Women's Self-Defense Boston
We have been teaching our free Boston Women’s Self-Defense program since 2010, training tens of thousands of women in Massachusetts and the Greater Boston area how to protect
and defend themselves. Our program uses blended learning, comprising a mix of online classes and in-person ones. This is a community program that is offered by Krav Maga Yashir
Boston and receives no grant or subsidies etc. It is completely free and there is never any attempt to pressure or upsell participants to our regular training program. Our goal
is to inform women as to the threats and dangers that they are likely to encounter, how to identify them in order to avoid them, and if necessary, how to physically respond in
order to defend themselves. We encourage those who take our classes to share the free online resources with those they know in order to spread knowledge and information concerning
violence against women.
Our program is broken down into four modules: the practical application and deployment of OC/Pepper Spray, understanding and defending against rape and sexual assault, identifying potentially abusive partners, and dealing with stalking and stalking campaigns. Each module in our Boston Women’s Self-Defense program has its own online component as well as an accompanying physical class. The physical classes act as a means to introduce participants to a comprehensive physical system of self-defense which teaches solutions to threats and attacks both when standing and on the ground etc.
Our OC/Pepper Spray class is the only one that is limited to eighteen and up this is due to Massachusetts law that restricts the purchase and use of pepper spray in Boston and the surrounding cities to adults. All our other modules are open to women aged fifteen and up. The online course component explains the different types of sprays, their make-up, delivery mechanisms, and the difference between percentage and SHU etc. In the physical class participants have the opportunity to practice using inert sprays, against instructors playing the role of attackers.
In our understanding and defending against rape and sexual assault, we take a realistic look at how sexual assaults and rapes actually occur, physically working through and responding to the methods that sexual predators use to gain access to those they seek to victimize. Most sexual assaults are not committed by strangers in public spaces, but in homes, and by people the assaulted person knows. Participants get to work through some common scenarios that reflect this, recognizing warning signs and physically reacting/responding when/where necessary.
The identifying potentially abusive partners component of our program looks at how to identify partners, during the early stages of a relationship who may potentially become abusive later on. Such individuals often do a very good job at presenting themselves as the “perfect partner’. This is sometimes a deliberate subterfuge but can be how they naturally act and behave at this stage in the relationship, only becoming more controlling and abusive as it develops. This is not a module that looks at how to deal with intimate partner violence (IPV) or how to leave/end abusive relationships.
The fourth module looks at what motivates certain individuals – usually ex-intimate partners to engage in stalking/harassment campaigns. In Boston and Massachusetts stalking/harassment is defined by three acts, which have caused a person to be scared. In and of themselves each act can be legal, such as sending somebody flowers, texting them and driving by their house etc., however if these acts were malicious and made a person fear for their safety then it could be defined and categorized as harassment. Whilst many people immediately seek for a restraining order from a personal safety perspective this may not always be the most effective thing to do.
If you are interested in attending one of our in-person classes/sessions, please "click here to be taken to our dedicated women’s self-defense Boston website.