Is Krav Maga right for women?
Krav Maga is regarded as the world’s most effective form of self defense and combat. It is practiced all over the world by people of different ages, different sizes, backgrounds, etc. Their goal is to learn practical survival tools for the real world threats. Krav Maga’s proven success in military, law enforcement and civilian population has encouraged many women to enroll in local Krav Maga classes. Nevertheless the number of women practicing Krav Maga usually amounts to 10-20% of the total student population. What’s even more disturbing is women’s dismal longevity rate in these classes when compared to their male counterparts.
It is obvious that women are just as, if not more, prone to be victims of violence than men. Women are usually smaller, weaker and thus naturally more vulnerable to sexual assault, robbery, abduction, home invasion, etc. Due to the practical nature of Krav Maga, lots of women are tempted to try a class or two to see if they can learn how to defend themselves and their loved ones. So given their initial interest, why is it that women make up such a small percentage of active Krav Maga practitioners?
The answer lies in how Krav Maga is advertised and taught to women. Krav Maga is marketed as a set of intuitive, practical and easy to learn self defense techniques. For the most part this description is accurate, but it can also be deceptive and lead people into believing that learning Krav Maga requires minimal effort, commitment and dedication on behalf of the student. There is nothing simple about preparing to defend yourself in a real life or death struggle against a bigger opponent(s). Becoming proficient at Krav Maga will require hard work, time, sweat and dedication, and women will have to be prepared to get in class and mix it up with men as equals. Unfortunately when many women realize the effort and level of physicality it will entail to learn Krav Maga, they get discouraged and/or scared and no longer pursue their training.
To make things worse, lots of self defense schools add to this misleading advertisement by offering women-only Krav Maga seminars. A few hours of training, are not going to prepare a woman sufficiently to deal with the reality of a violent encounter against a stronger and more aggressive attacker. Since most perpetrators of crimes against women are men, women need to train hard in a coed environment to get the best of what Krav Maga has to offer. Women specific programs are only useful as stepping stools to transition women into regular coed classes. It is our job, as self defense instructors, to make them understand this reality and encourage women to attend regular training. Women stand to get the most out of Krav Maga training, but they need to understand that nothing about the training will be easy. The more upfront we are with them from the start, the more likely they are to have the right attitude to come day in and day out and train alongside men.
