The Women's Self-Defense Center
* * * Teaching Women Realistic Self-Defense for over 20 Years * * *
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FAQ - What to look for in a Women's Self-Defense Course
 
These are high, but not unrealistic, standards to follow. It's your life and your body.
If you're ever attacked, you and only you will be the one there fighting for your life.
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Q:  How knowledgeable are they on the crime of rape?" 
A: How many cases have they studied and how many rape survivors have they interviewed? Physical self-defense is only one aspect an instructor should be teaching. He should know about the different types of rapists, how a woman can recognize them and how she should respond"
Q: Where did they get their training, how long was the course?
A: You may get some defensive reactions, but no matter how sincere they are, if they don’t have the training and background it could cost you your life.
Q: How long have they been teaching?
A: If their training is 2-4 weeks, it is not adequate. Many times these training sessions are profit-oriented and are taught by perhaps well-intentioned instructors who are lacking in experience in self-defense and knowledge of the crime of rape. There are well-respected institutions – even rape crisis centers – that are often given insufficient training to become effective instructors.
Q: What type of martial arts training have they studied?
A: Do they derive their self-defense techniques from one discipline of study such as Karate or do they have training from others such as Maui Tai Kickboxing, Judo, and Jeet Kune Do.

Effective self-defense techniques are taken from several disciplines of study. Some of the best are not from martial arts at all, but are taken from techniques in street fighting. It is a separate level of fighting a man does as opposed to a woman defending herself in a terror-filled attack from someone physically dominant over her.
Q: Do you get to practice full contact against an attacker?
A: Students should be able to practice their techniques on a realistic attacker, not one dressed in so much protective gear that he looks like an astronaut.
The attacker should be wearing only light head gear, a groin cup, and knee protection.  He should know when he’s been hit so a woman can know when she’s made full contact.

As an attacker, I have been hurt and so have some the other attackers (but none seriously).  The attackers are paying a small price compared to what any survivor of rape has suffered, not to mention those who have lost their lives.

The attacker should make the rape attempt feel, look, sound and even smell like a real attack. The only things an attacker should never do are: strike a woman, touch the groin, buttocks, or breasts.