Why Typical Women’s Self Defense Courses Fail
There’s a common fallacy present in typical Women’s Self Defense courses that bothers me, and after sixty years of martial arts training and teaching, I have seen it taught in all forms. A lot of what I’ve seen is predetermined to fail the women taking it.
I’m referring to the multitude of women’s self-defense courses that claim, unrealistically, that what they teach will enable a woman to defend herself if she is attacked or assaulted.
Why would that claim trouble me? Because the attempt to teach – to complete novices – a martial art technique that includes complex movement and skills, fails to recognize the inherent training necessary for anyone to be able to succeed with such a technique, and fails to consider the immediate, natural “fear response” of woman under sudden attack.
Unfortunately, too, most courses fail to account for the size and strength imbalance most women will likely face. Worst of all, the courses seem to completely overlook the need to account for age and/or physical disabilities.
In my professional opinion, no woman (or anyone else), who doesn’t have significant, years-long, active martial arts experience and training, should be taught to attempt to take on an attacker with combative force that intends to try to outpunch, outkick, outwrestle, or physically “lock” an opponent in a hold.
Self-Defense Goals: Avoid & Escape
There should be only two goals in women’s self-defense courses:
- How to AVOID an attack in the first place, and
- What actions to take to enable you to stop an actual attack and ESCAPE
Those goals are my focus for the women in my self-defense course. Whether you’re being attacked by a stranger or horribly, by someone you know, the goals remain the same: avoid severe assault and injury and get away as quickly as possible to seek safety.
That’s why the physical defense, once avoidance has failed, must be based on stopping the attacker. In my course, you learn how to deliver selected strikes to vital and extremely vulnerable areas that will stop the attacker instantly, particularly if the attacker is impaired by drugs or alcohol.
The trick to success is that the defense must be easy, natural, be deliverable by all women including the injured, physically challenged or handicapped, young and old.
Self-defense absolutely should not require great athletic ability.
I invite you to enroll in my upcoming 2025 courses (full description here), where you’ll find women of all ages, skill levels, and physical ability learning realistic methods to defend themselves.
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Geneviève Nedder
About the Owner
Geneviève Nedder is the director and founder of Body Fundamentals, Inc., a Pilates & Wellness business founded in 1996. She is a Master Pilates Educator and Mentor and a certified Perfect Health Lifestyle Teacher. Trained by Dr. Deepak Chopra and his team at the Chopra Center for Wellbeing, she is also an Ayurvedic Lifestyle Consultant and Certified Health Coach. She specializes in the mind-body connection.
