We can learn self-defense all-day long, but the best defense is to not be in a situation where you need Krav Maga in the first place. Here are some ways to play it safe:

• Choose to fight back if you are attacked. No matter what. Some figures estimate that 70% of women who are attacked, leave mostly unharmed if they put up a fight.
• Listen to your instincts. If you feel uneasy about something, there’s probably a reason for it.
• Walk purposefully and with confidence with your head held high. Observe what is happening around you and be alert. Don’t talk/text on your cell phone or wear head phones when you’re walking. These wonderful, awesome, amazing technologies eliminate valuable senses (hearing and seeing), which could make you more vulnerable to an attack.
• Have your keys ready before you reach your destination. Don’t be caught digging for your keys in your purse…
• Don’t leave drinks unattended and watch them being served. Limit alcohol consumption.
• When walking to your car (especially in parking garages or at night), walk with a co-worker or friend. Check the back seat before you get in your car. Immediately lock your doors and get rollin’. No balancing your checkbook or applying another layer of mascara!
• If you think you’re being followed, find a public place with lots of people and call 911. If there isn’t such an area, turn around and demand that the potential assailant tell you what they want in your loudest, most confident voice. Draw as much attention to yourself as possible. Get out your cell phone and start dialing 911. Let them know that’s exactly what you’re doing.

Follow these guidelines and be safe!

This thought legitimately crossed my mind at Krav tonight. The gym here seems to be a little more intense on the cardio than my previous gym. We did the usual push-ups, crunches, and squats. Instead of just leaving it at that, however, W decided we should hold them for ten second intervals.

Squats = the devil. My legs have never burned like that. Ever.

For the defenses, I paired up with a much younger girl I’ve seen in previous classes. I think I beat her up pretty good… Not on purpose, of course, but I accidentally clipped her once or twice while we practiced getting out of front choke holds. The look on her face as she went back to her two friends was one of pure terror. Poor kid. I should probably pair up with people my own size from now on.

Aside from that, I’ve got some pretty mean scrapes on my right hand from the open palm strikes. After class, I asked J, the owner, if that was normal or if it meant I was striking incorrectly. He said I should try to strike higher up on my hand. Next class, I’ll ask the instructor to pay attention to my open hand strikes, so I know I’m delivering the most strength.

New vocab: “Badge” — A feature or sign that reveals a particular condition or quality; In Krav Maga, this refers to any injury sustained from learning to defend yourself.

Ladies and gentlemen… my badge from class tonight:

I was reading this blog post the other day about the difference between self-defense programs for women versus ones for men. And I’d have to say I agree with almost everything Ahmad Mutammim says. The short of it is:

1) Attacks against men and attacks against women tend to be very different. Attacks against men are usually about proving that they are stronger (and therefore better) than the other person. Attacks against women tend to be sexual in nature.

2) If you are being sexually assaulted, you will almost always be attacked in a close range. Therefore, long distance defenses are practically worthless for women. (I don’t really believe that long distance attacks are worthless, because you never know who you will be defending yourself against.)

3) The type of an attack against a woman is going to be very different from an attack against a man. Women need to know how to fight from the ground and in close proximity to the assailant (being able to defend against bear hugs and chokes, having your hair being pulled, etc).

This is what I love about Krav Maga. They teach you defenses for all sorts of situations in which you may be attacked: on the ground, in a choke, from the front, side, and back, with a gun, with a knife, in a car, on a plane… the list goes on. In other martial arts, you have to be committed to learning the styles and forms before you get to the real meat of self-defense. Even then, you may never learn how to defend yourself against a gun or knife attack.

In Krav Maga, I continually see self-defense courses for women and I’m impressed by all the girls who take the time to go to them. My introduction into Krav Maga was through a four hour women’s self-defense seminar at a local Krav Maga gym. After that, I was hooked. I saw all the ways someone could attack me and I was terrified of the billion other ways I could be attacked that we didn’t cover. So I became a member of the Krav Maga community and started going at least once a week.

As someone who has experienced both women-only and co-ed classes, I have to say being in a class with men has definitely helped my self-confidence and skill in Krav Maga.

In a women’s only class, you always pair up with other women. This is fine for awhile. Eventually, however, you should try to partner up with someone bigger and stronger than you, so you can prepare for the reality of being attacked. As a woman, an assailant will probably be stronger, taller, and heavier than you are.

With all that in mind, I encourage all women to take a women’s only self-defense Krav Maga class. But view it as an appetizer course and eventually take co-ed Krav Maga self-defense classes to really prepare yourself.

This is the first opportunity I’ve had to go to a Krav Maga class with my boyfriend, Chris. We’re both in the same city now (I moved! It was sort of a sudden thing…) and it was his first time to experience some Krav lovin’.

I had told him all about Krav Maga and what he should expect. More importantly, I explained what makes a really great partner. I had told him before about wanting to really get a feel for someone attacking me. I don’t want to feel like I’m being massaged when someone is trying to put me in a choke hold. I want the real deal.

So you can imagine my surprise when Chris grabs me hard to choke me from the side. I’m immediately startled by the power in his strike, even though I know it’s coming. I try to recover quickly and go through the defense. I don’t move as fast as I should. I can’t wait for the day when these defenses are part of my muscle memory; when I just move and defend without thinking about it.

W, our trainer, comes over and shows me how to drop my body down into a crouch for this particular attack. Apparently in Europe it’s a popular offensive move to choke and head butt simultaneously. By dropping down into a crouch, I create a little more momentum for my groin strike and defend myself from those pesky head butts.

Aside from that, the class was almost exactly the same from my previous gym. I was worried it would be too different, but W explained that all instructors are taught by the same professionals in Los Angeles. No matter where I go in the United States, the classes should be formulaic: Bow in, exercise to get your cardio up (translation: kill you), stretch, practice strikes (punches, kicks, etc), learn to defend a particular assault (chokes, bear hugs, etc), execute defenses in a drill scenario, and then bow out.

It all sounds easy breezy just saying it like that. In reality, I genuinely just want a sandwich and a nap right now.

“In the same way, students should practice with spirit and energy to avoid what can best be described as “dead” training. That meaningless task of merely going through the motion, doing the technique half-heartedly.” —From TacticalAdvantage.com

The important thing is to practice strong, really focus, so that you automatically react when/if someone does attack you. It’s one of the things I love about Krav Maga. I physically cannot think about the worries from my day while I’m training. I have to put all my attention and energy in what I’m doing. And I give myself permission to get angry.

Not only do I end up learning something new, but I also relieve a ton of stress.