Israeli Krav Maga provides women with an unparalleled ability to defeat a larger, stronger, and even armed attacker. The tactics are designed for any women regardless of size, strength or athletic ability. The goal is to present women (and men) workable defensive measures to safeguard one’s own safety. As I previously noted, you may be your first and last line of defense in an increasingly violent world.
While krav maga teaches the same techniques for men and women alike, “infighting” and specialized ground techniques receive special emphasis for women. Violence against women often involves close proximity, especially, in a sexual assault. Street violence is volatile and, often, unpredictable. The one street certainty: there are no certainties in a life and death battle. Again, awareness is the most crucial element to walking away unscathed. If you can outsmart an attacker and prevent an attack, this is must be your first and best choice.
Both the reactively and proactively, this chapter includes basic techniques are required to build a krav maga foundation as well as scenarios and defenses of specific concern to women. Try to absorb the theories and principles behind each respective tactic and scenario. Then, understand each cumulative step in the defensive tactic. Inculcating each movement’s purpose will allow you to perform the tactic under pressure. It is helpful to mentally rehearse yourself performing the tactics (mental training).
Violence is an ugly reality. A violent attack can literally hit you when you least expect it. Women are especially vulnerable to violence due to disparity in size and strength along with social mores dictating women remain accommodating or passivist. Everyone must make a personal decision to envision what violent street dangers might await you along with those you could possibly encounter from an intimate relationship. Be mentally be prepared to face-down and use counter-violence to overcome any violent threat or onslaught. Develop a customized solution that unfailingly will work for you. When a woman or man, is prepared to defend her-/himself with anything and everything at one’s disposal, s/he is a kravist.
An assault is best characterized as a threat. A more thorough legal definition: “A person commits an assault when without the consent of another person, he applies force intentionally to that other person, directly or indirectly; he attempts or threatens, by an act or a gesture, to apply force to another person, if he has, or causes that other person to believe on reasonable grounds that he has, present ability to effect his purpose; or while only wearing or carrying a weapon or an imitation thereof, he accosts or impedes another person.”
A battery is physical attack
Sexual assault is a term used to describe attacks that involve any unwanted sexual contact or threat. These assaults may range from unwanted touching to rape or attempted rape. A more thorough legal definition: “Offensive and intentional contact, direct or indirect, which causes injury.” A battery is often preceded by an assault.
Statistically, the number of reported assaults and batteries, let alone the number of unreported incidents, is staggering. In 2006, 232,960 American women were raped or sexually assaulted (this is the equivalent of 600 women every day). In many instances, women fail to report being victims of violence. This is true regardless if the woman is a victim of stranger or intimate violence. In fact, fewer than 39 percent of all sexual assaults (including rape) were reported to authorities and law enforcement. Of female sexual assault victims, 73 percent were assaulted by someone they knew, and 26 percent were assaulted by a stranger. Thirty-eight percent of women assaulted by a known offender were friends or acquaintances of the rapist, and 28 percent were intimate partners.
Dating Abuse is a growing concern for law enforcement, educators and parents alike. The New York Times referenced a study suggesting that “one in five adolescent girls became the victims of physical or sexual violence, or both, in a dating relationship.” The following are alarming facts about teenage dating violence: