Women’s Self Defense
How many of you have heard of someone who was the victim of a crime? How often was the victim a woman? Women are often preyed upon because predators are weak cowards who are looking for an easy win. Bad guys always plan to have the advantage. A big strong guy may attack a smaller weaker woman or several guys may attack a strong woman. They may use a weapon to threaten you or to attack you. In other words, they are not looking for a fair fight.
This is why women NEED to have secret advantages that predators cannot see. Ways of discouraging an attacker from making his/her attack. Our classes focus on every step of the process. From preparing correctly when leaving the safety of your home, to your awareness practice, and response under duress. Here are our 3 pillars of safety to prepare to defend yourself in a confrontation.
Awareness
The world is a dangerous place. Human nature makes it even more dangerous. Physical abuse, poverty, drug abuse, alcoholism and human trafficking are some of the biggest reasons to be wary when you are leaving the house, whether just to visit friends or travelling to another state or country. Our classes teach you how to identify things around you that are not baseline(normal) so that you can increase your chances of identifying dangerous scenarios or people to evade or deescalate the situation in time. Without learning to practice awareness, seeing the danger ahead of time is impossible. This is the most important aspect of self defense, because without awareness, you will not see danger coming. If you don’t see danger coming, how can you prepare? How can you protect yourself?
Preparation
While this may take time and practice to get used to doing consistently, it’s an important part of maintaining a secret advantage over potential attackers or other dangerous situations. Our classes emphasize the importance of having the right gear, for the wrong place, and constant communication with your friends and family so that people know where you are, who you’re going to see, and how long you plan to be gone. This will ensure that someone will notice when you do not complete your trip as planned and alert them to begin to investigate or call for help. Just like in the military, we do not operate alone, but always in a team, with a buddy or with QRF(Quick Reaction Force support). Once you find a system that works for you, PRACTICE! It will take time and thought at first, but just like with every other skill, once it becomes a habit, it will be hard to break.
Escape
Movies and the UFC have led many self defense instructors to believe that striking is an important part of self defense. We disagree with this idea completely and here’s why. Imagine a woman being attacked by a bigger stronger man and raising her fists to fight. In a fist fight who would win? What would she have to do to stop him? Knock him out? Kidney shot? Takedowns? How do those odds look? At Patriot Jiu-Jitsu, we focus on the goal. Escape. How can a smaller, weaker person escape? Certain aspects of Jiu-Jitsu are specifically for this type of fight. Helping a smaller, weaker person advance to a dominant position to temporarily incapacitate them, then run and get help. Our class focuses on starting at a disadvantage and practicing movement to a dominant position. This pillar will be a bit of a workout so be prepared to sweat, work and have fun training with other women in your community.
Patriot Jiu Jitsu offers our Women Self Defense class every Tuesday at 4pm at NO COST!
This is because we recognize the important role women play in our communities and we want them to feel safe. Taking this class consistently will help you to build these habits we share that will enable them to feel protected as they go about their day. The more time put in on the mats, the better and more accurate your response will be when the time comes. Today, with the current state of the world, we believe everyone will have encounters like these. How ready will you be?
