We live at a time when crime rates are soaring despite better policing and governance. This seems to have some correlation with the increasing proportion of single women. More and more women today are single than in any other generation previous. It is sad and regrettable that as women are getting increasingly independent, they are also at a much higher risk of assault, theft, and battery. If you are a single woman and would feel comfortable with some added protection while in the comfort and privacy of your own home, you may want to consider purchasing non-lethal self-defense tools. There are circumstances where you might feel uncomfortable and insecure. That is the time when these tools will lend you confidence.
One of the most popular non-lethal and legal means of defending yourself is the pepper-spray. Pepper spray is easy to use, it is affordable, and most importantly, it is an extremely effective tool when it comes to self-defense. Pepper spray has been widely used by law enforcement agencies to control riots, enraged animals, or aggressive criminal suspects. Now it is available on the market for personal self-defense that anyone can use. Pepper spray is also easy enough to carry around in a purse, handbag, or even in your coat pocket. This little can of spray can give you tremendous confidence as it is effective, legal and easy to use.
The way that pepper spray will provide self-defense for you is that it contains a chemical compound that will subdue and incapacitate any attacker you should come in contact with. The most effective means of using this self-defense tool is if possible, spraying it directly at your attacker's eyes. When you do this, mucus membranes will become inflamed and your attacker's response is to close their eyes and they may even lose their vision temporarily. Pepper spray also contains agents that will create breathing restrictions for your attacker if the spray has a high concentration. Given that the effect of such sprays can last for just under an hour, you have more than enough time to make a quick getaway.
It is not just the spray that can be used for self-defense, there are other mechanisms too. Personal alarms are also a very effective self-defense tool, and these can be used in conjunction with pepper spray. These often come in the form of small key rings or remote devices that can easily be tucked in a purse or coat pocket. If you find yourself in a high-risk situation where danger is imminent, you can press a button on your personal alarm that will sound an alarm and possibly disarm or scare away your attacker. There are many other things that potential victims have done to get assailants off their back. This includes screaming for help.
If making noise does not do the trick, they you must seriously consider spraying the person and making a hasty exit. You only need enough time to get away. Though pepper spray is legal all over the US and in most parts of the world, you must make it a point to check out local regulation before you carry it.
Being psychologically prepared is critical for self defense during an assault in the street. It is very important to be ready to repel the assailant (assailants) using all the means you have. Note that even being in not very good physical shape these means could be quite sufficient to disable your enemy (enemies).
For example, if you wear hard sharp-toe shoes, then kicking your enemy in groin or shank with the toe of such shoe (even if there are no years of practice behind this kick) immediately makes him writhe with pain for several moments. And this gives you enough time to either disable the enemy or simply run away.
Scratching facer using fingernails also causes pain shock to your enemy and makes him unable to resist for some time.
Remembering how dangerous a furious cat can be for people is enough to understand this.
In several cases, a furious cat is known to make its owners hide in one of the rooms and wait for the police to come and help them. Police officers in this situation often have to use guns to protect themselves and rescue the owners of the animal.
Now let's take a look at a cat, its weight is about 30 times less than that of a man. And this tiny thing can resist police officers armed with firearms. That's one thing. The other thing is that a common schoolboy, who tortures a cat giving it a hard time, can cope with it, the cat doing nothing to protect itself.
Now you can see the difference between a man employing everything he has at hand to give furious resistance to an assault, and a man who does not resist at all or makes poor attempts to resist.
So we see, at one hand, the enraged and furiously attacking cat that a couple of armed policemen cannot restrain, and, on the other hand, a meek unresisting cat that a little boy can easily handle. The difference is very substantial. This example clearly shows that the more furious and fast you resistance, the more chances you have to win the fight.
I remember a story told me by my disciple about one weak man small in stature, who succeeded in protecting himself against a husky trained fellow with the black belt in taekwondo, who assaulted him.
This small man was so furious and fearless giving his much stronger offender a hail of blows (weak and unskilled as they were) as to shock the guy and made him only try to cover himself from the blows.
