Are Women Safer When They Learn Self-Defense?

Damo W

Interesting study...

http://cascade.uoregon.edu/spring2013/social-sciences/are-women-safer-when-they-learn-self-defense/

Michael O Leary

Damo W wrote: »

Interesting study...

http://cascade.uoregon.edu/spring2013/social-sciences/are-women-safer-when-they-learn-self-defense/

Hi Damo,

Thanks for posting that. Its very interesting and reflects what I feel is the benefit of self-defence for women. Particularly the importance of setting boundaries.

Regards,

Michael
www.wingtsun-blanchardstown.ie

bill buchanan

I'd be very surprised if self defence classes made them safer. Learning a load of "moves" is pretty useless. Situational awareness and boundaries and defusion techniques are usually just taught by martial artists, who are no more qualified to teach these techniques than the women themselves.

Michael O Leary

bill buchanan wrote: »

I'd be very surprised if self defence classes made them safer. Learning a load of "moves" is pretty useless. Situational awareness and boundaries and defusion techniques are usually just taught by martial artists, who are no more qualified to teach these techniques than the women themselves.

Hi Bill,

I feel that learning self defence movements will make a woman more aware and willing to protect her boundaries which will make her less of victim/target which in turn will make her safer.

Regards,

Michael
www.wingtsun-blanchardstiwn.ie

bill buchanan

Michael O Leary wrote: »

Hi Bill,

I feel that learning self defence movements will make a woman more aware and willing to protect her boundaries which will make her less of victim/target which in turn will make her safer.

Regards,

Michael
www.wingtsun-blanchardstiwn.ie

I guess I would say that A) There's no evidence of that and The people who teach it have no particular qualifications to teach it, by and large.

That's always been my feeling on self defence training, rightly or wrongly.

Michael O Leary

bill buchanan wrote: »

I guess I would say that A) There's no evidence of that and The people who teach it have no particular qualifications to teach it, by and large.

That's always been my feeling on self defence training, rightly or wrongly.

Hi Bill,

I think that while there is no cast iron evidence due to the nature of the subject, the findings of the study referred to above indicates that learning self defence will make women safer.

Regards,

Michael
www.wingtsun-blanchardstown.ie

bill buchanan

Michael O Leary wrote: »

Hi Bill,

I think that while there is no cast iron evidence due to the nature of the subject, the findings of the study referred to above indicates that learning self defence will make women safer.

Regards,

Michael
www.wingtsun-blanchardstown.ie

It's not a study yet. It's a news article about a study that will be published soon. we don't know anything about the methodology yet. For example, were the women "self selecting" (I suspect they were)....ie were they comparing a group of pro-active women who signed up for a course off their own back to a group of women who had no interest, for example. what were the dropout figures? were there other factors that made the groups different from each other (how often they socialise, age, where they live etc).

But, importantly, I'm not saying that self defence could not possibly ever help women. I'm saying that the average class run by a kenpo black belt or krav maga trainer or whatever is just some guy's opinion of what self defence is or should be. Martial arts has very little to do with the situational side of self defence, and I don't know why so many martial artists think they're qualified to teach it. I wonder who taught the course referred to in the article. That will be described when the paper is published I'd imagine and will be interesting to see.

Charlie3dan

For someone casually dipping into a little self defence, tips on avoidance and awareness are far more useful than any actual techniques. IMO.