CounterStrikeTM is a personal safety course that arms women with the street-smart strategies needed to avoid victimization and the self-defense skills needed to defeat those that would try to attack them. CounterStrikeTM training, is available at the Workout Place, in Nanuet, NY and can be sponsored off-site by schools, businesses or civic organizations everywhere.

While women have always had access to self-defense instruction such instruction has almost always been provided my well-intentioned but, in our view, misguided male martial arts instructors and police officers trying to teach women how to fight like men.

By contrast, CounterStrikeTM draws its inspiration and insight from actual women survivors, providing women with personal safety strategies and self-defense tactics that are more directly sensitive and responsive to their actual needs and abilities.

Listed below are six basic self-defense skills that every woman should master as the basis for protecting against the most common types of assaults. These techniques are all easy to learn and require no special physical strength or agility.

1: The Palm-Heel Strike: In the same way that one would beep the horn of a car, the palm-heel strike directed at the base of an attacker’s nose can immediately incapacitate an attacker. This technique is most effective when the attacker is located directly in front of you.

2. Front-Kick to the Shin. A kick to the shin is extremely painful and disorienting. This technique is most effective when used as a preemptive strike. It can also be effective after being grabbed in a bear hug from the front.

3. Knee-Strike to the Groin: Extremely painful and disorienting, this strike works well when grabbed in a bear hug from the front.

4. Finger Strikes to Throat or Eyes: When grabbed from the front, press your middle fingers into the attackers Adam’s Apple and keep pushing until your attacker releases you. Thumbs pressed into an attackers eye socket are also effective in weakening an attackers hold.

5. Elbow Strike: When grabbed from behind (with arms free), use alternating elbow strikes directed back at the attackers face to cause the attacker to release his hold.

6. Shin-Rake/Instep Stomp- Use this technique when grabbed from behind with your arms pinned. Place the outside edge of your foot against the attackers shin. Then, forcefully rake your foot down your attacker’s shin as you stomp your heel into his instep. The resulting pain will cause your attacker to release his hold.

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