Womens Self Defense/Martial arts classes

[Freddylee]

What do you guys think of womens martial arts and self defense classes?

 

Obviously some groups are in favour of it due to "cultural taboos" especially in many indian and middle eastern cultures.

 

Some women would favor an all female class to begin with till they get more confident.

 

Sometime some women may feel that they have specific needs.

 

What do you guys think?

[Cyclone]

I wouldn't run them myself except as an introductory to the rest of the art.

 

Training for self defence requires you to have a proper understanding of your abilities, and that means against people of all shapes and sizes, not just the ones you choose.

I struggle to think of any specific needs that women would have for self defence that men wouldn't.

Different circumstances to use it, yes, but different requirements for the desired outcome, not really.

 

Self defence classes of the type normally targetted at women are (without wanting to be controversial) generally a load of rubbish.

 

If someone is going to come to a class for say 5 sessions, the best thing you can teach them that has a chance of working is a) awareness and b) running.

Most of anything else you teach them will either be forgotten, ineffective due to lack of ability and/or giving them a false sense of confidence that may result in them getting in deeper than they can handle.

[Kthebean]

You seem to be an expert, Cyclone, tell me, how many women only self defences classes have you been to?

 

The course I went to taught me about how to stay safe at night, what the best course of action is, if attacked, and some simple measures I can take to distract or cause pain in someone who is on top of me or has me from behind for long enough to run away from them. They also dispelled myths about the way attackers look, and act.

 

I went to a womens only class because I wanted to learn self defence, not martial arts, and they only ran self defence classes for women.

 

My dad paid for me to have them and I would urge all parents to do the same.

[Freddylee]

I have seen a lot of rubbish womens self defense so to be honest id have to agree with you.

I was on a martial arts trainign course that was mianly for instructors and senior grades and there were these 2 HUGE women wearing tight spandex shorts (sounds scary i know)

 

They introduced themselves as teaching a martial art called

"CARTEC" which allegedly is "womens self defense".

 

It seemed a little bit wierd.

The combination they were asked to show included 2 punches and a couple of elbows finished by a hook, which was probably not bad. BUT,....

The 2 straight punches, everyone knows its "left jab- right cross" right?

The girl showing the combo said "left jab- right jab"

Now whats that all about unless she switched stance in between (which she didnt)

Basically , most womens self defense is a joke and is taught by muppets.

Now if its a proper martial art taught by a proper instructor then i dont have a problem with it.

BUT if its a mickey mousified mess taught by soem girl who doesnt know what shes on about then i think its just a cheap way of conning the public and can like my mate cyclone above said " can do more harm than good"

[Freddylee]

I tell thee this much cyclone,

The funniest thing i saw on a womens self defense course was how they teach how to knee

 

I.e. Grab the attackers shoudlers (assuming that hes not gonna try and punch or head butt you) and lift your knee up (yes thats right just lift up the knee without putting your hips into it ).

 

Crazy isnt it

[Kthebean]

Well its like everything else in the world then isn't it, there are good courses and bad courses and you should check them out before you take them.

 

[Freddylee]

How are the general public supposed to know what is a good course and what is a bad course?

You can i hear , become a "womens self defense instructor" within something like 6 months.

Is that correct?

 

Really though , i think a womens self defense course needs to be taught by someone in the know.

[Kthebean]

Well then, check if the course is run by someone in the know!? The course I took was run by/affiliated with Lincs Police Authority, so dad phoned the person running it to ask some questions.

 

Or you could try asking other people what they reccomend?

 

I see that when you said 'what do you guys think' what you really meant was 'I think they're a really bad idea'!

[Cyclone]

Originally posted by kathythebean

You seem to be an expert, Cyclone, tell me, how many women only self defences classes have you been to?

 

The course I went to taught me about how to stay safe at night, what the best course of action is, if attacked, and some simple measures I can take to distract or cause pain in someone who is on top of me or has me from behind for long enough to run away from them. They also dispelled myths about the way attackers look, and act.

 

I went to a womens only class because I wanted to learn self defence, not martial arts, and they only ran self defence classes for women.

 

My dad paid for me to have them and I would urge all parents to do the same.

 

Well I've discussed them before, looked at some of the things that are taught and thought about how I'd teach it myself.

I concluded that there is little to no point in teaching any physical techniques on a short course.

Teaching you how to stay safe, if well taught is invaluable, but what exactly did it cover? It's a bit of a vague broad topic.

Physical 'measures' that you can take I suspect will be worse than useless, let me guess, fingers in eyes, knee in groin, that type of stuff.

If someone is attacking you and you jab them in the eye, guess what, they'll either hit you much harder, or they'll do exactly the same back, harder. That's if they let you get anywhere near their eyes.

And kneeing someone in the groin is much harder than it sounds and does actually require a lot of force to stop them dead. I speak from experience, sometimes a strike to the groin gets through in training, but it's generally down to my inattention rather than anything else as it's an easy area to defend.

 

If you want to learn self defence and can only be arsed to go to 1, 2 or 10 classes, then go to running classes instead, it's the most reliable technique I know, and i've been training for 15 years.

 

The most important part of self defence is awareness, it's moving away from the bar when you realise a fight is starting, or not crossing the park in the dark alone. It's noticing the person following you before you've left the well lit areas and are in the dark and lonely car park, etc...

[Eclaire]

Ok guys, I want to start doing a martial art like jujitsu but searching on this forum scares me out of it a bit because the people who recommend classes tend to "big up" the national/international "stars" that have attended their classes.

I'm 35. I'm fit, but I've never done a karate kick in my life. Womens self defense classes are getting a slating here......where do you recommend I start?

Or shall I just get out my knitting needles?