We were recently sent an email asking whether Escrima is a suitable martial art for women. We believe that Escrima without doubt, is perhaps one of the most suited martials arts for women. There are numerous factors for this, however to keep the response brief we will outline 2 main points.
Escrima is all about movement, if you get hit, you move, as opposed to other martial arts which say "if you get hit, do this technique", this invariably leads to a wrestling match and whoever is the strongest will possibly win. Escrima, does not play this dangerous game. We teach people to move and attack, move and attack, move and attack. Escrima is in many ways a pre-emptive martial art, we anticipate what our attacker is planning and feed off that before the attack is actually carried out. If the attack is unsuspected, we use body mechanics to get out of a difficult situation, a small framed person with the correct knowledge can therefore easily escape an attack.
And perhaps one of the most overlooked aspects of martial arts is weapon use. Weapons are very common in society, and their use is on the increase. It is not realistic to assume that "if someone grabs you here, you do this". This is simply unrealistic and puts the "victim" at even more danger, believing that the self-defence they have been taught will work, chances are it won't. We teach weapon use, not only for you to become proficient at weapons, but for you to learn how to deal with a weapon attack. To have some knowledge of weapons may be your best chance of self protection!
