Women’s Self Defence

Learning the physical skills and mental preparedness to empower self & other women

It must be emphasized here that the responsibility of violence always lies in the hands of the perpetrator. Learning Self-defence is bringing out the inner strength you already have and allowing that to transform yourself into a more assertive and confident self.

We take a holistic approach to Self Defence, it is a synergy between mind and body. Combining the power of the mind and body gives us a much better chance of defending ourselves.

Physical

The physical techniques are based on Wing Chun Kung Fu, the only style of martial arts invented by a female, making them very suitable for the female physique.

Men and women are attacked differently in most cases: men are kicked and punched while women are grabbed and grappled with. Since the stranger -attacker wants to drag the victim away and assault her in a more discrete location, his hands are tied up. This is most important, because it means his BEST weapons are surrendered to you and his vulnerable spots are probably open and defencelss. In other words, you have a good chance of attacking his vulnerable spots.

Techniques that women can use on commonly face sexual attacks

We only teach a basic set of six techniques which will over most of the attacks that women commonly face in sexual attacks:

Palm strike
Leopard strike
Front kick
Knee strike
Back strike
Back kick

These basic techniques are applied with strong low stances so you have good stability and balance and you can generate more power from your hips (women have strong hips).

These techniques will then be applied against partners in all sorts of grabs and grapples situations over and over again. Since you have only very few techniques to choose from, you will not be confused easily. This bodily reflex will be drilled into your muscle memory over time.

This physical competence will give you an exhilarating sense of confidence and takes you on an exciting discovery about your own inner strength.

The last level of the Course will enable you to react against most of the attacks WITH YOUR EYES CLOSED!!!!! It will be an incredible feeling to genuinely know that you have a chance in fending off an attacker, this will give you such a boost to your confidence and sense of empowerment. This empowerment will permeate through every part of your life and become a natural part of your interactions with people and things all around you.

Remember these Equalizers

Men are known to be physically stronger but women are more co-ordinated, relaxed and agile.

The important equalizers for women are:

Men have a distinct disadvantage in having the most easily hurt and sensitive part of their anatomy in a frontal exposed manner – their groin. In fact, they also have bigger Adam’s apples than women, making their throats a bigger and easier target to strike. Moreover, their vulnerable spots such as eyes, ears, knees and ankles are just as sensitive and easily damaged as women’s, yet they have a weakness that we simply don’t have. This is a huge equalizer for the female species!!
The element of surprise: attackers do not generally expect you to resist or fight back, so if you can take them by surprise, this can be a definite advantage.
The element of surprise: attackers do not generally expect you to resist or fight back, so if you can take them by surprise, this can be a definite advantage.
We usually carry things we can use, like our handbags to swing with, our stilettos to strike with, our umbrellas to hit with and so on. Women tend to have more ‘things’ around them to use as weapons than men.

The best defence for women is offence: to run away once their attacker is temporarily incapacitated. The best offence is to strike the vulnerable spots enough, so women can get away. The act of offence is often easier to execute than the act of holding someone down and restricting their movements.

Physical

The physical techniques are based on Wing Chun Kung Fu, the only style of martial arts invented by a female, making them very suitable for the female physique.

Techniques that women can use on commonly face sexual attacks

We only teach a basic set of six techniques which will over most of the attacks that women commonly face in sexual attacks:

Palm strike
Leopard strike
Front kick
Knee strike
Back strike
Back kick

These basic techniques are applied with strong low stances so you have good stability and balance and you can generate more power from your hips (women have strong hips).

This physical competence will give you an exhilarating sense of confidence and takes you on an exciting discovery about your own inner strength.

Remember these Equalizers

Men are known to be physically stronger but women are more co-ordinated, relaxed and agile.

The important equalizers for women are:

Men have a distinct disadvantage in having the most easily hurt and sensitive part of their anatomy in a frontal exposed manner – their groin. In fact, they also have bigger Adam’s apples than women, making their throats a bigger and easier target to strike. Moreover, their vulnerable spots such as eyes, ears, knees and ankles are just as sensitive and easily damaged as women’s, yet they have a weakness that we simply don’t have. This is a huge equalizer for the female species!!
The element of surprise: attackers do not generally expect you to resist or fight back, so if you can take them by surprise, this can be a definite advantage.
The element of surprise: attackers do not generally expect you to resist or fight back, so if you can take them by surprise, this can be a definite advantage.
We usually carry things we can use, like our handbags to swing with, our stilettos to strike with, our umbrellas to hit with and so on. Women tend to have more ‘things’ around them to use as weapons than men.

