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Martial arts offer women a great way to learn self-defense
Susan Thompson
for Smoky River Express
It can be a scary world out there. People go missing and get killed even in our seemingly quiet small towns.
That’s why I’m a firm believer in learning self-defence, especially for women.
There are some good self-defence workshops out there. These will usually teach basic safety, such as being aware of our surroundings and avoiding situations where someone could attack us.
They will also usually include some physical techniques for disabling or getting away from an attacker.
That’s great, and I’d highly recommend all women out there take a self-defence workshop now and then.
Personally, though, I don’t think it’s enough. Nothing beats actually training in self-defence regularly.
Our bodies have a memory. The military knows this and trains soldiers by having them repeat certain actions so many times they can just react, rather than having to think what to do first.
The same is true of martial arts, boxing, wrestling, or any physical fighting activity. If you need to think about what to do, you’re hesitating and wasting valuable time. If you’ve trained for a while, when someone throws a punch or grabs you, you’ll simply react properly without having to think about what to do. In other words, you’ll have a much better chance of reacting in time to actually protect yourself.
So while a few hours at a workshop might help you be more conscious of your safety and give you some good basic techniques, that workshop is not much help is you don’t ever practice those techniques again. Who really wants to be trying to think back to some far-distant training session, wondering, now when he grabs my right arm, I do what? You want to be able to react quicky and get away.
That’s why I’m a big believer in martial arts training.
Martial arts offer a great way to exercise, building strength, cardio, and flexibility. They also teach discipline, respect, and self-confidence. Those are all excellent reasons to train, whether you’re male or female.
Above all, however, if you train in martial arts for a couple of years, you’re going to teach your body how to defend against a punch, get away if someone grabs you, and even to how to throw or hurt a larger, stronger opponent.
Those are invaluable skills for women that could save lives. Many of us spend time going to the gym or doing other exercise anyway, so why not let our exercise do double-duty and train to defend ourselves as well?
The new reality TV show Police Women of Broward County recently showed one of the featured police women training in boxing and jiu jitsu. She says it isn’t just exercise, because she uses those skills fighting for her life on the streets every day.
Of course, most women aren’t involved in such a dangerous job. But women do get attacked by men sometimes, and you don’t necessarily know when it’s going to happen to you.
Personally, I first started in martial arts in high school and it’s something I’ve done off and on in different styles all my life since. I like to think that if someone attacked me, they’d be in for a surprise. I don’t look very threatening, after all, but years of training would be there behind me if I really needed them.
Of course, the first rule is to try to avoid that situation entirely. Still, every time I train I hope I’m giving myself a better chance of survival if one day I find myself in trouble.
I want the same for my daughters. They’ve both taken karate in Peace River and my youngest Aurora is going on to take karate in McLennan this year.
I just wish more women would consider martial arts when planning to get their own exercise.
There still seems to be a perception that women shouldn’t, or can’t, fight. I think that’s completely false.
It’s all just a question of practice, and practice makes perfect, even when you’re suddenly fighting for your life.
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