Women's Self Defense Issues
Sexual assaults and other street crimes - What can you do?
In the past, police agencies would usually encourage women not to resist or fight their attackers when interviewed for an item on the local evening news. Of course, following this advice usually resulted in the "target" ending up raped or worse. Over the past five or 10 years, there seems to have been a shift in law enforcement thinking. Although they are not coming right out and saying it, police agencies provide statistics which indicate that if a victim of a sexual assault fights and resists she will usually escape her situation with little more than scrapes and torn clothing - those who don't, their misfortune is reflected in the same statistics.
Many women have, in the past, asked me about this police advice and have also expressed their concern that the police seemed to be suggesting to women that, "You should accept what is happening and to not resist if you want to live." Response was usually outrage at this police attitude and left a person to wonder why they would even suggest such a thing. As I have stated, that was in the past and the larger metropolitan and city police departments no longer make such statements when interviewed by the media when a victim might have been critically injured or killed as a result of a sexual assault. The police, however, remain concerned about an outcome should a woman be sexually assaulted and decides to fight back; but at the same time protocol does not allow them to recommend that women should enroll in a self defense course or neighbourhood martial art school if they are worried about being sexually assaulted.
My position has always been that every woman, man or youth, has the right to make the decision to defend themselves against any hostile act perpetrated against them - whatever it might be regardless of the circumstance or situation. We, as human beings, possess an inherent instinct to act, whenever we are threatened, to do something to survive. Even a person who is against using violence as a means to resolve an aggressive act, such as bullying or a mugging, actually does something in his/her own self defense even if it is weak and ineffective. The fact remains that a non-violent person will act in their own self preservation regardless of their education or religious/spiritual belief system.
Assault Statistics - The Reality
It is a sad fact that thousands of women are attacked each year in physical assaults and beatings. What about sexual assault?
- Victimization surveys show that less than 10% of women who are sexually assaulted report the assault to the police1.
- Sexual assault happens to individuals of all educational, income, moral and ethnic backgrounds2.
- 80% of women who are sexually assaulted do not report due to humiliation or fear of re-victimization in the legal process3.
- Young women identified that their highest safety concern was about assault. Since women are most vulnerable to sexual assault, harassment, and other forms of gendered abuse, their concern is consistent with their experiences4.
- Four out of five female undergraduates surveyed at Canadian universities said that they had been victims of violence in a dating relationship. Of that number, 29% reported incidents of sexual assault5.
- A survey on date rape showed that 60% of Canadian college-aged males indicated that they would commit sexual assault if they were certain they would not get caught6.
A Woman Should Know Self Defense
As you can see from these statistics, women do need to know self defense if they are to help themselves in situations where a man, regardless of who he is, is attempting to have his way with her. To do this effectively, a woman needs to train in a martial arts training environment where she will not only learn Hapkido techniques for self defense but she will also learn what her rights are, under Canadian law, to self defense; what constitutes an assault; how to assess the threat against her; and what amount of force is acceptable.
In my view, a woman is as capable as anyone else in delivering punishing self defense techniques. I would strongly recommend any woman, or man for that matter, not to fall for the hype of the half-day or all-day women's (men's) self defense courses. Training in self defense is a long-term process. In my view, half-day or all-day courses may be a lot of fun for the participants and may also result in some glowing testimonials on what was taught but the truth of the matter is: nothing that was taught in this short course will be effective - at least not in the way the participant anticipates it to be on the street, because it is too much to remember and few participants ever take the opportunity to really practice and master the self defense techniques that are taught in the course.
As an experienced professional trainer I can tell you that a student/participant only remembers about 20% of what was taught in one session (class or workshop). Remember high school and college? In order to do well on your exams you had to go over your notes and study, study, and study. The same is true for self defense training. A short course is mainly focused on working on a vulnerable person's fears of assault. It gets them to sign up for a short course for a small fee and they get to kick some instructor's assistant in the crotch or teach them how to gouge a person's eyes out. During the course, or at the end, the participants are offered an opportunity to enrol in the martial art school that put on the course at a special discount price or free offers.
So, if a person chooses not to enrol in that school, or any other school, will they be able to practice what they learned? Do you think their boyfriend or husband (wife or brother if you're a man) will allow their partner to practice these techniques on them in the living room? Not likely. Training in Hapkido at the Street Defense Tactics Academy is not about feminism nor is it about flexing a patriarch attitude. It's about teaching the student how to develop and hone their Warrior Spirit through hard training. The fun part happens when the students realize their growth as martial artists and begin to understand how strong and effective they can be without trying. The other fun parts is when we (student and teacher) reveal our human side in candid moments we can laugh at. Remember, it's not about strength or being athletic, it's all about technique.
I would like to help those people who are serious about training and want to learn how to effectively defend themselves, and protect their loved ones, by teaching them street self defense tactics and Hapkido. The secret is Practice! Practice! Practice! Repitition! Repitition! Repitition! And, above all, discipline and patience.