Self-defense course syllabus for young girls

[shesulsa]

Local laws about assault and also domestic violence are good.

Excellent suggestion.

As to the Super Girl Syndrome I tell a story about how tow young women at a nearby college were attacked. They used their Green belt technqiues (* Art omitted as not relevent *) to kcik the guy down and he was out either from a kick or hitting his head on the ground. One woman ran for help, the other staid to gloat over her victory. When the first woman got back they found the second woman had been raped. This get their attention, for those willing to open thier minds.

Good story.

I like the talk, practice, talk learn and practice some more, and then finish with a quick talk. If you need be handouts can cover things you may not ave had time to talk about or may be part of the material as covered.

Yeah, I like to give them bathroom breaks and water/snack break and try to chit-chat over the water/snack. Can't do that while they're in the potty, tho.

 

[Lisa]

I work at the local university. They offer a simple "sensible" self defence course that I try really hard to encourage our female residence to take. They also have hand outs on local statistics and common sense things to do when walking alone, etc. Most don't participate or won't. One girl told me it scares her too much to think about it. I asked her how much it would scare her when it happened to her. :idunno: that attitude, I found, more frightening then anything. Ostrich syndrome (head in the sand), if I don't think about it, it won't happen.

The whole attitude freaks me out, so I spend lunch hours with them encouraging participation and trying to get them to at least be more aware of their surroundings. It amazes me that these young women live with their heads in the sand.

 

[Rich Parsons]

I work at the local university. They offer a simple "sensible" self defence course that I try really hard to encourage our female residence to take. They also have hand outs on local statistics and common sense things to do when walking alone, etc. Most don't participate or won't. One girl told me it scares her too much to think about it. I asked her how much it would scare her when it happened to her. :idunno: that attitude, I found, more frightening then anything. Ostrich syndrome (head in the sand), if I don't think about it, it won't happen.

The whole attitude freaks me out, so I spend lunch hours with them encouraging participation and trying to get them to at least be more aware of their surroundings. It amazes me that these young women live with their heads in the sand.

U of Mich - Ann Arbor had a student escort program to help against assault and sexual assaults. They always sent a woman for the escort. Either tow women or man and woman. They had ID's, and wore "U" shirts identifying them as escorts. This helped with the travel in group mentality for safety.

While the U of Mich - Flint has an escort system supplied by the safety officers. Sometimes though these safety officers are just another female college student, the issue is that their is a dispatch / communications officer who knows where they are, and the escort also carries a radio.

Sorry for the off topic discussion.

 

[Jonathan Randall]

2)Supergirl syndrome (not gonna happen to me).

thoughts?

What my Kenpo instructor did was require his students to go shooting with him at least once. During the session, the students were able to see what a firearm can actually do compared to empty-hand techniques. One other option, although it's a ROUGH one, would be to download that awful clip from another thread (forgot which) where this poor convenience store clerk (a large, older man) is robbed and than shot three times when the lowlifes see that his till is empty. It is very horrible because you can hear his screams and groans. However, one viewing of this or similiar real-life violent crime incidents caught on tape should kill any Super Girl syndrome that pops up. You would have to find a way to do it super respectfully, though, as the victim deserves as much dignity as possible.

 

[Devin]

"...other option, although it's a ROUGH one, would be to download that awful clip from another thread (forgot which) where this poor convenience store clerk (a large, older man) is robbed and than shot three times when the lowlifes see that his till is empty."

Does anyone know where I can find this clip?

(Sorry for the highjack)

 

[Xequat]

Just a couple of things to add...I heard a guest on a radio talk show a few days talking about what she teaches in her classes for women, and the biggest point she made about reacting is that even though you are taken off guardm you can recover quickly if you remember to breathe. She asks a lot of her participants what they'd do if someone attacked them and too many say things like "Oh, I'd probably panic or faint or lose my breath until it's too late." Then she asks them what they'd do if someone tried to take their child. Their response is typically along the lines of "I'd kill, maim, break, mangle, etc him." So why not react that way if someone tries to take your kid's mom, being you? I thought that was a pretty good way to put things into perspective and help bring out the fight or flight mechanism in the women.

The other thing is, don't be afraid of the punches being too weak. This is one thing that I've seen taught a lot that I disagree with. I've seen classes do push-ups to help with punching muscles, etc., but that doesn't necessarily help. I believe that the secret to a good punch is speed, not power. Power is for pushing, shoving, lifting, etc, but speed is for damage. My teacher and I came up a with a good analogy for this...Have you ever hit a baseball or golf ball or softball, etc, and it went forever, but you really didn't feel like you got all of it? Thought to yourself "Man, if I had hit that thing as hard as I could have, I probably would have set a record. I really wasn't trying on that one and it went pretty far." Well, the reason is that when muscles are tight, you are more pushing the ball than you are swinging at it because tight muscles create tension and resistance along the bones, other muscles, etc, and actually can serve to slow down the punch. A good, loose punch will come out noticably faster than a tense one, so in a way, I might rather take a punch from Arnold Schwarzenegger than from a 12-year-old girl. Keep loose, and just sling your fist out there. To practice, throw one as tense as you can, then throw one easy and see which hurts more. It takes a bit of practice to see what I'm talking about, but try it on pads, heavy bags, each other's arms, whatever, and after a few tries, you should notice a difference.

