SELF DEFENCE FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQS)

Learning self defence is empowering, gives you confidence and helps you to stay safer. You’ll develop the knowledge, skills and mindset that you are worth protecting. Plus, you can discover how to avoid dangerous situations, and be more able to protect yourself and others.

We are often asked why people - especially women - should have to train in self defence - and shouldn’t the focus be on educating men and changing the culture of violence against women.

In an ideal world, there would be no violence and people would be kind to each other. Unfortunately, that’s not the world we live in and since the dawn of time, humans have been violent and destructive.

Yes, we should have evolved past that by now - we wish this was the case.

Yes, we should educate young people to help prevent violence - this is something we do with our personal safety and violence prevention education in schools.

And, yes, the ideal way to stop violence would be for the perpetrators to stop committing it.

However, sadly our society is not yet like that.

The reality is that 90% of violence against women is from someone already known to them.

So what can we do?

We believe that by learning personal safety, how to set boundaries, how to de-escalate violence and how to protect yourself physically as a last resort, you are empowering yourself.

Avoidance and awareness is the backbone of our training, as well as understanding our own role in social violence.

In learning how to protect yourself and your loved ones, you are playing a part in creating a safer society for all.

Yes, you can learn self defence online - it is quick, easy and affordable to learn online with us. Learn at your own pace, in your own time, from your own home. We have two ways of learning self defence online - either throughout pre-recorded video courses or via Zoom or Teams - both are available worldwide.

Yes, you can learn some basic elements of self defence for free. We have a free online self defence course, which reveals the first secret of self defence.

Our blog has lots of free self defence advice and content.

You can also follow us on social media (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIN) for free self defence tips.

And, we have a free Facebook mini course about home safety - How safe is your home?

However, if you want to get a comprehensive guide to self defence you should try one of our online courses. Starting at just £24 with just one hour of learning you can better protect yourself and your family.

Yes! You can learn self defence at home by taking one of our online self defence courses. These courses can be completed in the comfort of your home at any time or pace. They start from just £24.

If you’re not ready to invest in a course you can:

• Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or YouTube - this gives you free self defence tips and advice

• Sign up to our free self defence newsletter - see the form below

We recommend investing in professional training, such as one of our classes, to learn self defence but here are some additional things you can try at home:

• Keep up your fitness levels

• Don’t get complacent - be alert and stay switched on

• Be confident - believe and know that you have the ability to defend yourself and your family.

No! Although Dene is trained in martial arts, we do not teach martial arts as self defence.

Why? For many reasons. Firstly, it takes many years of practice to become proficient in martial arts. And a few hours of martial arts training will not give you the skills you need to defend yourself.

Secondly, real-world violence (whether it is an ambush attack in the street, domestic violence or assault) is vicious, scrappy, fast and up-close. There are no rules and there is no time to stop and think about which ninja move to use.

Even though our instructors are skilled martial artists, they would not use martial arts to defend themselves - they would use the same simple but effective techniques they teach through Streetwise Defence.

These basic self defence skills can be used to great effect by anyone of any age and fitness level.

Find out more with one of our affordable online self defence courses or by booking a training session.

We teach self defence classes worldwide via our online courses and virtual Zoom or Teams training (available on request).

We also train across the UK in person at businesses, schools, colleges, universities, community groups, gyms and in people’s homes.

The minimum duration we recommend is 60 minutes.

The ideal self defence training session is 3.5 hours long (with comfort breaks); this allows us to provide participants with a solid understanding of self defence and the basic techniques required to stay safe.

It all depends on the format of the training and who we are teaching. For an interactive self defence workshop, we normally recommend a maximum of 30 people. This allows us to connect with each individual and gives everyone time to practice the physical techniques.

For schools, colleges and universities the number of participants can be much higher. We have presented to auditoriums with over 100 students, although in this situation the techniques are demonstrated not practised.

95% of what we teach is the psychological side of staying safe and avoiding danger. The physical side can be taught by demonstration.

With online training, the number of participants is only limited to the online platform you wish to use. We have delivered online self defence training to a group of 800 academy students.

No. The majority of our training is psychological. We believe that self defence is 95% awareness and avoidance. Our goal is that through the education and advice we provide, will not find yourself in a dangerous situation because you can avoid it as much as possible.

Physical training is part of the course, however if you don’t want to/can’t take part, you can learn the self defence skills simply by watching the demonstrations.

We do recommend that you participate when you are offered the chance to test out the techniques. People are always surprised by their own ability, power and mindset when they switch into survival mode. Trying this out in a safe environment helps you to prepare mentally, feel the effects of adrenaline and grow in confidence.

Participants often tell us they were ‘buzzing’ and felt empowered after experiencing the physical aspects of the training.

It doesn’t really matter what you wear. Something comfortable would be good and flat shoes but in a real-life situation, you aren’t going to be in gym kit and trainers. Normal clothes or work-wear is fine.

We can teach some key strategies for self defence in as little as an hour, however, our recommended training session for adults is 3.5 hours. It will all depend on your individual circumstances.

It’s up to each individual, school and company, but an annual self defence training session works well as part of well-being programmes. This allows new starters to take part and refreshes skills for people who may have taken part before.

In follow up sessions, people who have trained with us will often share how they have changed their habits and made changes in their lives to keep themselves safer. These tips are great for new participants who can see that planning ahead and being aware can help you avoid danger.

If you have staff who are in high risk jobs or are lone workers then you may wish to train them more frequently and to a higher skill level.

Yes, Streetwise Defence has a safeguarding policy. Our instructors are enhanced DBS checked, trained in safeguarding, first aid, mental health first aid and are trauma-aware and trauma-informed.