The Importance of Women’s Self Defense Instruction
The right to defend oneself against physical attack is an essential and inalienable right belonging to every human being. Generally speaking, women are smaller and less strong than men, putting them at a horrible disadvantage in any given self defense situation. Adding fuel to this fire, there is a lot of bad information and instruction out there passing itself off as credible women’s self defense courses. Fortunately, a martial art was developed specifically to be utilized by smaller, weaker individuals against larger and stronger attackers.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is the perfect martial art for women to train to be able to realistically defend themselves. There are a few reasons for this. The first reason is that Jiu-Jitsu involves little-to-no striking (punching & kicking). A strike is only as strong as its wielder, and in most situations that require self defense, the attacker is bigger, stronger, or more athletic; thus leaving the attacked person at a significant disadvantage. The second reason is that Jiu-Jitsu was born of self defense. The martial art was founded and developed under the duress of actual combat, not abstract theory. The most famous of these being the Gracie challenges. The third reason is that Jiu-Jitsu is a combat sport, meaning that every single time you practice this art, you will be practicing under the duress of a partner/opponent who is using up to 100% of their strength, size, athleticism, knowledge, and skill to overcome and defeat you. This last reason is the most significant as it applies to women’s self defense.
Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable
When you regularly train a combat sport such as Jiu-Jitsu, you are routinely put into very compromising and uncomfortable positions. People bigger and stronger than you – often with more knowledge and skill – are consistently trying to overcome your defenses and choke you or hyperextend one of your limbs. Learning how to first cope with that pressure and intensity, then learning how to defend against it, and finally learning how to counter it and respond with your own attacks is incredibly empowering. When you realize – not via abstract theory, but replicable concrete action and repeatable personal experience – that you can survive, outthink, and outmaneuver someone bigger, stronger, and more athletic than you, the prospect of having to defend yourself becomes much less scary. When you train a combat sport, you are essentially put in the position of having to defend yourself every single day. It becomes routine.
Constant Preparedness
Unfortunately, none of us know when we will have to actually defend ourselves against someone that means to do us bodily harm. For that reason, we should always be prepared to do so. The best – in fact, the only – way to do this is to train regularly in a combat sport. It is a myth that you will be able to effectively learn how to defend yourself with a few tips and tricks taught in any women’s self defense course or seminar, regardless of how long or in-depth that course or seminar is. The reality is that it takes years of consistent training in a combat sport to become adequately prepared to defend yourself without the use of a weapon.
Why?
So why would we bother to teach a women’s self defense seminar? For the sole purpose of illustrating the chaos of combat, and emphasizing the importance of learning and training a combat sport such as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to be better able to defend yourself. Furthermore, we hope to show a few of the basic techniques and concepts utilized in Jiu-Jitsu that will allow you to defend yourself against someone who is bigger, stronger, and more athletic.
Day One
On the first day of the seminar we (coaches Karen and Jordan) discussed the philosophy of self-defense, situational awareness, and the importance of regular training detailed above. We then worked backwards in terms of position: starting in the most vulnerable position (bottom mount) and learning how to reverse our attacker so we can gain the top position and escape. We covered how to defend ourselves and gain top position while being choked or pressured from the mount position, and also how to defend ourselves and gain top position while being punched from the same mount position. We finished the day with emphasizing that gaining top position isn’t always possible with our attacker being bigger and stronger, but that we can effectively and optimally defend ourselves and fight back by positioning ourselves in a way that we can utilize our biggest and strongest natural asset: our legs and hips (closed and open guard positions).
Everyone had a lot of fun and learned a lot. We also got a lot of great feedback of what else people would like to see covered for Day Two.
Day Two
On Day Two of the Women’s Self Defense Seminar we quickly reviewed what we covered on Day One. There were many new faces on the second day, so we wanted to make sure that people were generally aware of what we discussed during the first day. We then continued to work backwards in terms of threatening positions. On Day One we covered being in the bottom mount position and reversing our opponent, as well as recovering our guard against an attacker who is in the top mount position. On Day Two we progressed from there, showing the power of the open guard. With our legs free and between us and our attacker we can manage the distance, utilizing pushes and up-kicks to off-balance and possibly incapacitate our attacker long enough for us to get away and flee. We then covered how to defend and reverse bad standing positions such as the rear bear hug, the schoolyard (or side) headlock, and being pinned against a wall.
We finished the seminar with a brief recap and summary of what we wanted people to take away from it: that combat is chaos, and to be able to gain control of that chaos you need to train regularly in the positions you may find yourself in a self defense situation in order to defend yourself and/or overcome your attacker.
Future Seminars
Keep an eye out for future posted events by following us on Facebook and Instagram! We will certainly be holding more of these in the future!
Furthermore, if you are interested in checking out what our Jiu-Jitsu Academy has to offer, please contact us! We have kids classes, co-ed adult classes, and women-only classes as well. We truly believe that everyone can benefit from Jiu-Jitsu, and would love to show you why!