Self defense for Women

Introduction

There are no statistics of how many fights or attacks eventually go to ground but there is sufficient anecdotal evidence to suggest that a majority do and in fact, within seconds of the commencement of the fight or attack. As such, I have been interested in groundwork as a supplement to my practice of the striking art of taekwondo. Furthermore, the rise of martial arts such as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu has made it imperative that we add some groundwork to our repertoire of martial art skills.

The position in question

Today I like to present to you a particular attack and how to escape it.

The attack is such that assailant is on top of the victim and is between the victim’s legs. As the position facilitates sexual assault, women and girls in particular will  benefit the most from learning the techniques I will show today.

Ground attacks are extremely dangerous. Why ? Because the person on top has more room to maneourve and attack compared to the person underneath, whose mobility is greatly restricted. Furthermore, because of the victim’s groin is very close and in front of the assailant, the victim is very vulnerable.  The upside however, is that the victim’s legs are still free and the assailant is not sitting on them, thereby allowing a fair scope of movement.

Illustrations

In the blogs to follow, I have included some drawings to help you follow the techniques - I have coloured the assailant red and the victim blue.

Attack

From this position of attack, the assailant will most likely do one of 3 things :
1) Strangle
2) Punch
3) Prise apart the victim’s legs

Defense
The techniques to counter them are :

Against the strangle :
a) The arm bar
b) The eye gouge followed by :
i) roll off
ii) kick off

Against the leg prise
a) Sit up and punch

Against the punch
a) Choke underarm
b) Choke overarm