Anne Pang joins the hosts of House of Wellness – Shane Crawford and Melissa Doyle – to talk about her martial arts journey and her expertise in women’s self defence.
Melissa asks, because men are typically bigger and stronger than women, how can we defend ourselves? Anne makes that point that the way men and women interact in self defence scenarios differ. For men, it is usually involving striking, as we see in the movies. For women, they are often grabbed. This provides women with an opportunity they can exploit, which is where self defence training comes in.
A grab is attempt to control, can throw someone off balance and force them to submit. However, a grab can leave someone with available options to strike, given the legs are still free or potentially a single hand.
She demonstrates in a few simple steps:
- First, drop your stance. Lower the centre of gravity so that you’re stable and not easily thrown over.
- Second, raise a guard to protect the centreline. Our Kung Fu techniques are designed to compensate for the lack of strength that women have. The centre line, stance and speed are the keys.
- Now, being solid and strong in your footing and having a straight line to your opponent, strike straight through the centre with a palm strike.
Alternatively, because you have low strong stance, you can simply lift a leg and thrust a kick to low, vulnerable targets. Melissa says “So you go straight for the, uh, private parts?”. Anne confirms that practical self defence needs to hit sensitive places, like the throat or eyes.
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