You DESERVE to fight back! This instructional video shows what to do if someone tries to choke you from behind. There are four parts to this move. Grab the arm, tuck your chin, bend forward and use your arm to push them to the ground.
When teaching self-defense I always stress the importance of striking vital points! If you gouge the eyes they can’t see where you move next, if you dig your nails into their ears and yank down they suffer tremendous pain, if you punch the solar plexus their breath is taken away and if you “pick the peaches” (grab, twist and pull on the testes) you can bring them to their knees giving you a chance to run for heLp and call the police. Read more Self-Defense Articles.
Be aware, don’t live in fear.
The Holla-Her Alarm & Flashlight is FREE when you puprchase $75 or more from my store. Click on the image below.
I’m a certified self-defense instructor and encourage all women and girls to know their lives are important. You can learn more on the SELF-DEFENSE page. Please share this with your friends. Together we can create safer spaces.
This is a really simple move that just about anyone can maneuver. Grab the pinkie and thumb and twist them away from you! YOU MATTER! Your life is worth defending. Don’t live in fear, be aware.
When I teach self-defense I always stress the importance of vital points! If you gouge the eyes they can’t see where you move next, if you dig your nails into their ears and yank down they suffer tremendous pain, if you punch the solar plexus their breath is taken away and if you “pick the peaches” (grab, twist and pull on the testes) you can bring them to their knees giving you a chance to run for heLp and call the police. Read more Self-Defense Articles.
I’ve often wondered what would happen if I got stunned. So far I’m too afraid to find out. Luckily there are people out there willing to be shocked, like the man in this video.
When using a stun gun try to aim for the neck, torso or hips. Depending on the size of the person they will be unable to move for 5-30 minutes. These days most stun guns are equipped with a safety pin tha wraps around your wrist. This way if it’s taken away from you the pin will be instantly removed and the stun gun cannot be used against you.
If you own a stun gun, it’s important to practice holding, it, turning it on, and pulling it out of your holster or pocket. When practicing be sure to only allow the volts to flash for a second. If you hold it on for too long and it’s not touching someone it will burn out and be useless. However when you’re defending yourself against an attacker hold it against their body until they fall down. If you want to arm yourself with a stun gun please check out my shop MyDamselPro.net/Pro9927
DO YOU HAVE A STUN GUN? IF SO, HAVE YOU USED IT AND WAS IT HELPFUL?
You may have seen this video making the rounds on social media. I have seen it a few times and LOVE it! Made in 1947 it shows an average sized woman consistently flipping, knocking and pulling down a larger muscular male “attacker”. While I’m not sure I could flip someone over my back like she did, some of these moves are spot on.
Did you see that move where she bent over, grabbed his leg, pulled him off-balance and then twisted his ankle putting her in the position of power? That was amazing.
Throughout the video she shows that technique can be as helpful as strength. She grabs his hair to control where his head goes, yanks his arms in unnatural positions, pins him down and uses his momentum to throw him off of her.
When I teach self-defense I always stress the importance of vital points! If you gouge the eyes they can’t see where you move next, if you dig your nails into their ears they suffer tremendous pain, if you punch the solar plexus their breath is taken away and if you “pick the peaches” (grab, twist and pull on the testes) you can bring them to their knees giving you a chance to run for heLp and call the police.
WHICH MOVE FROM THE VIDEO DO YOU THINK YOU CAN DO?
YOU MATTER! Yor life is worth defending. Don’t live in fear, be aware.
You can’t make it through childhood without consuming images of girls as the weaker sex and fairy tales of girls as princesses and boys as knights in shining armor. As girls we are taught to wait for someone stronger, someone with a Y chromosome, to save us. Even as media has progressed, these misleading images continue to dominate our entertainment landscape and distort young minds. I was lucky to have a strong independent, take no BS mom and other strong female role models who encouraged me to be independent. Even so the damage had been done. Peer pressure to be ‘girly’ and mass media continued to counteract their words. From girlhood to adulthood I wrongly believed that I couldn’t save myself. For so long I waited, hopefully hopeless in a fearful state. Nobody ever came to save me. Years after the physical violence ended, mentally I was still waiting for a hero to help me. Eventually the former fiery girl inside of me began to reemerge and hesitantly began dissecting the messages I had been consuming. I learned that the only one who could save me was me.
I often get asked why or how I became a self-defense instructor and most people expect me to answer that I’m a student of martial arts, but that’s not my story. I trained to become a certified instructor from an ongoing frustration that oppression and violence against women was rampant. After years of shrinking away from violence in my youth and allowing much of my adult life to be controlled by fear an unexpected job changed my direction and gave me hope. I found a job at a center helping victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. Both of those experiences planted the seeds of working in prevention. Teaching women to be stronger has now become my purpose. I finally shed the image of a princess in waiting.
