Society seems to dictate that women should be delicate, passive and always polite. In many cases, we give our power away because we feed into these societal norms. Crime has escalated exorbitantly and women must know when to go from passive to a fierce warrior. We cannot stand idly by waiting for help. We must rise to the occasion and know how to give someone the beat down.
Self defense is a crucial skill that all women should know, and it takes time to develop these skills. Many women, including myself have been in situations where we looked around and didn’t feel comfortable, and in some cases the situation had the potential to quickly become dangerous. It’s important to have situational awareness and be aware of your surroundings at all times. If you do not feel comfortable, don’t feel bad about getting out of the situation all together. As well, trust your gut. When your intuition is making your spidey senses go off, it’s time to get out of there.
In many cases, predators watch their potential victims before they strike. In a study regarding how predators selected their victims, pedestrians were videotaped walking down a street and had incarcerated convicts view them. Within seven seconds of viewing the pedestrians the convicts had selected their targets. Selections were not based on gender, size, age or race, but rather on the body language exhibited. The convicts identified the following body language cues used as their basis for victim selection:
Posture: People that walked with shoulders slouched or slumped were selected as victims as opposed to those who walked with their chin up.
Gaze: Those avoiding eye contact were chosen as victims because of the perception that they were preoccupied. Making eye contact naturally communicates confidence.
Stride: People who walked with a stride that was too long or too short, or those who shuffled or dragged their feet, were selected over those who had a smooth and natural gait.
Rate: Those who walked slowly with no apparent purpose, and those who walked fast as if they were uncomfortable, were selected over those who walked naturally and deliberately.
Fluidity: Those who demonstrated awkwardness in their movements were chosen over those who seemed to glide as they walked.
Wholeness: Those who swung their arms wildly while walking were selected over those who moved from their center, with coordination and balance.Physical impairments may prevent some people from projecting confidence. If they fail, victims must decide whether or not defensive action is necessary and appropriate. Carrying a concealed firearm can level the playing field, but retrieving it may not always be possible. Introducing a firearm into a volatile situation isn’t always the best response. That determination is dictated by the totality of the circumstances. Two studies may provide helpful insight when making that decision. (Source)
In the following video, essential self defense techniques are discussed. The presenter wants every female to be able to defend herself by focusing on eight soft targets: “Eyes, ears, mouth, nose, throat, groin, fingers and toes.” Knowing how to use these soft targets in a self defense situation could save a life. His main priority in this video is for you to defend yourself so you can flee to safety.
Practice these moves until they become second nature. You never know when you will need them.
To hone in on your hardcore self defense skills, don’t forget some of these great resources:
Fight Like a Girl…and Win: Defense Decisions for Women
The Law of Self Defense: The Indispensable Guide to the Armed Citizen, 2nd Edition
Krav Maga for Women: Your Ultimate Program for Self Defense
This article was originally published at Ready Nutrition™ on April 20th, 2015
Thanks, I just had my youngest daughter look at this short video, then she worked me over for practice. God Bless.
I have been teaching Krav Maga to women and girls for over 5 years now and we teach a technique which should be in every woman and girls arsenal.
This is the “groin grab” self defense technique to use against a male attacker which is taught in many womens self defense classes, and there is actually a little trick to it… We are a women only event, run by women, for women, and this is what we teach to women of all ages:
You’re going to take your hand and grasp between the attackers thighs underhand. Its going to feel like you’re “cradling” the testicles. Dig your fingertips into the fragile skin BEHIND the scrotum. Then, once you have a good grip, you turn your hand into a vice, with your fingers digging inwards, around the back and over the top of the testicles. If you do it right, you should feel the testes INSIDE your hand which is holding the scrotum. You want, whenever possible, to hook your fingers over at least one testicle. One of them is enough.
