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I have been asked why I seem to write so much about women’s self-defense. The reason I always give is men seem to have a better fighting chance out of the gate then most women. True some men do get beat up when attacked but often times they still manage to get away while getting a few licks of their own in at the attacker.
Many girls and women have not had the experience of fighting larger boys and men or any fighting at all. Added to this are the fact that women are often victimized by perverts. I have always tried to teach women how to even up the score some if they had to fight their way out of a bad situation.
In this post I’ll talk about how girls and women CAN use effective self defense to their advantage. Understand I am not talking about beating a man in a fair fight (although that is possible for highly trained fighters) but rather doing what it takes to avoid and if unavoidable – use self-defense to get away! I’ll review a girl that kicked an assailant to get away as well as a women that managed to employ an eye gouge and escape.
But what about a women fighting a man and winning? Is it even possible for a lighter man to beat a heavier man? Here is an fight with an extreme weight difference to open this topic.
Did you notice the announcers saying that Hackney had to stick and move? That means he could not fight toe to toe with the bigger man. The bigger man had 400 pounds of extra body weight/potential power into his moves. Had Hackney tried to slug it out – he probably would have lost the exchange. So the only way short of a knock out Hackney could do was to move around and pick his strikes. You see he had the speed advantage so he had to try and not get hit.
Save on boxer’s robes by Everlast
Now girls and women have some natural advantages when bad men attack them. Men do not think women can mount an effective defense. So what I am saying is women and use surprise to their advantage. Not try to fight toe to toe but rather pick their shots if they cannot avoid or get away initially.
In the animal kingdom smaller hunters can fend off larger ones if the motivation is there. Here are a couple of videos, one of coyotes protecting their cubs from a wolf and a video of how dangerous a small bob cat can be as a couple of guys are trying to release him.
I hope you see my point. The coyotes could not have defeated the wolf anymore than the bobcat taken on the two men. In both cases they were able to keep out of harms way with their speed and tactics. Girls can do the same if attacked by bad guys if they know some self-defense.
A couple of guys grabbed a 15 year old girl of of the street and dragged her to a car in this story. She was able to kick the guys in the nuts during the struggle and make her get away! How was it possible that a 15 year old girl could kick her attackers and get away? Because she was motivated and the guys did not believe she had a chance. They were probably worried about hanging around too long and when she put up an fight – cut their loses and beat feet. This Aussie girl is one tough! One never knows how they will react but she is a fighter. Bravo I say!
Here is one video of a women showing one way to deliver an effective groin kick. While I like the follow through, I would caution her to be more aware of covering up a bit and getting away fast. Check this out.
The thing is not how pretty the kick is but if you throw it or not in a pickle! You can be off balance with your hands at your side and if you remember to fight back and kick and strike at whatever targets that are open – you will do ok. You just need to stun a man for a moment and either run to get away or find a weapon (if running is not an option) to win the altercation!
But how can you hurt a big guy? Well striking the groin, throat, eyes with your kick, punch, fingers and such will work wonderfully. Also if you can pick up anything for a weapon – that will help even your odds (such as a pen, keys, rock, stick…). Now here is a video of some eye gouges that are easy to do in a extereme pressure situation.
There are a lot of ways to do eye pokes and gouges but the one he shows of putting the thumbs into the eyes and hooking is great. I mean if you can feel the guys face – you can do this move. It is also part of an effective combination of an ear slap/clap-eye gouge. You see if a guy starts to grab you, clapping his ear drums hard (will disorient him – maybe break his ear drums) puts your thumbs in the perfect position to do the gouges show in the video.
This story of a women that was beaten and sexually assaulted but she was able to use an eye poke demonstrates how effective these strikes can be. Women can always figure out a way to fight back but it sounds like in this case – the woman was taking on a lot of damage before she was able to poke the eyes and make her escape.
