Shall we move on?

[Great Sage]

Originally posted by ceasarx
I think womens self defense classes are a good idea but most are bogus. they teach a few finger locks and a leg sweep combined with a few safety tips and after a two day seminar they send these women out into the world thinking they can take care of themselves
we hold self defense classes that consist of 10 classes that are two hour long and we drill them on a few really effective sweeps and some ground fighting as well as safety tips and weapon use. we teach it for free and offer a ubi bo keychain to everyone that attends.
I wish there where less commercial schools out there that would offer more appropriate training.
Oh I will suggest to the head instructor that we should supply contact numbers for women that have been xictims

Sorry, but I don't necessarily agree with your analysis unless you've done a comprehensive study on the ineffectiveness of women's self-defense classes. Perhaps you are merely speculating based on your observation, but from my personal experience, many women's self-defense classes I've seen look as promising, if not more so, than most McDojos. The reason being, they are more focused on simulation, simple techniques and escape.

I will not refute that there are bogus systems, but very few... Because most trainers of women are dedicated, licensed professionals who are usually more accredited than the average TKD school instructor.

[darrianation]

In women’s self-defense (rape prevention classes) the main focus is on not being a victim through awareness and prevention.

The S-D techniques that are taught are simple, practical easy to remember and perform under stress. The main purpose is to be able to create opportunities to escape. The techniques I teach are realistic and scenario based. We go full speed in my classes. The classes are geared toward prevention, escape, panic stress conditioning.

It is true that in a three day seminar you can’t learn to fight but if taught in the right way it can be enough to survive a situation. I encourage all the students to return as often as they can to refresh their skills.

I wish more dojos would take this approach to self-defense we can learn a lot from these women’s rape prevention classes when it comes to realistic self-defense.

[little bullie]

i admit i didn't read every single post here. but the underlying theme i get is whether or not a woman can defend herself physically.

as a woman who trains seriously 6 years of mt and fights competitively 15 fights. i want to say that yes pound for pound a man is likely to be stronger in the upper body almost all of the time conversely women are stronger in the legs as we are designed for having kids.

so now i have prefaced what i am about to say which i sincerely hope doesn't offend anyone but i feel like it's the real point.

it doesn't matter man or woman...you may or may not be able to defend yourself when confronted but it's based on mental state rather than physical capability. it's fight or flight syndrome plain and simple. i am not a physically large girl but i bet i could be handful and have to a man much much bigger than me because i am conditioned to fight back mentally.

the flip side is i was recently the victim of a kidnap attempt and while i was able to successfully defend and cause some damage to my attacker i made several huge mistakes. for example i never once yelled for help even though it was a densely populated area at 3:15 in the afternoon.

anyways here was me lousy $.02

[Tom Yum]

Glad to hear that you are ok. I hope that you filed a police report too.

Can you tell us how you defended yourself?

[little bullie]

sure the circumstances were as follows:

i was jogging w/ a walkman at about 3:15 in the afternoon and i felt a car come behind me quite close as i turned around the rear passenger grabbed my left hand the door was already opened and he passed my hand over and started pulling me into the car. i resisted but didn't have much leverage so i threw a straight right punch and it stunned him but he didn't let go so i threw another before my good sense kicked in and i threw an elbow. that made him let go and i took off running to a gas station while he screamed in pain and i guess they drove off i never looked backward.

hopefully it makes sense.

[cakegirl]

Originally posted by swan104
If a girl gets hit in the face, then they won't go to training again.

Be careful about the generalisations you make Swan! Some girls would leave if hit in the face. I have also seen plenty of guys come in one door and straight out the other at my school when they get hit too hard for their liking.

On the other hand, I am one of a large group of female fighters at my school who take a hit to the face for what it is: a failure to block effectively, and incentive to train harder!

Cakegirl

[cakegirl]

Originally posted by terry
But once we had four strong world-level competitors things started to snowball. ... Once you have a couple of good female role models in a club many other women make it a goal to become one too.

I agree, Terry. Having great female role models in a traditionally male-dominated arena such as martial arts is vital.

My karate school is owned and run by a woman who was a world-class competitor for years, national team coach, cross trains in multiple martial arts (BJJ, Arnis, etc), teaches realistic self-defence, etc. We have, as I mentioned before, a strong group of female fighters in our school. I have trained as a guest at another karate school, where in a sparring class of 15 people, 5 were female, and when grouped together for drills, just giggled their way through it. It was pathetic. But these women had no advanced-grade role model, and were really just self-conscious about having to act aggressive (or "masculine").

(Until they were paired with me )

Cakegirl