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Self defense for women and children is one of the main focuses of this blog because this group (more than half of the human population) is attacked by bullies, robbers, rapists, and murders! One lesson I learned long ago was that bad guys go after easy (perceived) targets. I often find good examples of content that I am trying to convey on youtube.com. I will use some examples in this post that show various flavors of women’s self defense.
The first example is near and dear to my own heart, being a Kenpo stylist. The women in this video are demonstrating, as near as I can tell, the adaptive nature of kenpo techniques in some real life attack scenarios.
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Notice how the elbows are used to break the bear hugs. There are foot stomps, kicks to the back and side of the knees, and groin kicks. These drills are common is most kenpo as taught today. Towards the end you can see examples of knee strikes, elbows, palms, various hair with follow up chin and eye strikes and a great example of an eye gouge at the end!
A person would not use a technique from beginning to end but it is used to teach muscle memory. One definition of muscle memory (as it relates to martial arts) is teaching the body how to do a move without having to remember it. So using a hammer fist to the groin, followed by a scoop kick with back elbow to the face, a step-out and cover, would not take remembering how to do each move, but rather just noticing what a person is open for and doing it! A black belt in my style of kenpo (Chinese Kenpo Karate as taught by the American Kenpo Karate Association) has 240 of these self defense techniques to learn as part of the requirements to achieve a first-degree black belt.
Another good example of a stylised martial arts defense is from this Wing Tsun Kung Fu video. Note the softer style than the Kenpo video but it is every bit as effective!
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I really like the flowing front kicks to the knees and groin as well as the focus of missing the power of the attack. Whereas the Kenpo seemed to be focusing on power moves where there were openings, the Wing Tsun Kung Fu seemed to be deflecting the power of the moves and mounting effective counter attack! There were lots of great elbows and knees as well as some side knee strikes!
I found one woman "Ebony" with several videos out there with one demonstrating how a women could defend herself when pinned up against a wall!
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Her (Ebony's) defense is very effective; head butt, scoop kick, elbow, and eye gouge. Why would this work? Because the man thinks has has the upper hand! What do I mean? Well in the video example, the guy in a club, pushes a girl up against a wall, I am guessing groping is on his mind at the very least. The woman is already his (meaning he has pushed her against the wall without any resistance) so he is at a disadvantage!!!!
All of a sudden when the guy is going to make his move he feels a flash of pain as his nose goes splat and then... his groin explodes in pain. The woman turns sideways and elbows hard into the guys bread basket and while the guy is gasping for breath, she gouges his eyes! - and goes for the police!
These women with diverse martial arts backgrounds did not fight men toe to toe! No they used whatever advantage they could find to gain the upper hand! I don’t know how many of you have heard of women ninjitsu warriors. They were very unassuming and seemingly harmless but could kill some of the greatest warriors. Using martial arts training along with some common sense can go a long way to help women become very formidable warriors!
March 5th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
You have a great site and these 3 videos are awesome, especially the 2nd one with the women in the dress totally taking that punk out! We will link them in our self defense blog and we will add your site to our blog roll. It’s important for women to know basic self defense moves in order to prevent being a crime statistic. Having a pepper spray on your keychain and a small stun gun in your purse will give you the rest of the tools to protect you from violent crime!
Take the ME out of crime & Defend Thyself!
Christopher Winkler
DefendThyself
Provider of Self Defense Products
DefendThyself.com/PepperSpray
March 5th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Hi Christopher,
I could not agree more that a well rounded defense is the best plan! I’ll check the regulations for my step-daughter’s school that she is attending this fall and will probably hit you up for something she likes.
I am a strong believer in Murphy’s Law (anything that can go wrong – will go wrong), and think your life is nothing to mess with. Even I who arguably should not have any concerns in hand to hand combat – keeps baseball bats, staffs, dogs, and my wit in addition to my wife’s pepper spray in a common area.
I heard a good tip the other day… one website was espousing the use of your car alarm as a addition to your overall house defense plan… they asserted that if your car “panic” alarm can be set off from within your home… why not hit the panic button if you are threatened (and don’t have an expensive house alarm).
Anyway you are preaching to the quire with me… I think on balance – you have a responsibility to hedge your bets if you are ever the object of a home invasion robbery – and use all tools at you disposal – you never know for sure in a fighting situation what will put you over the top!
Kind regards,
John W. Zimmer
March 6th, 2008 at 10:27 am
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