Columbia Self Defense

For those of you that follow me, you know that I believe there are primarily 3 main reasons women get assaulted.  And they are, body language, lack of awareness and being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Today, I would like to talk more about awareness and consider some of the warning signs of possible attack.  I call these NON VERBAL ATTACK INDICATORS. Remember, in most instances, your assailant is looking for an easy target and more often than not, the bad guy will take his time to watch and assess his selection.  There are some assailants that have been known to have studied their victims over a considerable length of time.  When I do my self defense workshops, I will often refer to this as "window shopping" .    The attacker is trying to decide which women to attack, so he is window shopping for the one he thinks is going to be the weakest and put up the least amount of resistence.  Remember, assault is meant to be quick.....and if ...

People ask me all the time, why do I talk about domestic violence as part of my self defense workshops or classes? It's simple really! Because South Carolina ranks 6th in the nation in domestic violence and is currently 10th on the list for domestic violence murders! While I love South Carolina, the cold hard truth is women in this state are more likely to be attacked by someone they know, then a complete stranger. As such, here are some statistics that I pulled a couple of years ago, that haven't changed much since then: Domestic Violence Statistics Sex of Victim Male 24.0% Female 76.0% Relationships Ex-spouse 2.5% Family 31.5% Romantic 28.3% Marital 37.7% Substance Use Alcohol 23.6% Drugs .7% Drugs & alcohol 1.2% No substance 74.5% Offenses Homicide .2% Sexual violence 2.6% Robbery .3% Aggravated ...

As part of my beginner karate class at USC, I take 5-10 minute of every class and share topics that are related to assault that I want my students to understand. There are many reasons why women get assaulted, however, most studies show that a woman gets targeted for assault for 3 MAIN reasons.  You might be surprised with the answers.  No, it doesn't have to do with how HOT the women looks or how SEXY she might be dressed. AND yes, nearly 25% of all assault is female on man, so these rules apply to both sexes. Reason # 1 Research shows the number one reason women get assaulted is due to poor body language .  In other words, how you walk, how you carry yourself when you are out in public is a large factor in determining if you get targeted. Do you recognize yourself in this description? Do you walk with your head down, your shoulders slumped, your chest in?  Do you generally keep your hands in your pockets? Do you walk with purpose or just shuffle along at a slow ...

This is a guest post, from Anne Jacoby , an expert in personal safety and a domestic violence survivor....                                                                                                                                                                                                               At ten o’clock that night, Lindsay had checked that her doors were locked, as usual, before shutting the lights off and going to bed. She assumed she was safe within the pro...