. It may not be your best friend, but it could very well be the postman, or the bloody tradie, or the cabbie, or your brother's friend. So ultimately you have some level of trust that will be betrayed, and this is when you face issues in which knowing several hard core martial arts techniques will simply fail you.

Not all bad things are done by bad people!

Surely safety habits and awareness will go a long way to prevent some instances of such crimes. I won't begrudge those emails which lists Top 10 safety tips for women. Some good however is not always the best.

The main challenge for most participants attending a women self defence course is their mental readiness for engaging in effective physical self defence. Going to a course or reading some list is not sufficient - you must take yourself away and make a personal commitment that when such-and-such occurs, and when things are literally going south, you will take decisive physical self defence into your own hands.

Facing conflict is difficult. You get upset with a nasty tweet or a rant about parenting from some know-it-all dad blogger. What happens if someone is threatening your life and inflicting pain on your body? A self defence plan of action is what you need to remove ineffective or counter-productive ways of thinking. Remember most of all sexually oriented crimes are perpetuated by people you know AND by people who were not intent on killing you in the first place. It's hard to think about this, but only about 5% of such crimes from my research are done by criminals who would pre-meditate such an assault resulting in death for their victims. Of course there are those that eventually are fatal because of the extent of physical trauma, but there is an argument for all women to engage in all out physical defence. This is especially so once you have ascertained that this is the course of action that is right for you at that instance in time.

Eventually, you must seek to escape or get yourself to a defensible location and then to safety. The objective of survival must be your underlying drive - irrespective of how effective your tools or choices have been so far.

Here is my Top 10 quick things that I've got to say about women self defence for this blog.

The Associate Woman's Top 10 on Women's Self Defence

1. Always surround yourself with people you trust; always go in pairs. Cops do this. Soldiers go in threes!
2. Always communicate where you are and when you are expected with people you trust.
3. Understand that the choices you make open you up to risk, or increase your relative safety.
4. Also understand that your immediate environment can be used for or against you; you can't be safe in the house if your assailant is locked in it with you. Similarly a weapon can be used for or against you. Nothing is straight forward.
5. Physical self defence is hard - be mentally committed. But saying that, physical self defence is hard - not to use it is also a valid self defence choice!
6. Who's the skipper? If you plan to drink, have someone you trust always with you who can make the right decisions on your behalf. 
7. Self defence will land you on the ground, make sure you tuck you chin on your chest and try to sit down and roll. Never extend your hand to stop the fall - you'll break your elbow. Not to fall properly will seal your own fate before anything happens.
8. Soft weapon for a hard target! A palm heel can be used to hit an attacker in the head and face. 
9. Hard weapon for a soft target! A knee strike goes to the groin; an elbow goes to the neck; a fist into the gut. 
10. The last tip ... don't delay. Those seconds that tick by will increase the difficulty you face in escaping from a bad situation or getting yourself to relative safety. Be prepared to act decisively and strategically. And get to it. 

Links

• More self defence tips
• Self Defence - How to Be Effective When Fear Strikes

I wish you all safe holidays.

Colin

Bio: Colin Wee 6th Dan has been researching and teaching Women's Self Defence since 1991 where, on the behest of AWARE, he launched the first Women's Self Defence course in Singapore. Since, he has helped many other martial arts instructors and police officers from around the world develop their own self defence programs based on his original research and coursework. Colin has written numerous articles on the topic and has fielded interviews on radio and several newspaper articles.
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