Self Defence for Children

Many parents looking at child safety in perth or trying to develop self confidence in their child would enrol their children into some sort of a children self defence program.

These self defence programs however are more suited for peer group socialisation than true martial arts training. Some basic coordination skills and rules-of-the-game are learned, but by and large children do not learn very many combative or self defence skills. And why should they?

At best such self defence classes may be of value in the playground or during a scuffle with another child. The most valuable take aways of self defence programs should really be to prevent nasty falls on the ground and or to protect and cover the vulnerable areas of the body.

The biggest flaw in almost every self defence class however is the assumption that the child's safety is being threatened by someone his or her own size. Thus self defence sessions train against other children using cut-down techniques in adult classes. This is of course a huge fallacy.

My biggest fear for my child, or any child, is that child safety is all about abduction prevention rather than a way to defend themselves against a much larger aggressor. Child abduction can occur very easily at any time. Typically it can occur at a public place, but equally prevalent are abductions from the school yard or walking on the way back from school.

Abductions typically occur in open public spaces and the child is dragged from view or transported to a less public place. This means that children facing a possible abductor who outweighs them by a factor of 2-4 times their body mass should NOT fight back. Instead, child safety in this case should focus on remaining attached to an immovable object. Drop down and lie prone to the ground. Do not allow the abductor to grab onto the child's body. Turn the legs towards him and kick repeatedly at his feet.

If there are no structures like table legs or pillars to wrap your body, children should wrap themselves around the legs of their abductor. Everything to make it more difficult to pick up the child. The child's safety is also dependent on alerting people to the situation.

Discuss this with your child today, see follow up post No One Wants to be a Victim and explore our recommendations on MUST BUY Child Safety products.

Keep safe.

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