 

[TigerWoman]

Since 1 out of 5 attacks/rapes are from strangers, the rest are from people known, so you should address those scenarios. Kids are very trusting usually so we need to get it into their head to never trust just anyone. So I would go over basic protection awareness first. Personal, pick your friends well, alone in buildings, the internet, social settings, appropriate behavior by adults, their rights and where they can go for support. For the 12 year olds - also social circumstances, sleepovers and dates. Then walking alone scenarios, shopping place, elevator, and eventually workplace. Those 12 year olds grow up to be 16-18 fast and this may be their last information on the subject. I sent my teen off to college with pepper spray even though it was a private college that had escort service w/radios. After all, they don't always stay on campus. She got close to using it once.

I'm always ordering new tapes for my SD/Kickboxing/Women's class and found a DVD by Barbara Hale and Robert Ferguson called "Rape Awareness and Prevention for Women". I got it from Century. It has a good presentation to large groups. It fires off alot of tips and scenarios, mostly for women, but those 12 year olds listen now and at 16-18, don't want to hear it then. Ingrained now, as most attacks happen at a very young age. The first part is tips and what ifs and the second part are techniques and demonstrations of attacks/defenses so you could leave off the second part as you show defenses. 40 min. total./20 each

For self-defense, I would keep it very simple. I'm not so sure a young girl can get out of a one arm grab from a man. I know I can't get out of my master's grip when its a straight vertical grip, not the horizontal one, without a strike to the wrist or an elbow break. On breaking the elbow, I don't think an eight year old can usually do that.

They can break a knee with a sidekick though as it only takes about 15 lbs of pressure. Practice that with partners just showing how and where they should place their foot without pressure. They can kick to the groin, pop ears with palms, put fingers into eyes, knifehand to throat. They can hammerfist - nose, throat, groin, knee. Punching not as good without training. Not sure about a stomp when most kids just wear rubber soled shoes and not hard heeled shoes. A 12 yr. old could use elbow strikes to face, head but I think would have to be trained more. 12 yr. olds could knee to the groin.

For kids, I think it is better to just stick to sidekicks to knee, ear pops, finger strikes, groin strikes, and knife/hammerfist to throat and of course to RUN! TW

 

[shesulsa]

TW - when I told my girl scouts (11-14) about the 1-in-5 statistic, they were all amazed. And like you said, there is the doubt level in young women, so I'm having a couselor from the YWCA come to talk to them as well as a police officer about statistics.

Honestly, though, I tell my girls to stay away from finger strikes as opposed to gouging and flesh tears, open palm strikes and hammerfists. Most girls' fingers just aren't strong enough to handle a finger strike the way folks who have trained to do it are - their delicate little fingers are playing flutes and violins, not breaking boards and gripping gis.

Also, I want to address the side kick to the knee. I have seen girls demonstrate a stomp kick like they're putting the kick-stand on their bike down - just as delicately, too. So, I've been showing to stomp like you're gonna stomp a cockroach or ants or poprocks. They understand that and are generally more likely to put their weight behind the stomp. Then we take the angle up a bit. Fun, Fun Fun!! Once they get the idea of putting power behind a kick and what that really means, they really start to feel more powerful in taking charge.

 

[beau_safken]

I think that for those ladies 18+, you should suggest finding a larger martial art's friend to chill with. Preferably one with brown hair, blue eyes and that likes cooking and long walks on the beach

Seriously, I am a big fan of the awareness of situations and always having a plan of checking in with. Having a parent, another adult and your friends know where you are at all times as well as who your with increases their chances of being safe. Avoiding obvious ones like keggers and the like...but then again i dont know too many of those happening now that I can legally drink.

Eye gouging, heel to the testicles, stabbing to the face with a pen, sharp rings and no necklace, not dressing like a whore and knowing some basic grab release techniques. And tell them that cheating is only for the those that lose to complain about

 

[TigerWoman]

Honestly, though, I tell my girls to stay away from finger strikes as opposed to gouging and flesh tears, open palm strikes and hammerfists. Most girls' fingers just aren't strong enough to handle a finger strike the way folks who have trained to do it are - their delicate little fingers are playing flutes and violins, not breaking boards and gripping gis.

A finger strike/claw hand to the eyes for a 12 yr. old is still pretty devastating, call it a gouge whatever but no finger strikes for any other area.

If the girls practice on each other, no stomping or even hard pressure as they might not know when to stop! You could put boards up on a couple of low blocks though--those 5x12" size or a rebreakable and they could practice with shoes on. TW

 

[shesulsa]

OH yes, we don't have them stomp on each other, that's just common sense, but thank you. Fingers to the eyes is fine, prolly gripping the trachea too.