Womens Self Defence Classes 

For those who teach womens self defence, this short article may give you further ideas on creating a curriculum and a sequence of classes to cover the basic elements of self-defence without all the myths and unrealistic techniques fed out on the back of martial arts.

Consider as a framework Womens Self Defence Classes running as a short course over 8 meetings, perhaps as an evening class or a Saturday morning and having a duration of about 4 hours per meeting.

Bear in mind that women are never usually attacked in some 'martial art' way.

"...ladies are attacked up close. They are grabbed by the neck, hair, body and brought down to the floor, where a would be rapist will mount their body and punch them or hold a knife to their throat. Standing up and sparring with an attacking male, exchanging punches and kicks, does not exist in the real world..." 
Kevin O'Hagen

Dont be a victim - don't look like a victim. 10 Starter Tips to be Safe - (stuff like walking with your eyes up, keeping your keys in your hand when going to your car or your house, why you might want pepper spray, don’t leave your purse where it can be seen in the car while you’re driving, put your money way before you leave the bank, etc.) The basic message being that you don’t have to be the toughest person on the street, you just have to be a more difficult target than the next person. Most crimes against women are crimes of opportunity. So reduce the opportunities for the bad guy to take advantage of you. 
 
Shouting - it's OK to make noise - learn to YELL!!! This is practice in anticipation of the physiological shock everybody experiences in personal confrontation and gives them a way to start breathing instead of freezing.
Experience using forceful, bad language on people - and have them use it on YOU!

6 Basic Strikes
We would have a "Bob" (the punching bag shaped like a man) with some sort of groin attachment. The students would learn 6 basic gross motor techniques. Palm heel, rear elbow, groin slap to the rear, knee to the groin (bad guy standing) knee to the head (bad guy on the ground) eye rake/flick. (I am not saying gouge out the eyes – just a rake/flick to get the startle response. Students would also learn two major distractions – groin grab and face spit. They would practice all 6 gross motor strikes and the 2 distractions on “Bob.”

This would all happen in a very low pressure, low stress session.

Bulletman training Level 1
If you’re not familiar with a Bulletman – it is a padded body suit with a large padded helmet. The helmet is locked onto a set of shoulder pads so the wearer cannot move the head. This allows for pull power shots to the 'attackers' head with a minimal risk of damaging their neck. There is also an over-sized groin protection that allows for pull power knee strikes to the 'attackers' groin.

See a video clip that shows this in action at http://www.youtube.com

Students are taught the 6 techniques and two distractions from Meeting 1 again and how to shout and deliver them at the same time.

Bulletmen would attack but without verbal confrontation and intimidation, just physical pushing and pulling only. No feedback or corrections are given while they experience someone attacking them - just see how they do.

Eye contact exercises 1 - just standing and looking in the eyes.
 
Eye contact exercises 2 - looking someone in the eyes and saying
things like: leave me alone, quit bothering me, I don't want to talk to you, don't touch me.

In a voice that means get the f*** back.

Eye contact exercises 3 - similar to #2 except now someone will say something unpleasant first to the women who should now respond using the actions rehearsed in Eye contact exercises 2.

Verbal 'wolfing' scenarios no physical attack.

These would be mini role plays of common situations
1- aggressive guy in a bar
2- aggressive guy at a private party
3- aggressive stranger on the street during the day
4- aggressive stranger on the street at night
5- waiting alone at a bus stop
6- waiting alone at a train/bus station or airport
7- too friendly of a talker a the grocery store/bank
8- additional scenarios would be used as needed (for example - for a group of high-school age women you could address hallway and locker room scenarios)

Each role play would be followed up by debrief & suggestions on what could be done differently.

Then the same character will role play again trying to incorporate the suggestions.

Bulletman training Level 2.
This time it's physical and it's verbal.
Going through the same format as the verbal only session -- with debriefs between sessions and the same person doing the same scenario again trying to incorporate suggestions.

Night of the living dead training
Verbal wolfing from a bad guy not wearing pads.
Then the women move in slow motions to counter the physical attacks. They are allowed to target anywhere with any technique - this lets them see how what they did on the bulletman would look like on a guy without a suit. The mean face and loud shouts would be very disabling for many women. Of course, this would require a very highly skilled man to be the bad guy to be able to keep the scenarios real and for him to stay safe if the women over-react.

Being aware of and using your environment. Talk about listening to that little voice inside that tells you when a situation is going to get bad, or go from bad to worse.

Talk about learning to use what's on hand -- including:
Cars - to use as an obstacle. Also the idea of not getting out of your car just because somebody told you to or because you were in a minor accident.
Walls.
Purses, keys, pens, plastic grocery bags, things you might have on hand and how you might use them.

VR simulation

Students put on goggles and movement suits and then would be run through different surprise situations. Several in a row - a culmination of all the other lessons.

Everyone would be scored. If anybody's score is below a certain cut-off point they would be invited to re-take the course at no cost.

Everybody else gets to go through graduation.