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Chikara Andrew
Chikara Andrew's picture
Short self defence/protection course

I have been asked by a youth group that I work with to put together a Self Defence course, it has to be relatively short probably over just three hour/hour and half long sessions.

I have been asked to take a lead on it because of my experience in Karate however given the time constraints I think the focus will be more on awareness etc than actual martial arts type aspects. As a general rule when teaching Karate I tend to put these discussions in as we go along and have never set to thinking how I would teach/train these aspects in isolation.

I plan to break down the sessions as follows and would appreciate any input that other may have as to what should be included or not. Also if anyone has any good reference material. For reference the course is based in the UK.

Session 1 - Classroom Based

Violence in the UK - Discussion of potentially violent scenarios, what people could expect to be faced with, what worries they may have

Realities of Violence - Why do people want to hurt us, what can happen (single punches leading to people falling and hitting heads on concrete etc.)

Awareness - Situational awareness, avoiding potentially dangerous scenarios

Self Defence and the Law 

Session 2 - Hall based

Roleplay based session dealing with two main areas:

Situational awareness and conflict avoidance/escape.

Verbal and body language skills

Session 3 - Hall based 

Physical responses, pre-emptive strikes, hit and run, concentration on gross motor skills. Potential of dealing with more than one attacker or attacker plus friends. Also have more than one person with you. Some of this would have been played out in the previous session.

I am conscious that I can't cover that much in such a short amount of time however I feel that it is more important to cover the information in sessions 1 and 2 and session 3 is really only an introduction giving basic principles.

Any help and ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Andrew

Bob Davis
Bob Davis's picture

Hi Andrew,

I agree that the aspects you want to cover are more important than the physical skills however, my experience has been that you want to include some physical in each session if you want to hold your audience and get them to come back after the first session.

It's much like teaching 6 year olds, you can cover a lot of serious stuff as long as you give them some fun last 10 ;-)

Chikara Andrew
Chikara Andrew's picture

Thanks Bob, I suppose I wasn't too worried about that as I have something of a captive audience! I take your point though and could mix it up a little, perhaps taking out the theory of awarness in session 1 and using that at the start of 2. We could then introduce the concept of pre-emptive strikes in session 1 having just discussed there position in law.

Anf
Anf's picture

I think a key point of self defence not already mentioned is the art of not looking like a victim. Situation awareness has been mentioned, which is good. But I think it's also important to look confident and at ease. Covering things like not looking at your feet, and if a group of youths start watching you, certainly be wary, but look straight back at them. Not staring, but making sure they know you've seen them and don't really care. Bullies usually want an easy target. If you look like one, you're it.

There's also posture considerations at close range. If someone is close enough to hit you, and you think they might, then while you don't exactly want to drop into a fighting stance, you might want to think about looking relaxed while being ready to move fast and block. Oh and of course before it gets that far, before you get too close, kind of situation awareness so maybe already covered, but if I see a group that make me feel uneasy when out and about, I try to casually note who is who, how big they are, if they are obviously carrying anything, who looks most confident, who looks most likely to try to show off, all that kind of thing, so I can at least have something of a vague plan.

Oh and we mustn't forget, in a confrontation from multiple people, let's make sure we position ourselves at one end of a line rather than in the middle, and never assume there's nobody behind you.

Chikara Andrew
Chikara Andrew's picture

Anf wrote:

I think a key point of self defence not already mentioned is the art of not looking like a victim.

There's also posture considerations at close range. If someone is close enough to hit you, and you think they might, then while you don't exactly want to drop into a fighting stance, you might want to think about looking relaxed while being ready to move fast and block.

Oh and we mustn't forget, in a confrontation from multiple people, let's make sure we position ourselves at one end of a line rather than in the middle, and never assume there's nobody behind you.

Thanks, all very good points.

Certainly the intention is to set up scenarios using people and spaces to get them thinking about where they want to be, if indeed they want to be there at all. I think your point about not looking like a victim, even if you choose to walk away or from a possible situation, is an important one.

Geoff Thompson talks about it in his books, things like not stopping to look at maps/directions etc.

Posture is one I cover quite a lot in Karate class and one I will certainly be covering in this, on the plus side I'm not teaching Karate and so won't have to worry about getting people out of the habit of using stances, guards, chambering etc. as if they were doing linework!

Marc
Marc's picture

One thing you might want to include is the question of how to act when you witness a third person being attacked.