Women's Self Defence Classes

Training in Martial Arts, particularily for women, can be daunting. In a male dominated environment the learning can be overly focused on physical or strength.

That is where we are different. We have developed a Women's Self Defence Course. 10 Weeks, 1 Hour per week, taylored for Women who just want to learn self-defence.

Over the coming months of 2011, we will be sourcing a location and commence advertising class dates and times - if you have any interest, please register on the site and we will keep you in the loop.

This is our 10 week class schedule developed into an article to explain why we teach it.

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10 Things a Self Defence Course should Include.

After 5 years of training, countless hours teaching and having to learn a great deal of patience, I have finally gained my Certificate as a Martial Arts Instructor. Part of being a Martial Arts instructor is more than just teaching your specific art form. (I'm not even going to talk about what I teach.) Part of being a good Martial Arts instructor is being able to teach self-defence principles that can be applied.

So you are going to teach a Self-Defence class, what are the 10 things or areas you need to consider:

1.    Street Smarts - A lot of people get right down to teaching people how to fend of a physical attack. Slow down, think about it. If you really want to teach Self-Defence you need to teach people how to avoid a situation. For example, a woman wearing a mini-skirt walking through an unlit park late at night - wouldn't it be best to avoid the location, and if you cannot avoid, perhaps wear something a little less provocative or get a friend to join you. Street Smarts are most important. Ok, so you're in the situation, next:

2.    Evasion & Overcoming Strength - This is simple! Only think about evasion, if you can avoid the situation, that is half the battle. If someone does grab you, don't fight strength with strength, I could talk about this for a full day.

3.    Escapes - OK, they have you. How do you escape from their grasp.

4.    Strikes - Where is the best place to hit someone for the most effective self-defence strike.

5.    Pressure Points - Especially for women, hitting can be a hard thing to do. Pressure points will hurt 98% of the population without much effort. (My specialty)

6.    Ground Attack - Avoid the ground at all costs, get up as soon as possible.

7.    Self-Defence Weapons - Many people carry weapons as part of everyday life. Is that a pen on your desk, or perhaps a nail file. Learn how to use them.

8.    Weapons Defence - Of Course, you have to teach then how a weapon will be used and how to defend yourself.

9.    Worst Case Scenarios - The title explains itself!

10.    Self-Confidence - So many Self-Defence instructors forget to teach this. People with intent to steal or sexually assault someone are predators, they stalk their prey looking for weakness. The ability to project a self-confident, self-aware, state to those around you can make a world of difference. (I've been told that I intimidate people just by my presence. I'm not a big person, I could lose some weight, I don't even tell people I'm a Martial Artist, I'm just self-confident in the way I present myself - I had to work on this at the start!)

Considering how violent and dangerous a lot of society is becoming, I don't advocate training someone on the art of killing or hurting. I believe that avoiding a situation is the best policy.
If everyone knew a martial art, do you think there would be as many fights? I don't, because you wouldn't know who was going to be able to fight back.

I hope that this article helps with your thinking, and if you haven't done any self-defence before, you strongly consider starting.

Tom Adam - SaBomNim - ACT Self Defence 'Chief Instructor'