Since 2012 I’ve been teaching self-defense to women and girls. Initially I charged a fee for participants, but then I started teaching free classes to a local LGBTQ center and that experience led me to make all my classes free. My reasoning to keep it free is so that nobody feels like they can’t afford to learn one of the most valuable skills that ALL women need to learn. I’m not a fan of violence and wish it didn’t exist, but until the day when violence against women is no longer so rampant teaching others will be my gift to the world.
Free however doesn’t cover the costs of padding, props, materials, transportation, ongoing training and outreach for my classes so last month I became a Damsel In Defense representative. Through this company I can earn money to cover costs by selling personal safety products. I can now show women how to use stun guns, pepper spray and personal alarms along with my free self-defense classes. There will be situations where women are unable to fight off an attacker so spraying their eyes with pepper or sounding a loud alarm to get help is necessary.
While there is a valid argument that encouraging women to arm themselves in case of an attack is a form of victim blame, “If only you had pepper spray you could have escaped”; the sad fact is that violence against women is a REAL problem. It hasn’t gone away and it is a global epidemic. Victim blame is not at all my intention, I feel for anyone who has been attacked and know from personal experience the dangerous path where victim blame leads. I know that violence is not the victims fault. I always tell participants in my class that violence is a choice, a terrible choice made out of free will. It is never the victims fault. I sell these products and teach self-defense out of a deep longing for women to be safer, to actually BE stronger. Part of that is feeling safe against the statistics that 1 in 5 women (and 1 in 7 men) have been victims of domestic violence. Violence against women, violence in general, is a serious problem and won’t be going away anytime soon.
So what do you think? Are you going to be a princess waiting for a knight in shining armor or become your own?
If you want to arm yourself with personal safety products please check out my shop MyDamselPro.net/Pro9927
Break the silence… teach girls domestic violence awareness.
Find an informative and empowering book for your daughter at Amazon.com
“More Than Just a Girl” empowers tweens with information about self-defense, sexual assault and domestic violence in a fun activity and resource book.
“Fierce” is perfect for girls in High School ready to learn about why and how they can create positive change by teaching themselves to ask questions, learn critical thinking skills, solve problems, and make healthy decisions.
“You Can Fight Back” is for girls and women of all ages. It teaches both emotional and physical self-defense and how to be fierce by acquiring skills that give you a solid foundation of strength.
If you live in San Diego schedule a self-defense class for women and girls (ages 12-60+) by calling Leah at 760-487-8567 or join my Facebook group.
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Please contribute to the crowdfunding campaign I’m working on, “Creating a Grassroots Oasis for Progress” at Igg.me/at/go-sd or “The Grassroots Oasis” on Facebook.com/grassrootsoasis.
I saw it on a daily basis, women and teenage girls who walked in the door with physical bruises or weighed down by emotional scars from the hands or words of an abuser. Some were able to heal, some were not. I was working at a resource center for domestic violence and sexual assault. Despite knowing a lot about these subjects it was both an eye opening and saddening job. Thankfully many women went through counseling and were able to escape abuse, but what I realized was women need to learn how to fight not just so they can defend themselves, before they are in a situation of abuse. I learned the importance of prevention. We desperately need services like the resource center, but also need to focus as much on teaching women not to be victims. So in the summer of 2012 I became a certified self defense instructor.
I used to be a victim until I learned self defense. I used to be afraid until I had to fight a man off of me when I was walking across my college campus. Now and forever after I am a fighter. Victim is no longer a possibility because I know how strong I am.
Over one hundred women and girls have been brave enough to sign up for a lesson from me. In the beginning of each class most participants hang back because they have never been taught to fight and are unsure. By the end of the class almost everyone is ready to pummel me and I love it! We females aren’t usually taught how to fight and too many of us are discouraged from even trying.
My ask for the holiday is that you give a gift of empowerment to the women and girls in your life. You can find a local self defense class or a membership in martial arts, I recommend Akido. Learning that we deserve to fight back against physical assault encourages us to also fight against emotional and verbal attacks.
To become proficient with any skill we must practice it often and remember what actions we need to take. Self Defense is no different and that is why I created a poster with a basic combo move that can be used in most situations. Hang it up at work, in the bedroom, or in the locker room to remind women that they are capable of defending themselves. You can order that poster on Zazzle.com/OviedoStyle.
This year you can give a gift that will really be worthwhile.
Individual Empowerment 