SEPS & Women
FREE Women's Self Defense Seminar Saturday December 6th 2008. please, click here for details. Also new 8 week female self defense course starting in January at our Medford location. Click Here for details.
When martial arts say they are suitable for women or offer a self defense 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 defense' is seen as the
same as 'male self defense' 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 one which is actually quite hard to pull off in a high stress situation).
If you want to read about the general SEPS approach to self defense
please click here.
The Difference Between Attacks On Men & Women
Any self defense system that states it is suitable for women has to recognise that there is a difference,
both in motivation and nature between attacks on men and women and be able to provide appropriate solutions
to both.
The majority of attacks on women tend to be sexually motivated (although women may well be attacked as part
of a robbery, handbag snatch etc) and involve a high level of control - being pushed to the ground, held
against a wall etc, etc. Striking does feature in such attacks but mainly as a means of subduing any resistance
that is put up.
There are categories of rapists who do strike for the sake of causing pain in itself but these personalities
make up a minority of all sexual predators.
SEPS & The Need For Women To Learn Self defense
Often women will argue, that they have little need for learning self-defense (or place it low on their
priorities) as they avoid potentially dangerous situation e.g. allowing a stranger into their house, walking
alone late at night etc. However it impossible to be 100% safe as decision making in life is not black and
white and instead consists of many 'grey areas'e.g. does someone you work with and see on a day-to-day basis,
even though you may actually know very little about them, constitute a stranger? Would you let them into your
home if there was a reasonable reason? etc
It is these 'grey areas' that sexual predators are skilled at exploiting and where they operate. The majority
of them are socially competent (it's how they gain access to individuals and what makes them difficult to catch) and hard to
identify.
This is probably one of the biggest misconceptions about sexual offenders: they are virtually impossible to
detect. They know how to manipulate social settings and how to set events running in the direction they
want them to go. Women who are attacked and raped aren't stupid, rarely are they in the settings that people
think should be avoided e.g. dark alleys etc, most of the time they are in their homes and with someone they
think they know and can trust. To quote Dr Anna C. Salter (A world renowned authority, author and
lecturer on sex offenders and their victims):
“The statistics for rape tell a very odd story. Women are least safe at home and least safe with friends, acquaintances and family. Statistically speaking,
women are better off with strangers and being anywhere but our homes...”
N.B. U.S. statistics (and as rape is a universal crime it is more than likely that these statistics are applicable for any
modern western society), suggest that only 1/3 rd of all rapes are committed by strangers and more than 1/2 of
all rapes took place in someone’s home e.g. the victims, the perpetrators, a neighbours etc.
(U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (2000))
Rather than being alarmed by these facts they should be used to help understand how 'successful' sexual
predators are at masking their intentions and gaining access to both their 'intended victims' and a suitable
place to carry out their crimes.
As Gavin De Becker (a world renowned expert at predicting violent behaviour):
“The capable face-to-face criminal is an expert at keeping his victim from seeing survival signs...”
What De Becker is saying is, that although sexual predators are skilled at disguising their intentions they
can not hide them completely, in fact the very techniques they use to gain trust and 'control' (all sexual
assaults have 'control' as an overriding motivation) of individuals and situations can act as indicators and
signs as to their true intentions. These indicators are 'survival signs' for an intended victim.
SEPS: A Comprehensive Approach To Female Self defense
A comprehensive approach to female self-defense, as opposed to one that just pays lip service
(and it is
worth remembering that the majority of traditional martial arts were designed to be used by men) should teach
and include in its training the following areas:
SEPS: Empowerment Through Self defense
Learning to defend yourself is extremley empowering: knowing that you can recognise a hostile situation/person
and act in the correct manner allows you to start controlling events that would otherwise slip away from you.
This confidence alone will be recognised by most predators, meaning you will be left alone. (Practicing Krav
Maga also brings other benefits e.g. fitness, strength, general health etc).
In our classes men and women are taught together, not seperately. This is important as women need to experience
attacks made by men as it is men that will most likely to be the aggressors out on the street and the feeling of
a male attack - even when practising - is very different to that of a female one e.g. most women do not have
enough power in their hands to apply chokes to the throat effectively so the 'feel' of being choked by a woman is
very different to that of a choke by a man.
If you would like details of self defense classes in the Massachusetts area then please
click here.
Please feel free to take a look at some sample movie clips of SEPS self defense to get a
better idea of the system. Click Here.
Some women may be put off by training with men and would rather just train with other females, if this is the case
then it may be worth getting together with some female friends/colleagues and contacting me regarding putting on a
short course or seminar etc (to contact me please click here