Mental Awareness

Non-stranger

Knowledge is power; we need to familiarize ourselves with some of the facts and figures about violence against women:

Estimates published by WHO indicate that globally about 1 in 3 (30%) of women worldwide have been subjected to either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime. – 9th march 2021, World Health Organization.
Vast majority of survivors of sexual violence are female and most perpetrators are male.
In most cases of sexual assaults, the perpetrator is someone known to the survivor and perhaps known well, such as a current or former partner or family member.
Data from ABS Recorded Crime – Victims also indicate that, for states and territories where the relationship between victim and offender was recorded (excluding Western Australia), more sexual assaults of people aged 15 and over involved an offender who was known to the victim (77%) than a stranger (23%). – p 8, ‘Sexual Assault in Australia ‘ published August 2020.

Some Attitudes; our own and our male compatriots’, need to be reviewed so we can move forward in the right direction:

MYTH	FACT
Sex is the primary motivation for rape.	Power, anger, dominance and control are the main motivating factors for rape.
Only certain types of women are raped.	Any woman can be a victim of rape.
Women falsely report rape.	Only a very small percentage of reported rapes are thought to be false reports.
Rape is perpetrated by a stranger.	The vast majority of rapes are perpetrated by a known assailant.
Rape involves a great deal of physical.	Most rapes do not involve a great deal of physical force. The majority violence and the use of a weapon. of victims report that they were afraid of receiving serious injuries or of being killed and so offered little resistance to the attack. This may also explain why little force or weapons are needed to subdue victims.
Rape leaves obvious signs of injury.	Because most rapes do not involve a significant amount of force there may be no physical injuries. Just because a person has no physical injuries does not mean they were not raped. Only approximately one-third of rape victims sustain visible physical injuries.
When women say “no” to sex, they actually ‘yes’.	“No” means no; a woman’s wishes in this regard should respected at all times.
Sex workers cannot be raped.	Any man or woman, regardless of his/her involvement in the commercial sex industry, can be raped. Studies show that a significant proportion of male and female sex workers have been raped by their clients, the police or their partners.
A man cannot rape his wife.	Any forced sex or forced sexual activity constitutes rape, regardless of whether or not the woman is married to the perpetrator. Unfortunately, many jurisdictions have marital rape exemptions in their laws; although married women are subject to rape by their husbands the law does not recognize it as such.
Rape is reported immediately	The majority of rapes are never reported to the police. Of those that to the police. are reported, most are done so more than 24 hours after the incident. Victims do not report at all or delay reporting because they think nothing will be done, the perpetrator may have made threats against them or their families, they are afraid of family or community responses or they are ashamed; some victims simply feel that it is a private matter or do not know where to report the incident. 2.4.2 Risk factors

– World Health organization, Violence and injury prevention resources guideline Chapter 2

From the above studies and research it is clear that unfortunately it’s not the traditional stranger-danger that we need to worry about as much as non-stranger danger. Hence we need to use another set of strategies to guard ourselves in these situations.

Tactics such as:

Detecting discomfort
Trusting your instincts
Setting boundaries
Keeping your routines private
Setting up a network of people that you trust to turn to
Use your voice and body language
Escape routes planned
Learn to say ‘NO’ and many more……
Your last resort is using the physical techniques above.

Stranger
With stranger situations, we cover self awareness to detect danger and discuss a set of tactics to use in homes, public places, public transport, cars and so on situations.

The key here is sharpening your awareness so that you can become more alert and aware of your immediate surroundings. This early detection of danger can often avoid two out of three incident and get you out of trouble.

We will spend a good deal of time to share stories from our past students and experiences and we talk through the possibilities. So if things do go wrong, you have mentally been there before and thought through your options and choices, making it easier not to freeze and forget things.

Women’s Self Defence