THE QUESTION:

Hello,

Due to the recent horrific incidents targeting asian women I fear for my family and friends safety.

I have done some research in terms of martial arts and have been warn by many that there are frauds in the martial arts world. Even if they are not frauds there are many self defense classes for women that might not deliver when they are in a dangerous situation.

I have heard of your style of martial arts and wonder how your self defense program for women differ?

OUR RESPONSE:

Many instructors of martial arts claim to teach self defence courses for women, and in the same breath tell their female students or other female martial artists that they will never be as good as men in the martial arts. Which begs the question -- why bother teaching the self defence to women if deep down you don't truly believe that they will ever beat a male attacker?

Our self defence program is based on the style, and uses the basic movements that we feel would be most easily learned by beginners who have never learned martial arts. Our program is 8 sessions of 1.5 hours each, which is fairly standard as far as self defence programs go. If you want my honest opinion, I don't think that ANY self defence programs anywhere will help a woman defend herself though, if she doesn't have two things: (1) attitude and (2) a willingness to train. We tell this to all of our students, regardless of whether they're in the self defence program or traditional classes. A self defence program is not a gun that you carry with you, so your question about whether or not it can deliver really depends on the students themselves. Our program IS effective with women who are willing to train hard though. We have taught very petite students (eg. 5ft 1in, 95 lbs) who are so spunky that they can nail a larger person (eg. 5ft 10in, 180 lbs), and then we have seen large women who can't fight well because they are afraid.

My partner and I are proof that even small women can fight back. We have defended ourselves in street fights with men (where they attack us first in an attempt to mug us) where they just end up running because they know they can't win. It's all about confidence, attitude, and reaction. Our program incorporates some of our stories and awareness issues that will help students REALIZE that what is stopping them from reacting to attackers is their fear and lack of experience. In our classes, they learn not only some moves that will make them much harder to deal with -- and in our experience with male attackers, they will usually stop trying if they know that the woman is going to put up a good fight -- but we also train them to react to surprise attack situations. The best fighters in the world are not good fighters if they are stunned by surprise attacks, or paralysed with fear. So we work hard to improve our students in that regard. Being prepared is the best defence.

Hope this will help you in your search for a suitable program.

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