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Women’s Self Defense – Can Fighting Be Taught in a Book?
By Liza Cooper | December 7, 2009
A recent customer was unhappy with my book. He had bought it for his mother and he was disappointed that it was not chock full of pictures and illustrations.
He was looking for a book of techniques for one-to-one fighting.
And he was right. He was in the wrong place, because my book does not get into fancy karate moves.
In my experience and research, the vast majority of violent situations can be avoided by following the advice in my book. The suggestions are easy to follow and require no physical strength–a benefit for women who may be frail or disabled.
Nonetheless, I agree that it is good for women to know fighting techniques when they are forced into physical confrontation. But I question how well a book can teach it. It’s not that there aren’t excellent books out there that show all manner of fancy fighting technique–and I can steer you towards some if that is what you want.
But fighting moves have to get into your bones. That is, you have to be so familiar with them that they become second nature. In actual physical confrontation, events move at lightning fast speed. By the time you’ve racked your brain for the next move, the fight is over.
Video is a little better, but what you really need to do if you want to learn fighting techniques is to practice under controlled conditions–in other words, take self defense classes.
In a self defense or a martial arts class, you’ll get the experience of kicking and punching. That can be a novel experience if, like many women, you were brought up to be ‘nice.’ Before enrolling and plunking down your hard-earned money, look to see what the school is teaching.
Elegant moves may be impressive, but if your purpose is defending yourself in a physical altercation, then you want the learning to focus on quick, simple, effective techniques.
Learning fighting techniques is good. But your first strategy for women’s self defense should always be prevention.
Topics: Self defense for women, crime prevention | No Comments »