The massive 800 pound elephant in the women's-self-defense-room is that women are (on average) are shorter, lighter, and not as physically powerful as men.

Trust me that sentence is painful to write... 

But, the discrepancy in physical power is most notable in the upper body.

  Women have lower bodies that average to be 71.9% as powerful as their male counterparts, whereas their upper bodies only average to be 55.8% as powerful.  

This data conveniently shows us that if women want to build attacks that can compare in power to the men who may be attacking them, they should be focused on building lower body attacks like kicks and knees.  

On the bright side, throwing these strikes with proper technique can triple your power.  Kicks like roundhouses and front kicks are relatively complicated movements, and if your attacker doesn’t know how to do them properly, he won’t be able to generate even half the amount of power that you can.  

Now is usually about the time that I show my female trainees the following footage of Stamp Fairtex training:

Now, as you watch that woman kick her male trainer around the ring, do you have any doubt that she would chop a man in half with those kicks?

This isn’t karate; she’s bashing her jagged shin bones into that man.

The average dude would crumble to the floor if he was struck by her rock-solid knee caps.

When she throws a front kick, she puts the most powerful muscles in her lower body into it… that’s why her trainer is moving when he gets hit.  

When we’re talking about the game of self-defense, we’re talking about having the ability to do damage.  Either you can really hurt the guy who is attacking you, or you can’t.  You have to either make him quit, or make him want to quit. These are the only options that will lead you to success.

The following are the top 5 weapons that I would recommend that a woman build for the purposes of self defense:

The Muay Thai Roundhouse:  This is a kick that bashes your shin bones into your opponent, at any level of his body; from his lower leg, all the way up to his head.  It is a staple in the game of Muay Thai. 

The Front Kick:  This is the single best distancing weapon in all of martial arts. It’s the longest strike that you can throw, and also one of the most powerful.  When you don’t want the guy to get anywhere near you, this is the move that you would use. 

The Muay Thai Knee:  Not everything will go to plan… and if your opponent gets inside your front kick range, this is the move that you would use to blast him.  Send this to the solar plexus, and your opponent will lose his ability to breathe.  

The Jab:  while this is an upper body attack, it is a crucial distraction.  After all, you don’t need to generate a ton of force to blast some dude in the nose and make it hurt.  You can make his eyes water, and you can make him think about the pain in his face while you’re bashing his body elsewhere with your shin-bones, or your knees.  This is the most crucial ‘set up’ strike in all of stand-up fighting  

Elbows:  Elbows are another attack that deserve some respect in the game of women’s self defense.  After all, they don’t rely on ‘power’ to do damage… they rely on the hardness and sharpness of the bone that sticks out of the middle of your arm.  Again, if the man has gotten within the range of your ‘long distance’ attacks, your elbows can be used like jagged little razor blades attached to your arms.   Elbows have a tendency to cut.  Lacerate the right part of your attacker’s face, and you can dramatically effect his vision, or help him to understand that you are a person capable of doing damage.  

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