“Don’t wear a ponytail, it’s easier for someone to grab you.” “Don’t ever go anywhere by yourself. Ask for an escort.” “Look underneath your car before you walk up to it.”
“Just do whatever they want and hope they let you go.”
These are just some of the many things women are told throughout their entire lives. Beginning in early childhood, females are treated almost as natural-born victims, as if it’s only a matter of time before their number is drawn.
Although unsettling to hear and potentially detrimental, these warnings unfortunately aren’t without good reason. These precautionary lectures often come from people who merely wish for women to stay safe. And frankly, the odds have always been, and still are against women. Statistics show that an unnerving one-in- three women world-wide will experience an attempted assault at least once in their lives.
As incredibly daunting as that number is, there has been a powerful surge of women across the globe taking charge of their bodies and lives. Women all over the world are participating in self-defense programs at quickly rising rates, yanking control back into their own hands. The best way to handle that one-in-three statistic is to hope for the best, but make sure you are prepared, both emotionally and physically, for the worst. Self-defense programs, including karate, may not stop you from experiencing an attempted assaulted (although you will learn excellent tips to better avoid them), but it can absolutely and directly influence the outcome.
Despite being a combat sport mostly associated with masculinity, the craft of karate has been honed by women of all ages for quite some time now. In fact, Shaolin nuns took matters into their own hands and became experts in martial arts over a thousand years ago! There are many highly-skilled and highly-respected women in the world of karate. In mixed-sex combat arenas, many women can, and often do, outperform their male opponents.
Women are hit over the head with the fact that they are, on average, shorter, smaller and not as physically strong as men, but this is not a disadvantage in the realm of karate and self-defense. Karate, (especially the branch taught here at Shudo Kan Karate Club - more on that in a bit), was specifically designed to offer an effective and powerful way to defend oneself from a larger, stronger, and perhaps even armed aggressor. Martial arts teaches you how to defeat brute force with skill and precision; A mix of minimal movements and body adjustments executed with control are enough to cause severe damage.
Anyone can rely on their physical presence to try to overpower a victim, wildly lashing out fists or trying to restrict arm movement. But preparedness, timing and accuracy can transform you from victim to victor.
Well aware of this, Sensei Doug Dennis instructs a concentrated and highly- respected traditional version of karate called Shitō-ryū. This particular style of ancient karate is so much more than learning proper stances and forms, but rather mastering practical, actual self-defense tactics and learning how to effectively apply them to real-life situations should the need arise.
Sensei Doug also offers specialized self-defense courses strongly centered on teaching women how to minimize a physical threat and regain control over a multitude of scary situations. Women no longer need to feel they are defenseless beings. Instead, they can be experts in a combative skill with transferable usage.
Male violence against women has maintained men’s dominance in the world since the dawn of human history. Restricting that dominance by being capable of fighting off or even preventing that violence helps tip the scale to a more balanced society. Instead of perpetuating dangerous and ludicrous ideals where women are portrayed as weak and fragile things to be objectified, women should and can be regarded as strong, powerful, and even dangerous.
The benefits of karate and similar female-driven self-defense courses don’t stop at learning to manipulate one’s own body. Women can learn to influence the bodies of people around them. You will learn to read, anticipate, disrupt and control an aggressor’s movements. You will learn to keep a potential attacker at the exact distance you want them, and even force them into submissive positions. The first time for many, women are learning to place themselves in a position of skilled power.
These courses allow women to relearn their bodies’ abilities, to be introduced to power and strength that, for most, had always been dormant. They allow women to defy conventional understandings and negative depictions of what femininity means. They encourage women to command space, and learn that they possess the right to command space. Women are encouraged to appreciate and respect what their bodies can do for them, to foster a new sense of self-esteem, confidence and self-preservation. It's time for the age of female passiveness to move over.
Shudo Kan Karate Club offers women and girls of all ages a welcoming and encouraging atmosphere to learn self-defense. While a state-of-the-art dojo, Shudo Kan remains to be a friendly and judgement-free zone.
If you’d like to learn more information about available classes, contact us at 217-787-9092.
So the next time you hear someone say, “You fight like a girl,” you can show them exactly what that means.
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Shudo Kan Karate Club
217-787-9092
1453 N. Bradforton Rd. Springfield, Illinois 62711
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