The sad think about self-defense is while it is possible to figure out a way to survive in most cases; there is no sure way to avoid getting blind sided and end up playing catch up. Why even though I have fighting experience and a black belt – I could get hit from behind. Knowing how to defend yourself is just one more tool in a multi-layered stratagy. I mean if women avoid bad areas, use awareness, have non-lethal (or lethal) weapons, male companions, self-defense training, don’t fight for stuff, and have a survivors attitude (willing to do whatever it take to win an altercation) – they will have a fighting chance!
I would like to close with a great video I found of a kung fu/karate girl demonstrating her moves. I can see this woman has a mastery of the moves she needs to fight effectivly in self defense. I home you enjoy this kata.
March 21st, 2010 at 3:21 am
Hi John, some great advice for women here. Eyes, throat and groin are pretty well known weak areas to strike but slapping the ears? I like that a lot – easy and effective. The kung fu girl in the video – brilliant performance piece but effective self-defence? I’m not so sure – too flowery in my opinion!
March 21st, 2010 at 4:57 am
[...] My Self-Defense Blog » Blog Archive » Women Kick Nuts – Gouge Eyes; Get Away! [...]
March 21st, 2010 at 8:38 am
Great information, as always, John!
As for the woman with the incredible kung fu technique, I “hate” her, lol! Now I understand more about what motivated the development of BJJ, very limber girls from Ipanema
March 22nd, 2010 at 8:21 pm
Hey Sue,
The kenpo I practice use hard and soft techniques. Although I admit I like some of the harder moves… I have a great appreciation of the softer because of my Lima Lama training.
Hey Dr. J!
Limber girls and some of the seemingly impossible locks and holds? I had not considered that but I do see your point!
March 24th, 2010 at 3:44 pm
Hey John this is an excellent post, women can definitely defend themselves effectively with the proper training and techniques. And you are absolutely right, that although people are trained to defend themselves, it is very important to be aware of your surroundings and prevent any attacks from happening in the first place – the best line of defense!
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March 24th, 2010 at 5:04 pm
Thanks for visiting!
I put a translator on the blog now, if you want to visit and read the posts in English… it would be easier hehehe
bye!
March 27th, 2010 at 4:20 am
Great post. Paying attention to your surroundings is so important. Also when you are blindsided it really is lousy. Many times that’s the way the fight goes and it is tough to recover from that.
.-= pat´s last blog ..Self Defense Training updated Sun Mar 7 2010 6:16 pm CST =-.
April 6th, 2010 at 2:49 am
I think women in life or death situations also need to be less squeamish about biting soft areas such as the neck and face. Grabbing the groin may also be practical. Don’t hold back – grab and rip! If you have something sharp, go for the eyes. If you have something hard, go for the temples. If you have something heavy, go for the teeth. If you think they’re going to get up and run after you, put some kicks into the head. From the back of the head is safer – but you run a higher risk of killing the attacker with a strike to the temple or the base of the skull (or high on the back of the neck).
June 16th, 2010 at 1:10 am
I would recommend a woman join a Krav Maga or military cqc class or police sd class for woman or bjj with kina mutai(eye gouging ,biting art)again with the object of getting up and running away.Keep fit and strong.Main targets eyes,throat,testicles.Main weapons kicks ,knee’s to testicles,grab to testicles, poke into eyes and hollow of throat,biting soft face areas’s like lips and eye brows, ears and neck,and punching throat etc.And awareness and shouting loud and a gun in the handbag.
July 30th, 2010 at 6:15 am
That is some great advice. I personally would not have any problem going for any soft spots, If I am being attacked.
