Why Do Young Girls Need Self-Defense?
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I conducted a self-defense training class for girls in grades 3-7 yesterday. This was a fantastic opportunity for me as a teacher and a father. I think that I had more fun than the girls. I had to take a look into their little fears as I prepared for the class. I train many adults but have done few seminars for kids. My wife mentioned it to a friend of hers and before I knew it there at least twenty girls signed up. I decided to keep it fun but had to speak about the harsh reality of self-defense and explain that I was not teaching them a martial art. I gave them concepts, tools and let them prove their new abilities on me.
I prepared for the class by talking to several little ones, including my girls. I listened to the group of girls at the class yesterday and learned that most small girls fear abduction by strangers. We live in a good area of the United States and it surprised me that these girls were all somewhat afraid about being abducted by a stranger either in a public place or from inside their home. It seems likely to me that these girls know what is going on in the world and watch or at least hear the nightly news. Of the girls I surveyed, they stated that they would all be too afraid to take any action once the abductor placed them inside of his/ her vehicle. In general, girls of this age were not afraid of bullying, fights with other kids or other types of confrontation. I did some research and found these statistics relating to child abduction:
800,000 children are reported missing every year. Approximately two children every day.Of the children reported missing, 350,000 are family abductions. Children are taken away by family members in violation of custody agreements.
Non - family abductions amount to 204,000. These include kidnappers who are acquaintances or complete strangers to the victims.
Only 115 of non-family abductions are stereotypical abductions, defined as those in which a child is detained overnight, transported at least 50 miles, held for ransom, intended to be kept permanently or killed.
The rest of the 800,000 missing cases include runaways, throwaways, or lost children.
Family child abductions
In 16% of family abductions, the child experiences severe mental harm.8% of the children experience physical harm.
7% of the children are sexually abused.
Mothers take the child away 46% of the time.
Fathers take the child away 54% of the time.
Non-Family child abductions
More than 65% of the children abducted by non-family members are girls.46% of children are sexually abused.
31% of the children are physically abused.
32% of abductions take place in a street or a car and 25% take place in a park or a wooded area.
The top 3 places an abductor imprisons the child are - a car, the abductor's home and the abductor's building.
Most abductions are carried out within a quarter of a mile of the child's home.
75% of the abductors are male.
67% of them are below 29 years of age.
Stereotypical kidnappings
40% of children in stereotypical kidnappings are killed.4% of children are never found.
79% kidnappings are carried out by strangers and 21% by acquaintances.
After reviewing these statistics, it seems like the little ones were justified in their fears. In fact, they were not in denial. According to one very large survey, over 75% of parents fear that their child will be abducted. I have to admit that I share in this fear to an extent. I guess these statistics support why the months of these girls called so quickly after hearing about my "real world" self defense class for girls.
I taught self-defense and Israeli Krav Maga to these girls as opposed to martial arts. I see the general definition of martial arts not being self-defense related. I have been a student of various forms of martial arts for half of my life and I see that many of the techniques are just that, techniques for class and not the real world. The only rule in self-defense is survival. Where it relates to these young girls, they would never be in a situation that could be confused. Why would they ne taught martial arts as a means for self-defense and how would these girls understand the difference? Young girls are easily influenced and they want to do as they are told. I feel good being able to give them concepts and a number of highly effective tactics for dealing with their fears and statistical possibility for their safety. In contrast, if I was teaching the girls a pure martial art, I may not feel as good about the relevancy of the material for their fears or vulnerabilities.
I make my training and seminars relevant by addressing a person's fears first, then building upon the confidence that they gain from physically confronting the fear with concepts or physical fighting skills. For this group of girls, it was obvious that I need to work on the scenario of a bad guy grabbing them by the wrist and attempting to take them away. After solving this problem for them in minimal time girls worked the scenario with me as the "bad guy" using full contact against me. I gave them hard resistance and I didn't let go until I was in pain. This is a valuable lesson that the girls learned. They actually experienced success.
Next, we moved on to some self-defense concepts and finished with one of the worst-case scenario for them. Being placed in a bad guy's car after a successful public abduction. Each child did this individually with me as the "bad guy." I teach simple yet effective ways for them to solve their problems. In this case, it was a violent solution to a very big concern. Each girl worked it out in their own time and used her own tools to fight be off while I was in the driver's seat of my truck. It was empowering and it worked with each of the girls.
I love to teach self-defense to anyone. Girls are fun to teach and really need the training. It is my goal to train as many kids as possible within the next year. My goal is to train 5000 individuals in 2011.
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