Do combat sports really measure up when it comes to women’s self-defence?
“Developing self-defence skills means reclaiming autonomy, thus regaining control over one's environment. We are no longer at the mercy of someone,” according to psychotraumatology psychologist, Julie Francols. But are combat sports effective when it comes to fending off an unexpected attack?
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 More and more women are stepping into the world of self-defense and combat sports.
00:07 In Lyon, France, the organization Renouveau Box helps women who have been the victims of domestic violence by offering boxing training.
00:16 I know what it is to take a blow and to put in place a person who cannot defend himself.
00:23 That's what led me to want to put this project in place.
00:27 It allows us to regain confidence in ourselves and to consider ourselves as a person.
00:36 What it allows us to see is that we are not alone in this situation.
00:39 And in fact, we are not ashamed, because often we are responsible for the situation, but we are ashamed.
00:45 And the fact of being with other people who have experienced the same thing, we understand each other and we speak the same language.
00:51 But are these combat disciplines effective in preventing violence against women?
00:58 Even though I was a boxing champion, I was being physically and mentally abused by a man.
01:07 He had threatened to kill me for 20 years. Physically, I was never going to be able to fight him and win.
01:14 Any time that he hit me, even if I pushed physically back, I just got hit harder.
01:21 So I was never going to win that physical altercation. And the truth is I never won the emotional altercations either.
01:29 What are the limitations of this sport when it comes to defending yourself?
01:35 When we are attacked, the first response is an autonomous reflex by our autonomic nervous system,
01:41 which uses either the attack, the response, or the escape, or the acceleration, the freeze.
01:47 And at that moment, the victim is paralyzed.
01:49 To put these self-defense techniques in place, it is necessary that there are still these few seconds that allow me to regain control of the situation.
02:00 Our reaction is not the same, because it was not premeditated.
02:03 And so the reaction will be a survival reaction, and not a training reaction.
02:09 So how can this kind of training reach its fullest potential?
02:14 It's about the confidence that learning those skills gives you.
02:19 And that confidence helps you be stronger, to stand up for yourself.
02:24 I think my boxing career gave me mental strength, much more than it gave me physical strength.
02:32 It made me a fighter mentally. And when I was laying on the floor after being shot and stabbed, I believed in me.
02:42 I mentally thought, with the help of God, I can get up and get out.
02:48 (whooshing)