July 30th, 2010 at 2:52 pm
I agree with the gist of the post but that first video: that’s just an awful kick, yet she seems pretty pleased with herself. This looks more like a warm-up/stretching exercise than an actual combative technique. First of all she loads up way too much, secondly she makes no effort whatsoever to keep up her guard and thirdly she doesn’t lean away with her upper body. The main advantage of kicks over punches is that they offer reach (the attacker’s arm is still shorter than your leg, unless you happen to be a midget) and she doesn’t use this at all. With a groinkick the main thing is to actually connect and don’t telegraph: the point isn’t to ‘kick his head off’ as she so eloquently put it but to hit him as fast as possible in one of the most vulnerable parts of the male anatomy (unless he’s on drugs he will go down and little force is needed to achieve this). Speed and accuracy are way more important than power and if he sees your technique coming a mile away you will not get away with it: any sexual predator knows the most likely physical response (if any) he’ll get is an attempted kick to the nuts, he’ll block or evade and then the woman is toast, especially when it’s an all or nothing affair like in this video. Keep your hands up, first fake to the eyes (or actually strike) then kick to the groin and preferably with the front foot (less distance to the target = less chance for him to block). The other way around works too (first a swift kick to the groin or shin, then a couple of blows to the head) but for heaven’s sake don’t do it like her! I’m sure she has good intentions but she’s a total amateur who clearly doesn’t know what she’s doing. This is the way a beginner kicks and she made all the classic mistakes, hell a 12 year old with two months of training could do it better. I’m all for self defense training for women but not if it’s taught by amateurs: perhaps it might even work with some drunken idiot or an over zealous Casanova but this will not deter a serious attacker. I’d like to see the look of surprise in this little thing’s eyes (followed by an expression of pain after getting hit, followed by sheer terror) if her ‘great and proven’ technique fails and everything falls apart around her, or on second thought I’d rather not. I’d take kung-fu girl anyday over her, if she actually charges for lessons it’s a rip-off and it’s going to get people killed sooner or later. Honestly…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gTbXPew1IE
Here’s another one of her miserable attempts at self defense: hitting the arms on a choke isn’t going to do anything if the guy is even moderately strong and his adrenaline is flowing (even if you’d hit that pressure point with supreme accuracy), she does nothing to protect her balance (in reality he’s either going to try to drive through you or pull you in for a full force choke, headbutt, takedown… Then she goes in to knee with her hands all the way down: guess what will happen if you knee someone in the groin (provided she even got to that stage with her silly escape)? His head will jerk forward and you’ll be eating his forehead, at least if you do it this way. The yell and the warrior face was nice though… This is ridiculous.
January 29th, 2011 at 7:27 pm
Women can definately defend themselves if given the correct training, but i think alot of women are reluctant to take part in this type of training.
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January 30th, 2011 at 6:10 pm
Wow… I just realized I have not been responding to this post… sorry folks… let me try now:
Thanks MMA Guide!
Hi Marciais, Thanks but I use google chrome translator. It makes visiting international web pages easy. I like reading your blog.
Hi Pat, I agree that it is the opponent you don’t see or know about that can swing a fight. That was what I worried about when I was a door man. Good point!
Hi Combatskills.net, Girls in training do tend to be a bit squeamish at times but many do transition well in combat. I think it depends on the training and woman. I think being very supportive especially if you see a training opportunity to share with your female students is probably the best way to handle this. Thanks for your comment.
Hi Carl, I think Krav is as good as any martial art. I just don’t think it is special. We all have the same weapons (hands, feet, elbows, knees, teeth…) and about the same ways of applying them. We just put them together differently perhaps. My advice would be for someone to go out there and do something! Thanks for your comment.
Bravo Julie! I am glad to hear that. I think most people would do the same in a real situation (at least I hope so).
Zara – Yes I do see your point. There is some fluff with the example I found. Thanks for keeping me honest.
Hi Andy,
Yes and yes. I think maybe short term self defense such as RAD might be a good place to start but girls and women should know that they are responsible for their own self defense at least for the first few minutes in the best case scenario.
I would argue that I would have to defend my home for the first 5 to 10 minutes until the cops got there and I could not depend on anyone but me and my family initially. That is one of the things that drove me to learning some self defense at first. Girls and women realizing they are the first line of defense might motivate some to action! At least I hope so. Thanks for your comment.