Why women need……and deserve their own self defense class.
For today’s long overdue post I think its important to talk about why women need their own self defense class and how ours was developed. Firstly “I think I should state that I think our general Defensive Pistol classes are great for all sexes. But the “typical” self defense encounter for a female is dramatically different then a “typical” male self defense encounter and as such necessitates its own class.
First, let’s talk about where someone can begin their training for a potential armed encounter. I personally require proof of basic competency with a firearm before you attempt any armed self-defense course. While some people show me military or police credentials most people enroll in an NRA Basic Pistol class. A good basic pistol class is fundamental and necessary to building a good foundation prior to attempting to learn defensive techniques. If you can’t safely pick a gun up from a bench, load it under supervision, fire into a stationary cardboard target, lock the slide back and set the gun back down without an instructor jumping in, the reality is your nowhere near ready to attempt a self-defense class.
A typical firearm self-defense class focuses predominantly on scenarios between 3-15yds. For men this is usually a good focus point of training. Our Intro to Defensive pistol class focuses on smooth drawing from a holster, basic weapon retention techniques and targeting vital areas with split second precision. Intro to DP also uses the use of force simulator system to introduce the students to the concept of fighting under a small degree of stress. Defensive Pistol I builds on this but adds in thumb pectoral index shooting, improvised position shooting, failure drill techniques, gun malfunctions. DP1 also includes more scenarios that are more challenging and even more stressful. Our Defensive Pistol 2 class builds on this further by adding in limb failure (a nice way of saying you’ve been shot but now you have to still fight back), multiple aggressors, using cover and concealment to the advantage and the moving dynamics of an active gunfight. The scenarios at the end of this class are more difficult and incorporate a dynamic atmosphere with innocent bystanders. As you can imply based on what’s described while contact and retention shooting is addressed, it is not a focal point. To help people maintain their split second decision making capability we also offer periodic Scenario class days.
Based on my experience from law enforcement, professional security as well as working with prior victims that have sought out training in the majority of self-defense cases involving women the attack happens from what I term “imminent close contact” or less than 1 yard. This meshes with common sense. I don’t say this to be boastful, but I stand at around 6’4 and while I’m not quite in the same shape as when I ran out of a tunnel at Florida A&M in my D1 football days I’m not quite a couch potato either (side note: working on this in preparation for my third police academy). Not many people want to come close to attack someone of my description. Rather they would stand a safe distance away and use a weapon to get whatever ill-gotten gains they desire. But most females don’t quite have this stature and as a result find themselves in a much different dynamic when trouble happens.
Self-defense encounters of less than 1 yard are DRAMATICALLY different from 3-yard encounters or even 1 yard plus encounters. At imminent close contact range there is a necessary first decision to be made of “is it even safe to draw the gun from this range?” If it isn’t safe, then a targeted victim will need to have retained the skills to instinctively fight to gain distance. If distance isn’t an option due to a much larger and stronger opponent bearing down, then it becomes a race to deploy a defensive weapon in a retention position such as thumb pectoral index without allowing the other party to grab the weapon. A well-known instructor I follow has a saying that I think is vital to understand prior to learning retention shooting, “Once your opponent grabs the gun it’s no longer MY gun….it’s now OUR gun.”
The reality of these dynamics brings up a necessity to train women concealed carriers to be very proficient in retention shooting, contact shooting, breaking contact when possible and when that fails ground fighting, all against a larger and stronger (and potentially faster) opponent. This thought process is what led to the creation of our Women’s Armed/Unarmed Self Defense Course.
I hope this has been insightful as to why we have an extra course offering specifically for women. Classes are scheduled, hope to see you there.
