Self Defence Crash Course for the GF

DribblingRobot

Hey,
The girlfriend is going to be going travelling for a while later in the year to some hairier places than I've ever been. I want her to do some sort of a self-defence crash course so if anyone tries anything (touch would that doesn't happen) she can rip them a new arsehole. I was thinking a weekend krav maga course or something but being no stranger to martial arts myself I knows there's always debate about what would be most suitable. She's fairly busy during the week so can't really commit to regular classes. Anyone suggestions?

Oh and I tried searching. Didn't find much. :-/

Doug Cartel

DribblingRobot wrote: »

Hey,
The girlfriend is going to be going travelling for a while later in the year to some hairier places than I've ever been. I want her to do some sort of a self-defence crash course so if anyone tries anything (touch would that doesn't happen) she can rip them a new arsehole. I was thinking a weekend krav maga course or something but being no stranger to martial arts myself I knows there's always debate about what would be most suitable. She's fairly busy during the week so can't really commit to regular classes. Anyone suggestions?

Oh and I tried searching. Didn't find much. :-/

Don't get wrecked drunk, don't hang around places where people are getting wrecked drunk. Don't walk home alone, don't use unlicensed taxies. Don't wear conspicuous jewellery, and get a cheap phone.

Don't rely on martial arts to keep you safe.

arybvtcw0eolkf

OP what part of the country are you located?.

Furious-Dave

DribblingRobot, I'm no expert, but I think your attitude is wrong. I believe your girlfriend would be much better off researching travel safety to learn the "do's and dont's" of travelling, than doing a crash course. If she hasn't already done so she should also get the Rough Guide and Lonely Planet books of the places she plans to go to. These usually have pretty bang-on advice about places.

Other than that, MaeveD who posts on here does female self defence and can probably help you out further.

Good luck.

R P McMurphy

If she is in some dodgy areas would be much safer for her to carry a second wallet/purse with a few quid in it and hand that over. She gets involved in an altercation in some countries and years of martial arts would be of little use to her

DribblingRobot

She'll be travelling in a group and has travelled before. She has a lot of cop-on (more than me anyway ) so she'd know all the obvious stuff about getting drunk and hanging out in dark alleys. I would never recommend anyone rely on a martial "art" for self defence. However, I know there are seminars run aimed at teaching women physical techniques to repel an attacker. I'm not trying to turn her into a ninja I just want her to be able to slow someone down long enough to get away. I'll check out MaeveD's classes. Thanks for the recommendation.

MaeveD

Hi DribblingRobot, we're up to our tonsils with school classes right now, so won't be starting the next 6 week course until late February... if you want to pm of email me with your mobile number, I'll text you when we're starting the next one in the studios in Clonshaugh.

Here's a link to the Women's Self Defence page on our site: http://www.defendu.ie/womens-self-defence

discus

Some of the biggest, toughest and strongest guys I know have talked about this before. Their concensus was that your best defence is not letting yourself get into any situation. And I'd have no doubt that these lads would trash 99% of people put in front of them.

TBH, buy her some good travel books that have in-depth reviews of cities, their crime rates, the local scams and hot spots etc... As furious dave has already pointed out.

pearsquasher

Tell her to read http://www.nononsenseselfdefense.com/

You'll see from this that there's no such thing as a "crash course" in self-defence....at least with the physical side of it. It either takes long-term training or short term real experience..... but that has obvious drawbacks to your health...physical and mental.

I agree that uber awareness and intelligence about your own behaviour/surroundings CAN be thought in a short program and should prpbably make up about 90% of a course with the other 10% showing you how difficult/dangerous it is to get physical.

Carrying personal alarms are no harm either.

karl bracken

I think a week end or even a short course might not do a whole lot.

When you are attacked you act on instinct and i dont think a few short courses would do enough to prepare you.

I think you would need to be training for a decent period of time, anyways prob just better to avoid it if she can, hope all goes well.

Mace would prob be a more efficient form of defense

Laisurg

If she doesn't have any previous experience with fighting i doubt she could get good at it that quickly, and if something were the happen the chances are it would be against a bigger stronger man, who she could just end up enraging if she hit him, i'd say mace/stun gun and some running lessons would do the job much better.

yomchi

I think you would need to be training for a decent period of time

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