Consumer Tips on Finding a Good Self Defense Program
Self-Defense is more than knowing how to fight back again a physical attack. Participation in self-defense classes encourages you to think in terms of options and choices, develops your awareness and assertiveness skills and provides practice for physical self-defense techniques. A good self-defense class will expand the way you think about violence prevention, help you deal with your fears and enable you to feel more empowered in your life.
Self-defense is a set of awareness, assertiveness, verbal confrontation skills, safety strategies, and physical techniques that enable someone to successfully prevent, escape, resist and survive violent assaults. A good self-defense course provides psychological awareness and verbal skills, not just physical training.
Self-defense training increases your options and helps you prepare responses to avoid, slow down, de-escalate, or interrupt an attack, and also empowers one to prevent violence. It is important that the strategies and skills deal with the potential violence from acquaintances and intimates, not only strangers. Women usually know their attacker, therefore it is essential that a
person is training in how to deal with the violence that can come from someone you know.
There are no guarantees when it comes to self-protection. Be aware of advertising hype, or exaggerated claims of success from marketers of guns, alarms, devices, and self-defense training programs. Be a smart consumer and find a self-defense training program that increases your choices/options and preparedness and is committed to helping you develop a wide range of strategies.
A basic course can offer enough concepts and skills to help you develop self-protection strategies that you can continue to build upon. Self-defense training is not just martial arts, although some of the techniques are derived form the martial arts. The skills and techniques do not require years to perfect. Certainly, practice is important and investing the time to review and perfect your skills can build confidence and increase your abilities. The key is to make a commitment to participate in your own safety and to do what is necessary to reduce risk and become empowered to act, rather than to be acted upon.
Any device is useless to you unless you understand how to use it, and you have it ready to use at the time of the attempted assault. There is NOTHING guaranteed about any of these devices. None are foolproof, and none of them can be counted on to work against all possible attackers. Realize that anything you can use against an attacker can also be used against you. While some of the devices can be helpful in some situations, it is best not to depend on them and to be aware of their limitations. Your brain and your body are the best primary weapons that you have with you at all times. Everything else is a weapon of opportunity.
It is not advisable for anyone to “just go out and get a gun.” Guns are often presented as the ‘equalizer,’ but actually guns can provoke more unintentional injury, accidents and unnecessary deaths than car accidents. Ten children a day are killed by handguns, and studies show that the firearms in the home will most likely be against a family member or an individual known to the gun owner. Owning and operating a firearm should not be taken lightly, and if you are a person who is looking for a shortcut to self-protection, and are not sure about investing time in self-defense training, then gun ownership is certainly not for you. There are no shortcuts to self-protection, and guns are not a risk-free solution.
Good self-defense programs do not tell an individual what she “should” or “should not” do. A good program offers: options, techniques, and a way of analyzing situations, including a full range of strategy-building. A program may point out what usually works best in most situations, but each situation is unique, and the final decision rests with the person actually confronted by the situation.
Size up before you sign up. In selecting a self-defense course, observe a class or at least talk to the instructor about the philosophy of the class. You can also talk to students in the class or someone who has taken the course. Keep in mind that a self-defense class in not the same as a martial arts course, though some of the skills taught may be derived from the martial arts. Evaluate a prospective program or class using some or all of the following criteria:
Is the instructor respectful and encouraging? Does she or he respect the experiences and fears that women, in particular, have about violence?
Does the class emphasize rape prevention, including potential assaults by dates and acquaintances as well as assaults by strangers?
Is assertiveness training stressed as an important part of the class?
Are the physical techniques simple and easy to remember?
Is the instructor mindful of the safety of the participants?
Is care taken to allow class members the option of not participating in any practices or role plays that may re-stimulate trauma or fear?
