Self-Defense for Women

Ensuring your personal safety and security is one the most important things in life. It is an unfortunate fact of the world that many, many thousands of people are subjected to violent attacks every single day of the year, and most of these people will be wholly unprepared to handle the situation. Not only can such attacks lead to serious injury which can have a huge impact on your quality of life, or even to your death, the can also have a major psychological impact, leaving happy and outgoing people fearful, miserable and withdrawn. Without your health and your security everything else just falls away.

Learning self-defense can give you a very high chance of being able to walk away from such a violent confrontation without any serious injury - physical or psychological - and can also give you a great confidence boost in your day to day life, knowing that you are prepared.

For women there are specific issues which need to be taken into consideration. Most martial arts were created by men, and are practiced mainly by men, but the kind of self-defense situation that is women is most likely to find herself in is different from the most likely situations for men, as are the innate strengths and weaknesses of men and women often different. Very few martial arts classes will cover defending yourself against a sexual assault, for example.

Using personal security products can be a great help for women. Carrying a personal alarm, a can of pepper spray, or even a stun gun, can really put your mind at ease as well as instantly giving you as much protection as you would get from years of self-defense classes.

But some training is also good to have if you want to be well prepared, whilst also giving yourself a fitness and confidence boost at the same time. But you should be careful about choosing which class you go to. Many martial arts classes, such as kickboxing, MMA, Muay Thai and so on are actual combat sports and are completely inappropriate for self defense. Krav Maga, developed by the Israeli Defense Force is a good 'reality based' martial art which focuses on real life situations you might find yourself. If you are particularly small and slender then Wing Chun Kung Fu may be a good choice, as it was created especially for smaller people wanted to be able to hold their own against larger opponents. There are also generic self-defense classes, which are much more likely to cover useful and relevant subjects than a general martial arts class.

I hope that this article has inspired you to put more thought into your personal security, and that it has given you some useful pointers to get started, as it could be the single most important thing you will ever do.