Women's Self Defense Boston

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When martial arts say they are suitable for women or offer a self defence component, often they are just highlighting the fact that there are some techniques in their system which don't use as much brute strength or depend upon a persons physical size as others. In many ways 'female self defence' is seen as the same as 'male self defence' but with some of the 'more physical' bits of the system taken out and a lot of emphasis put on 'kicking to the groin' as hard as is physically possible (a valid and effective technique but not one that you need to attend a mass of classes to learn how to do).

Differences Between Assaults On Men & Women

e.g. attacks by men on other men tend to be preceeded by an escalation of violence, shown in both conversation and actions, which tends to be motivated by the attacker feeling a need to prove himself or regain some perceived lost respect whereas attacks by men on women tend to be sexually motivated and are normally preceeded by the 'attacker' going through a process of 'association', of gaining the intended victims trust and attempting to appear, initially at least, as non-threatening as possible.

(Obviously this is a 'generalisation' and is really only intended to highlight one of the major differences between attacks on men and women and show that there is an obvious difference between both groups self-defence 'needs')

The way in which men and women are physically assaulted also tends to be different, in that men are normally attacked in a manner that will cause maximum damage (i.e. punching and kicking etc ) whereas women tend to be subjected to attacks which attempt to physically control them (such as being picked up, pushed to the ground etc). This Of course isn't true of all attacks on women and even when physical control is necessary, in the case of rape, there are types of rapists, such as 'anger rapists' whose attacks are also intended to inflict substantial damage.

(Also women may be 'hit' as part of the process of control and men may be 'controlled' so that more damage can be inflicted on them - There aren't any 'absolute truths' in the way people are attacked)

Proper female self defence should also include techniques to deal with unwanted physical harrassement in situations where it's not necessarilly appropriate to kick or knee someone between the legs as hard as possible. For instance the 'aggressor' may be an employer/manager, in a social setting - such as a works party - who after one to many drinks starts acting in an inappropriate manner (unwanted physical contact: touching, man handling etc).

Situational Responses To Violence

Rather than responding with an all out assault, which leaves your boss lying on the floor, wrapped up in a blood stained set of Armani rags - neatly tied up with his Gucci belt - it may be better (in that situation) to be able to apply a 'softer' and possibly more appropriate set of techniques, which puts the necessary message across, without the evening having to end to the sound of ambulance sirens.

Krav Maga, genuinely acknowledges that attacks on men and women tend to be different coming from different motivations and resulting in different possible outcomes. It also concentrates heavily on recognising would be attackers - and 99 times out of a 100 they're not the 'obvious' ones (i.e. the man in the dirty mac hanging around a pub car park late at night). For example 'Sexual Predators' on the whole tend to be extremley sociable people who are difficult to detect, which is why they can go so long without getting caught.

However they do reveal themselves in their conversation when 'selecting a victim' and so it is possible to identify them - not an easy thing to do but something which is possible.

Female self defence to be useful has to take all these things in to account as well as a long list of other factors and Krav Maga does, which is why in my opinion it is an ideal self defence system for women to learn.

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