practical women's self defense ideas

[Tant01]

FACT: In 2003 (the most recent year for which data is available), there were 30,136 gun deaths in the U.S:
• 16,907 suicides (56% of all U.S gun deaths),
• 11,920 homicides (40% of all U.S gun deaths),
• 730 unintentional shootings (2% of all U.S gun deaths),
• 347 from legal intervention and 232 from undetermined intent (2% of all U.S gun deaths combined).
-Numbers obtained from CDC National Center for Health Statistics mortality report online, 2006.



U.S. Department of Justice • Office of Justice Programs
Bureau of Justice Statistics
Homicides by Weapon Type

2004
Handgun: 8,299; Other gun: 2,355; Knife: 2,132; Blunt object: 759; Other weapon: 2,593


This is all I could find at the moment. If I can find anything on the proprotionall use of weapons when they are in the situation I'll post it.

Try a search on this forum for CDC statistics! They are less than meaningless and completely unreliable! I posted a VERY LONG report on the CDC's motives and research that discredit the results entirely!

You can start with the FACT that most gun deaths in the USA are self inflicted! They fail to mention that in the report, eh?

But nice try! LOL

[treelizard]

judo/jiu-jitsu - gross, i don't wanna be THAT close to sweaty men...

Speak for yourself.

[Little Apple]

Oooo la la

Heh, and thanks Tant01, that's good to know.

So I was having a talk with my friend today, and we were debating what's more important for self defence: Attitude or Fighting Skill. Major points being 1)Your attitude can stop you from being attacked in the first place 2) Knowing how to fight will help you if you get attacked anyway.

[treelizard]

I vote for attitude, esp. since an attitude can encompass fighting skill (and knowing both to get training and also when to use it) and this isn't true vice versa.

[Garland]

I vote for attitude, esp. since an attitude can encompass fighting skill (and knowing both to get training and also when to use it) and this isn't true vice versa.

I know people who are fairly skilled, but couldn't pull it off when they needed to. I also know people with no skill that flip out and **** people up...
so for fighting...I say attitude.

boy, that sounded articulate, don't it?

[Little Apple]

Hmmm, I wonder what attitude encompasses? Because if it's just being smart about bad situations, then (it's still really fricken important) but it alone won't help you if you get cornered or something. If it's agression when fighting, it will really help you in a fight, though it's not a sure thing when you consider being out numbered, out massed, or out experianced (insert grammer here). If it's both though, I'd say you'll probably live to see your grandkids.

And as long as we're at it, is "Fighting Skill" combat skill, or crisp technique?

[treelizard]

I just figured attitude would encompass everything--being street savvy enough to avoid bad situations, know when you're IN a bad situation, be aware of options, have the ability to both de-escalate and respond with appropriate force, and this would entail seeking training before an encounter... Also attitude would encompass continuing the fight afterwards if you do get injured or have to have more fights in court... How you deal with the situation afterwards, since a lot of fights don't end on the street...

[Tom Yum]

Speak for yourself.

lol....

Ok, so there are exceptions but you probably think differently than most.

[szorn]

Pepper Spray & such

hello ladies, just some personal thoughts about your situations: Firstly, pepper spray is very worthwhile but have you ever priced it? Certainly it is too expensive to buy three or four cans and practice spraying them around so you can actually aim the stuff. My advice is buy several of those small fire extinguishers, the ones about the size of a roll of quarters. Practice with a couple, then carry the others, believe me, if you spray some into a guy's face he will have a hard time breathing. Another good idea told me by Terry Tippie years ago is to carry a highway flare when you are walking. Just take the cap off, you can strike it on the pavement of a sidewalk if you need it. Some good ones (about $1.69 apiece) will actually put out a 23-inch flame for about 17 minutes, long enough for you to run to a house or a phone or a police station. My take on this is if someone in a car is hassling you just light the baby up and point it at them, if they continue harassing you, toss it under the car. They better move the car at least or they will be burning shortly. If they still keep giving you a hard time just toss it in the car and take off like your life is on the line, because it probably is. I always say after this that they may then kill you, but you will have some satisfaction knowing their car can be traced from the burnt hulk that will be sitting on the road. And if you have good friends they will find whoever killed you and see justice is done