One would think what chances had this tiny, middle-aged man, who has never gone in for any sport in a fight against a young and well-trained in taekwondo school guy with the black belt. Any one would say he had no chance.
However, it all turned out badly for no one, but the young insolent beggar.
Why, after all, the winner was that small man, who had no chance to win. It is very simple. The moment the fight began, he had his consciousness fully blocked; he acted automatically guided by his subconsciousness.
At the moment, he had nothing in his mind, but the enemy and the thought of disabling that enemy by any means possibly. At that moment, his consciousness was, as it were, at one with the Universe. He feared nothing since the sense of fear was gone from him.
He had neither diffidence nor other impeding factors, that's why all his actions became TRUE ones. Even though he had not much power and skill, but all he had he putted in each blow. So that's why, seemingly, with no chance to succeed he won the unequal fight.
Quite contrarily, his enemy was stiffened with fear and uncertainty as a result of this sudden and furious repel. Who could ever dare to attack him, as he was so strong and practiced fighter, he thought. Certainly not this small man, who, as it seemed, was supposed to be trembling with fear.
But it turned out so that it was that strong and trained beef, who had a weak spirit. At the critical moment, his will, composure and fighting skills failed him. He simply got scared and confused, and, as a result, was defeated by a weaker and less skilled opponent.
Whether you live in a small rural area or a bustling city, the need for self defense can occur at any time. You never know when an unfortunate situation may present itself and may call for quick action, including that of self defense.
There are a number of instructors who teach self defense classes in order to help educate individuals with how to protect themselves in certain situations. Class demonstrations and active participation are both a part of self defense classes, which are often held in the evening to ensure a convenient time when most people are finished with work.
For individuals who do not have the time, money or the geographical location to participate in self defense classes, there are books and videos that may help to educate in the same manner. Although neither of these methods actually test your knowledge with practice and hands-on training, they can help to instill basic knowledge of how to react in a dangerous situation.
The techniques learned in self defense training are to be used for that purpose only and should not be bragged about to others. The decision to learn self defense is a private choice that should not necessarily be broadcast to anyone other than family and close friends. The best source of self defense is the knowledge that can be kept private. With that being said, it is ideal if family and/or friends can take self defense training together. This will provide for a more comfortable learning environment and may result in a better understanding or the concept.
Even with the knowledge of physical self defense, perhaps the best mode is that of common sense. By carefully selecting the times that you are out, not following an exact routine and choosing friends wisely, you will help to lessen the chances of ever needing to put your self defense training to use.
However, if the unfortunate does occur, it is good to have the peace of mind in knowing that you can and will defend yourself at a moments notice and in any situation.
For information on self defense classes in your area, you may be able to contact city hall or stay tuned to the local newspaper for scheduling. If you prefer books and/or videos on the subject of self defense, these are readily available online from a variety of internet specialty stores. In addition, some areas may post upcoming self defense class schedules on the internet.
According to the FBI, four women die everyday as a result of domestic violence and about 130,000 women report that they've been victims of rape or attempted rape annually. Because of statistics like this, many women enroll in self-defense classes to learn the skills they need to defend themselves.
The thing is, a short-term self-defense class may not address all of the areas you need to be able to fully defend yourself. While martial arts classes won't specifically train you for combat and fighting, they will give you the ability to defend yourself if you ever find yourself in a situation where you need to practice self-defense.
The best part is that this self-defense isn't always physical. What most people don't know is that in a good martial arts class you'll learn a variety of skills to help you gain the awareness, peace and physical conditioning you need to be a stronger person, in all aspects of your life.
Confidence. All the physical defense skills in the world won't help if you don't have the confidence needed to use them. That's the beauty of martial arts training. In order to successfully train a martial art, you need to have your mind and body in tune with one another. This self-awareness gives you the confidence your need to control and defend yourself if needed. You'll be able to handle everyday and extraordinary situations without losing your temper. You'll be able to stand your ground. You'll appear to be (and will be) more confident and people who appear to be confident are less likely to be the victims of violence because they don't look like "easy targets".
