Women's Self Defense Class

I took a free women's self defense class at Taekwondo USA tonight. It was fun, informative and empowering. The owner of the place talked to us for a bit about always observing our surroundings, having confidence and not being an easy target. Then he demonstrated some basic self defense moves for us to practice. We paired up and practiced them, holding a kick pad on our arm for our partner to use as a target. For our "graduation" we each got to break a board with our foot (the key is to not stop your kick at the board, but to keep kicking through the board). Pretty cool! We were also given a packet of coupons from local businesses and a discount on any Taekwondo class and uniform if we signed up that night.

He said most attacks on women are by someone they know. The statistics he gave us for the reasons a man attacks a woman are:

power 80%
anger 15%
situation 3%
kill 2%

I actually found them comforting because the 2 with the least % are the ones I've worried about the most. Also, once he explained that there are many ways we can make the man feel less powerful and not have control over us, he will be likely to give up and seek out an easier target...and therefore the 80% is greatly lowered. He showed us a great trick for getting a man to back away or get off of us. It is the throat poke where you drive your index finger and middle finger into the "valley" below the thorax and then downward. This restricts his breathing and puts you in control.

He also mentioned that car doors that are locked crush differently than doors that are not locked. It is safer and less damaging to you to have your car door locked when in an accident. I had always thought it would be better to have it unlocked so it could be opened more easily after an accident. And, of course, it is also safer to have your door locked so a pedestrian can't open the door and hop in your car.