Women’s Self-Defense Program at Jefferson City Judo Club

First of all, you are to be commended for taking the time and making the effort to educate yourself on the very important subject of self-defense and personal safety. This isn’t a pleasant thing to think about, but as with many things in life, it’s a necessary thing to think about, and then, a necessary thing to do something about. 

Your personal safety is vital to you and your family. With the way our culture has coarsened over the past few years, and with the increase of violent crime, everyone, and especially women, are vulnerable to personal assaults, robbery and other crimes. Girls have been taught for many years to “be a lady” or not fight back when it comes to personal protection. Many women we have talked to tell us that they were taught from a young age that women don’t fight back. For many years, the accepted “wisdom” regarding women’s self-defense was to tell women to not resist a sexual attack and hopefully, they will survive the ordeal. In reality, we know that sexual assault is one of the most traumatic, damaging experiences that could happen to a woman and the accepted “wisdom” of years past was ineffective, to say the least.

We have developed a women’s personal protection program based on situational training and take into account the unique psychological needs of women. While we teach physical self-defense skills based on situations that actually take place, we also focus on the psychological aspect of women and their unique needs in personal protection. We know that a real-life self-defense situation isn’t a schoolyard fight. It’s a serious thing that can, and does, change a person’s life. An attack often comes out of nowhere and learning how to recognize a possible threat and being able to physically deal with it may save your life. 

This program emphasizes three major areas in an effort to achieve personal protection for women. They are:

1. Prevention: We hope to offer some common sense, practical and effective ideas for you to use in your daily life that may serve to prevent you from being a victim of a sexual assault or violent crime. Also, just as important, being able to recognize a potential threat may save your life. We offer some ideas on how to spot potential threats to your safety. 
2. Reaction: How you react if attacked or assaulted affects the outcome. To adequately react, you first have to recognize that there is a threat. You must recognize that there is a threat and react accordingly based on your past experiences and the situation. The first reaction recommended is, if confronted, do anything possible to escape. Are you willing to defend yourself? This is the psychology of self defense. Your attitude determines what you think; what you think determines what you do. Keeping as clear-headed as possible under the circumstances and knowing that how you react may dictate if you survive or not. When questioned whether or not they would use any force necessary to defend themselves in one of our surveys before training in our program, amazingly, a good number of women stated they didn’t want to hurt the attacker. Some people simply say to call 911, but what happens until 911 gets there? This passive attitude will only make you a victim. We don’t want you to be a victim. 
3. Skills: Physical confrontation is the last resort, but realistically, if you are not willing to hurt an attacker, then he will surely hurt you… or worse. You may have to literally fight for your life! You will learn practical and effective physical self-defense skills that may save your life or the life of a loved one based on actual situations. Our approach to self-defense is to apply the actual meaning of the phrase. “Self-Defense” isn’t simply fighting; it’s being able to defend yourself. Running away is self-defense; if running faster than an assailant is what it takes, then you have defended yourself and survived. If screaming at the top of your lungs and drawing attention to a would-be attacker is what you do, then you have defended yourself and survived. If y, at the last resort, you have to use force to stop an attacker, then do it so you can survive. The skills we teach you in this program are based on information taken from real-world citations. Realizing that, as a victim, you are at an immediate disadvantage because of the element of surprise, the skills you will learn in this program are precise, to the point and effective. We emphasize what we call “Force Multipliers” in applying physical self-defense skills. A force multiplier is adapting a self-defense skill so that the woman applying it will gain the maximum advantage possible in the situation. In almost all cases, the attacker is physically stronger than the woman he attacks, so any way of applying additional “oomph” in a self-defense technique can possibly save your life.

:: Steve Scott