Focus and Awareness.
While training martial arts, you need to focus and concentrate on what you are doing so that you don't injure yourself or those around you. This focus and concentration carries over into other aspects of your life as well. Soon, you'll find yourself better able to concentrate on work, school and home. You'll even find yourself being more aware of your surroundings which can help you avoid potentially harmful or violent situations.
Peace. Training martial arts will also give you an inner peace that can change your life. First of all, to effectively train martial arts, your workout will always be changing. You'll never get bored with your workout because it will always be challenging to your abilities (both physical and mental). In addition to that, training martial arts is a great stress reducer. You probably already know that regular physical exercise can reduce physical stress, but what you don't know is that martial arts go one step further to reduce emotional stress as well. Activities such as martial arts that require you concentrate on your movements and your core strength can give you full stress relief in one activity.
Strength and Conditioning. When you train martial arts, you use your entire body. You cannot use just one muscle set at a time. The exercises are always changing and evolving to give you the maximum out of each training session. Martial arts also increase your flexibility which is great because people who are flexible suffer fewer injuries, have better posture and are better able to relax their muscles.
Lets speak about the psychological aspect of a street collision. You should differentiate two items. You must realize, whether your fight is a result of a usual domestic conflict, or you are attacked by a robber, killer or bandit. Your actions will flow depending on these circumstances.
If it is an everyday domestic conflict that happens in the street (someone pushed you or your leg, disturbed the queue order etc.), you should not use your fighting knowledge and skills to put your opponent out of action.
As a rule, all these conflicts occur because of trifles, and you need to behave normally in this case, lets say naturally. When this conflict happens, no one wants to fight actually, but just gets rid of the negative energy that was accumulated.
Those who express harshly their negative reaction are not dangerous at all in most cases. He will threaten you, make expressive gestures, grab you with iron fingers but nothing more will happen. This is nothing but the pose which does not contain real threat at all. However, there are exceptions in this case too. You must define at once who is dangerous and who is not.
I would like to precise one thing. Though laws and principles of a hand-to-hand fighting are the same, a sports battle in a gym differs greatly from that one happened in the street. If you are calm when fight in a sports gym and dont worry about fatal injury, you will be extremely nervous when come across your real enemy in the street. You wont fight according to rule (as you do in the sports gym), you need to act most quickly and cruelly sometimes for your effective self defense.
The psychological aspect plays a very important role in the street scuffle. You must prevent your enemys attack or take the lead over him. Therefore, I advise you on no account not to start fighting if you see you can avoid it.
If you cannot do that and you know you will be attacked inevitably, you should act quickly, harshly and be the first with attack actions. Lots of things depend on who starts the battle first. This is the main distinction of a street fight. When you train in the sports gym, it is not important at all who will attack first. Both fighters are ready to attack and defense.
It is not the same thing in the street fight. Opponents rarely stand at the certain stances (as in the sport gym) and are situated in close distance quite often. In other words, they are in the hitting zone of each other. Hence, a person who starts his attack first has a huge advantage.
Attack here means just the most harsh and strong action and not the expressive gestures at usual domestic conflict.
I always feel awkward when I am forced to come into such conflict. When I see a person standing in front of myself and offending me, I feel ashamed for this conflict that occurred. This person cannot be dangerous for me, he is completely defenseless.
I know that I can put him out of action in a moment, but my consciousness does not let me do that. As we see, such clashes that happen in shops, public transport, streets etc are not the fight itself, but just an everyday conflict.
Real fight happens when your enemy or enemies are certain in their superiority over you.
For example, it may be numerical advantage, force advantage or armament advantage.
So, I strongly recommend to you: try to avoid street fight at any cost. If you see you are about to be attacked, you need to act most quickly and harshly. You must always remember that if your enemy is eager to fight with you, he is sure in his superiority. If he is alone and is not too strong or high, but still wants to fight, it means most likely that he is either armed with the weapon or instructed of some martial art.
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