Then, with your hands in a claw and your fingertips latched around the testes, you turn your hand sharply, as though you were turning a doorknob. Simultaneously, squeeze and pull the testicles away from his body as fast and as hard as you can. Do not let go of them. What happens then, is that your assailant usually screams out in pain and then tries to grab the wrist of your hand holding him in a futile attempt to try to get you to release him. Don’t. He then quickly loses one of the natural advantages he usually has over us (his strength) within a matter of seconds. Vomiting, curling over, collapsing and convulsing is common. Shock and unconsciousness can set in within 8 seconds. When he collapses, which he will, you get away to safety as quickly as possible and report the crime.
It’s never too late to perform this at any stage of an attack, and that even includes the option of reaching down if he’s on top of you, but it is easiest to do when the testicles are exposed and closest to you where you can grab hold of them. I’ve actually met several women in my life who have fought off their attackers in this way and one did it when her attacker was on top of her and raping her at the point he lost control. Don’t ever hold back. Some women scream while they are doing this, and some women think of a loved one being harmed to help overcome any bad feelings of hurting someone else even if they are being hurt themselves. Do whatever you have to do if it helps.
If done properly, and done with enough force, this technique can even lead to the testicles rupturing. It’s actually easier to do than most women believe, and just about all of us have the capability to injure an attackers testicles in this way – whether we are young girls still of school age, or whether we are great grandmothers. After all, if you think about it testicles are just small objects of extreme vulnerability to pain squishiness wrapped in a delicate flap of skin which offers them no protection at all from this kind of counterattack to them. Most importantly, this fact holds true no matter what size your attacker is, nor how strong he is. And no matter how angry he is, nor how much he’s threatened what he’s going to do to you, he’s going to drop. Don’t let anyone (usually men) try to convince you otherwise.
Its good advice, but be aware, a man pumped up on Adrenalin, and in fight or flight mode, will have a deadened sense of pain to damage to extremities. I personally have been kicked hard in the groin in a fight, and i simply shrugged it off. I am sure had I been hit like that without being keyed up, Id have been in agony.
You got lucky! On Youtube you can find some examples of martial artists who’ve been kicked in the groin during MMA matches and all of these tough guys went down hard. In fact, one of the guys had to carried to the hospital on a stretcher.
When I was in junior college,at a party, this woman kneed me right in the groin so hard that I literally passed out; and not from the pain, but from massive shock to my whole nervous system. BTW, she attacked me. Nevertheless, the moral of the story is that the alcohol in my system might have deadened the pain but it couldn’t stop my body from going into trauma induced shock that made me lose consciousness. That’s why any hard shot to the groin could be a fight ender…………..
I was taught this technique 30+ years ago. I learned it in a self defense class for women, the instructor was the local sheriff. It does work. Even on drugs, the body reacts to this defense, though it may take longer. The key is to have confidence in it working. 🙂
This is certainly true. In fact, I read of one news story in China where some women actually killed a male shop owner using only the groin grab because of an argument over a parking space. Also, there are some news stories where women have used the groin grab, with devastating results, when they were the aggressors in domestic violence situations. That’s why if any women ever put her hand near my groin over something as silly as this than she’d have 8-13 seconds to make me pass out before I ripped her eyes right out of their sockets.
Nevertheless it’s a good thing that most rapists are stupid. It’s amazing what some of these idiots will actually ask their victims to do! That’s why the groin grab is just there for the taking……….
Question: Will the groin grab work when the guy’s wearing heavy duty or even regular jeans?
When my daughter was 4, I was teaching her stranger danger. Then one day I realized it wasn’t necessarily strangers she needed to watch for. So we began taking ‘exploration’ trips to the park, the mall, downtown, and anywhere we could sit and watch people.
I taught her to watch how people walked, what they did as they walked, and then ask for what she felt with each person. Over many explorations, she learned to ‘read’ people not just looking for prey but for those who would prey on others. By the time she was a teen, I didn’t have to ban her from the “downtown street people.” She knew how watch and be aware. BTW: It isn’t just about fight or flight…add “freeze” to this. You have seen it and can google it. This is when we stop action and freeze in place. Some of us know it as lockdown now. There is a time and place when each works, better to know about freeze for when it’s needed. Over 60% of people will experience this freeze given a situation which calls for emergency action they’ve never had before. Better to teach BEFORE that emergency (whatever it is) happens.