5 Lessons you can learn on our programmes

Thinking of learning women's self-defence?

The number of lessons you can learn is endless

Such lessons range from learning skills, concepts and awareness, sometimes just 'knowing' can give you power in a volatile situation

But today let's keep things simple, here are the 5 lessons you can learn on our programmes

Strategy
Leverage
Striking
The Grey Areas
and Ending

Most self defence programmes only focus on one or two mentioned above and rarely acknowledge the others in the context of sports or the 'art', that is all fine, but in regards to the reality of self defence, it's not enough for smaller and less aggressive individuals

1. How to build an effective self-defence strategy

2. How to use leverage to overcome bigger, stronger and more aggressive attackers

3. How and where to strike for self-defence

4. How to manage, the Grey Areas of Self defence

5. The 5 ways to end an attack in a safe way

An effective Self-defence strategy

An effective Self-defence strategy

So what is your self defence strategy?

When asked, what's your self-defence strategy, the answer is normally along the lines of 'kick then in the b...s, or my adrenaline will kick in, and I'll turn into the She Hulk.'

Check out this blog on the 7 Myths of Women's Self Defence to learn why just shooting for the balls may not work the way you think it will

Here are some Self Defence Strategies

Biding time

Verbally or physically, but for now, let's talk about physically.

Learning to manage distance and learning to 'fight' is a way to control an aggressive opponent and stay safe.

The main goal of learning to 'fight' isn't necessarily to learn to courses damage or harm to someone

When we think of fighting, we think, 2 people trying to punch each other in the head

This isn't the case

Learning to move without tripping over yourself and exposing vulnerable areas of yourself is what matters first

Learning to fight as a smaller and weaker individual is learning to move and reduce as much harm to yourself as possible. Sometimes that means attempting to neutralise the threat with strikes and locks etc

Learning to survive aggressive attacks until someone can come to your aid or you can neutralise the threat

learning to manage threats in rooms with one exit and/or confined spaces has to be considered, and not forgetting if it ends up on the ground too

In essences self defence is the art of biding time

De-escalation
if you can, do

but many people put themselves at further risk by lowering their hands or allowing themselves to get cornered or boxed in, only to trigger the individual accidentally

learning self defence skills, much like the ones on our programmes, you can perform your de-escalation attempts and still try to position yourself safely while doing so

Compliance

Being compliant can also be a good decision, particularly in extremely threatening situations

such as an armed mugging, just let them have your things

At the end of the day, things are not worth your life

Self Defence skills

Learning to escape grabs, strikes, and using leverage etc., or of course, skills that can help with pre-empting grabbing or striking you

2. How to use leverage

How to use the leverage to overcome bigger, stronger and more aggressive attackers

For smaller individuals, this is a necessity, both in stand up and on the ground.

So what is leverage in self defence?

It is the ability to use your body weight and movement to create angles to manipulate an opposing force

Learning how to use leverage can help you hit harder, throw bigger people and escape the control of stronger people.

Some styles of self defence only focus on this aspect, and others do not at all

When we are dealing with stats such as 92% of all violent attacks towards women are male, self defence practices should emphasize leverage

Leverage is used in

Technical Escapes
Striking
Takedowns or throws
Groundwork

Learning to use leverage to manipulate movements take time, but it's well worth the time

Leveraging is the means of the escape

3. How and where to strike for self-defence

How and where to strike for self-defence

Most people think of striking as the means to an end. The reality is Knocking someone out or causing pain is not reliable.

checkout this blog for more about that

from one person to another pain tolerance vary

and lets not forget other factors that inhibit the pain receptors

legal and illegal drugs
alcohol
adrenaline and elevated levels of aggression

there's a blog to come regarding adrenaline so be sure to check that out

So relying on hurting them or knocking someone out by striking. is something we HOPE to achieve but can not be the main objective

as we now know, it may not work

Some of the most common and faulty advice out there for smaller individuals are things like hitting them to create pain

when in reality, the focus of striking should be on

Biding time

Striking to slow them down and attack and making them hesitant or just preventing them from grabbing or pinning you

Creating distractions

Some escapes are not fully technical, and sometimes you have to create distractions so you can perform the escape without too much friction

Managing space

A form of biding time, however, we are using striking to help us move in and out of range, cutting corners and changing angles and make it very hard for someone to hit you or grab you

Ending the opposing force

There's a couple of things that are great ways of creating an ending.

which we will save for another day ;)

So here are some places you strike?

Hair
Beards
Eyes
Temples
Base of the skull
Nose
Ears
Mouth
Chin and jaw
Throat/ Neck
Clavicle
Elbows
Ribs
Solar plexus
Kidneys
Fingers
Testicles
Thighs
Knees
Ankles
Toes

4. How to manage, what I call the Grey Areas of Self defence

How to manage what we call the Grey Areas of Self defence

92% of violent attacks towards women are by a male they know

The normal approach often spoken by self-defence schools DOES NOT ANSWER THIS PROBLEM

This is one of the reasons this programme exists, no system out there talks about the Grey areas

Yet this is where for most people, the problem lies

the normal approach of avoiding or striking our way out of a situation is fine

But what if that person is a friend, partner, work college or someone we are dating or want to date etc etc

there becomes a tone of social issue related to kicking and punching the way out of the threat

fear of the event itself and fear of repercussions

So how do you manage the grey areas?

To be completely honest, this can't be answered on a blog but here are some points to think about

Awareness
Conversation
Managing and controlling minor and sometimes playful physical alterations

Check out this blog for a little bit more insight into the Grey area.

5. The 3 ways to end an attack in a safe way

So we mentioned endings earlier, but what is an ending

Ending an attack is your only way to ensure safety if you are not able to get to immediate help and they are pursuing you at a relentless and threatening pace

Trying to escape without some type of ending can and often does create more problems
for example, if you was to just turn and run

the likely hood of being able to re-engage with you is almost a certainty

checkout this blog on the Myths of self defence, and it will explain more why running isn't a good plan of action

unless you can get to safety pretty quickly or people are willing to jump in asap, you are still in danger

one way to increase your likely hood of staying safe after you escape is to end in it

There are non-aggressive endings, whereby you de-escalate the situation

but for when that does not work

we need a more hands-on approach

Heads up

you might get a bit grossed out and also, it's essential to add-context to this all too

Here go's

Making them go sleepy sleepy with a chokehold

Learning to choke someone out 'safely' is a super vital skill to have

on paper it sounds dangerous, but in reality, sports martial art practice chokeholds daily, making the teammates go sleepy sleepy and, in comparison doing the same

All your really doing is cutting off the blood supply to the brain for a few sessions, if they don't tap out, they fall to sleep. that’s when you let go and normally they come round on their own as if they have just woken up after a really good nap.

This can literally happen in about 8 to 10 seconds if you are effective at the hold. however, if you keep the hold on long after they have passed out, you could end up in a little more trouble but as said, there are techniques that are being performed all over the world on a daily basis, so nothing to worry about

When they come round they are normally confused, their brain 1, has been reset

(there will be a blog on the two brains very soon).

It's the cleanest way to end an altercation with an aggressive person who you are afraid of, yours or family/friends safety.

The best part is this can also be used in a play fight, where a male is trying to dominate and control you in a playful context

this helps you gain control and exert yourself, in essence sending a warning to any potential threats in future

not to mention the level of self confidence you would be sending out into the universe

the difference between these types of chokes and the hand to throat strangle you might be thinking of, this is not the technique that we are talking about, and if anyone does this to you, you must do whatever you can to get out

(we teach you how to escape them too)