Pepper spray can be effective for personal protection IF it's of good quality and IF the user has been properly trained in it's use. Just having the spray isn't enough, especially if the user carries it in the bottom of a purse. Also, there are various types of spray configurations to include: stream, fog, foam, gel, etc. Each type of spray has it's pros and cons and each type of spray reacts differently upon leaving the canister. Therefore, proper training is required for the particular type of spray that the user intends to carry. Also, it requires more than just taking it out and spraying at a tree or some other static object. The training should include some form of simulations that require the user to apply the spray under stress against a mock assailant. Also, while it's not required it is recommended that anyone who intends to carry pepper spray for protection get sprayed at least once by a qualified instructor. Why? Because it's very common for users to accidently spray themselves during actual situations. Therefore getting sprayed in training will help the user better avoid spraying themselves (because they now know how bad it can be) and it prepares them mentally to continue to fight if they should accidently spray themselves during a real altercation. As for buying spray to practice, The simple solution is purchase inert training units which spray a saline solution. These can be used for practice against static objects as well as for simulations that include a mock assailant.

Also, in conjunction with learning how to use the spray the users should also be taught how to follow up with empty-hands should the spray fail to do it's job. They should also be taught how to fall back on other tools that they might be carrying such as firearms. Like any self-defense tool pepper spray is only as good as the quality of spray and the quality of instruction that the user received.

As for other personal protection tools, why make things more complicated than they need to be? We don't need to go searching in the trunk or closet for things that we can use to protect ourselves. We don't need to turn our garages or basements into metal shops so we can create custom weapons. Why not learn the how to use common everyday items to keep ourselves safe? Those items that we most likely have on or near us at any given point during a day. Example: ball point pens, pocket combs, pocket change, purses (for women), etc. If people would spend a little time learning the art of improvised weapons they wouldn't have to ever be unarmed nor would they have to worry about being overwhelmed by the assailant before they could arm themselves. However, again it must be emphasized that all weapons training be supported with effective empty-hands training.


Take care and stay safe,
Steve Zorn, ICPS

[szorn]

Mind-Set

Oooo la la

Heh, and thanks Tant01, that's good to know.

So I was having a talk with my friend today, and we were debating what's more important for self defence: Attitude or Fighting Skill. Major points being 1)Your attitude can stop you from being attacked in the first place 2) Knowing how to fight will help you if you get attacked anyway.

Mind-Set is a better term to use here than attitude. Mind-Set is a term used by law enforcement and military personnel to describe the mental and emotion preparation for dealing with criminal activity and potentially dangerous or life-threatening situations. This Mind-Set includes awareness as well as being willing to do whatever is necessary to deal with and survive life-threatening situations. The Mind-Set is far more than important than any physical skill a person could ever learn. There are literally hundreds of stories about people successfully dealing with life-threatening situations, even when they had no martial arts, self-defense, or physical training. In some cases the intended victim actually killed their would-be attacker. Since we know that in such cases the intended vicitim had no previous training their success can only be attributed to their mental and emotional state. On the flip side there are hundreds of stories of highly skilled martial arts and even law enforcement officers being killed on the street because they lacked the mental and emotional conditioning to deal with the situation. While they obviously had the physical skills, they weren't able to apply the skills because they were mentally and emotionally unprepared.

Here is a good example- when teaching an eye jab or gouge it's common to see people cringe in pain while they are attempting to simulate an eye gouge on their partner. I have seen some people who simply couldn't even simulate the motion toward another person's eyes. Here we are giving them one of the best self-defense techniques available but they are not mentally or emotionally prepared to use it in a training environment. Do you think this person would truly be able to use it under the stress of a real assault? Therefore in this case, the fighting skill is useless because the student lacks the Mind-Set to effectively apply said skill.

So, to answer the question. Mind-Set is more important than anything else a student can learn for personal protection. If they have the proper Mind-Set they will be successful, regardless of what technique or skill is used. However, if you can give them both Mind-Set and effective skills you have the best of both worlds. Also, Mind-Set directly relates to overall crime and vicitim prevention. Those that have the Mind-Set will not look, think, or act like a vicitim and therefore are less likely to be targeted.

Steve Zorn, ICPS