In 1986/87 College year I transferred to U of Michigan Ann Arbor. Every stop sign had the word "RAPE" painted on it so it read Stop Rape.
The College had a service set up to escort students and they always showed up in pairs. The thought was two fold, attackers were always alone. And in a pair if they were attacked while going to or from the escort then one could always get away and find a phone with a blue light on it that would ring thru to the Safety Department. In Michigan Safety Departments have Full time and Part time Police officers as well as non police officers usually referred to as security or security types.
In 1985/86 year there were two young women who were attacked and they fought back and actually disabled the bad guy. He was out and on the ground. One woman left to call for help the other staid against the want of the one who left. She staid as she felt she could take him again. He came too, and faked being out. She did not survive the encounter.
In the article, a young woman was almost sexually assaulted by a male attacker. Girl had practiced Karate for 15 years, and fought back against her attacker after he pinned her to the ground and started taking her clothes off. Eventually, someone heard her screaming, and the attacker fled. The woman had a head wound, and some bruised ribs.
Being alone and not paying attention is not a good thing. Being alone and still getting into trouble while paying attention is possible.
It is good she got survived and that the third part came along.
Now there's some interesting details that bothered me about this story;
1. The girl struck her attacker several times, but wasn't able to stop the attack.
Did she strike properly? Did she just hit him like a child and did not strike through him with intent and in a vital area?
Not sure. It might have helped or allowed he to create space and get a way.
2. She ended up on the ground after being surprised from behind.
This is possible to most if not all people. We all can be surprised at some point in our day.
While I applaud her warrior spirit, I can't help but wonder what would have happened if a third party hadn't intervened. I also can't help but wonder what would have happened if she knew some ground fighting/grappling.
Yes Ground fighting might have helped her to escape and create space and get away.
Yet, I have wrestled people who are twice my body mass ( I weighed less than I do now ) and they just laid on top of me until I could not breath any more. No real technique and no real defense as I could not move them enough to get into a spot to make space. I could not strike them in a spot to make them react. I was pinned. So even big guys can run into this issue.
That being said, if she really wants to learn self defense, then she could go get a CPL (Concealed Pistol License) and learn to shot and learn to draw under fire and respond. Of course most people (males included) just do the minimum training to get the license.
If a pistol is not what one wants to carry, and sometimes is not allowed on a college or school campus then training with knives and grappling with knives is important. One one gets used to deploying a blade while on the ground and then using it they can then carry a pen or other improvised tool on them in areas where a knife cannot be legally carried.
Yet, I still point back to the case where I let the guy who weight twice as much as me get on top of me while I on my back. We were trying to do some techniques and while he was trying I had a chance as he kept some weight off of me and was trying to move which allowed me to move. So I asked him to just become dead weight, and WOW! I was done. As long as he was able to cover the one spot I could poke or hit he could just stay there for 30 to 60 seconds and I could not continue with any real fight as I could not breathe.
Size does matter.
