How does a young girl defend herself?

[skb12172]

1. Give up on any and all pretense of the way things "should" work
2. Stay with friends
3. Learn how to say "No" early and often.

In other words: profile shamelessly and avoid, as necessary. Trust your tingling "spider sense." To hell with caring about hurting someone's feelings.

[Yogimus]

Switchblade, sharp, and pointy. swing wildly and scream often.

[Guncrazy]

Switchblade, sharp, and pointy. swing wildly and scream often.

Bought a Benchmade with assisted opening for my daughter--close enough to "switchblade" without the legal hassles. But rather than "swing wildly," I told her to protect her head with her left hand, and keep the right close to her body. If the aggressor gets within striking distance, close the distance as fast as possible, drive the blade into his abdomen, edge facing down, and then try to support her body weight on the handle. Screaming is optional. Try not to slip or get entangled. Should I be rethinking this?

[Denis]

Tactical jewelry

[Cybrludite]

Find a more practical alternative to TKD.

She's doing it as a social activity right now. What is a more practical alternative?

Keeping with the Korean martial arts, Han Mu Do gets points for practicality from a lady-friend who is a black belt & was an instructor in the style before school moved her away from the dojang in Cleveland, Ms.

Personally, I'd add instructions on the usefulness of raking or gouging the eyes, tearing ears, and jabbing a thumb or two fingers into the notch where the collarbones meet the breastbone or into the armpit, grabbing & breaking fingers, breaking collarbones, dislocating knees, and other bits of ungentlemanly conduct. How to break a two-handed choke (she brings her arms up between his, then moves them upward and outward. And then counter-attacks from there.) would be good, along with other ways of getting loose from holds. ("Monkey Steals A Peach" in response to a bear-hug, etc) If she's squeamish about the knife, an good quality blackjack might be an option. Fucks them up just as bad, but doesn't look like it will to an untrained eye.

If she's ok with the knife, I recommend Hank Reinhardt's book on the subject.

[Aesop]

The niece is away as a college freshman.

Being in Alabama currently, she's already announced that the day she's legally allowed, she's getting a CCW and carrying.
I believe in the meantime she's making do with OC spray and a take-no-prisoners attitude. (I believe Baby Brother gave her carte blanche to order replacements as she needs from online sources, no questions asked.)

[Termite]

Switchblade, sharp, and pointy. swing wildly and scream often.

Properly employed, a knife should not be seen, only felt.

[MarkD]

1) Awareness. Most criminals will pass you by if you're paying attention, they'll go after easier prey. The best self-defense method is to prevent the attack from happening in the first place.

2) Understand that her attacker is probably going to be bigger and stronger than she is, so she has to make up for that difference with sheer viciousness in counter-attack.

3) Understand also that she is, by definition, being reactive. She can't go around cold-cocking everyone who comes within ten feet of her. Her attacker has a plan, she needs to have one too, even if it's only "If that guy attacks me I'm going to punch him as hard as I can in the nose." She absolutely can NOT freeze up, she has a narrow window in which to react, and it's turning that time when most people stand there saying "This can't be happening!"

4) Cooper's color-codes, white/yellow/orange/red. 'nuff said.

Once you've got that down, the weapon/method used is pretty academic.

[Aglifter]

Perhaps some type of single-bladed push dagger? Something which avoids the issue of being a dagger, but retains the ease of use.

Admittedly, I'm more of an outlier, but women don't really have the upper body strength to hurt men that much w their hands - aside from gouges, if they get lucky - now, if she learns to use her legs and torso in combination, she might be able to cause more damage - but that will be difficult if a man gets too close.

Buy her Meditations on Violence, I think it's an excellent book on the behavior of vermin.

[Denis]

Buy her Meditations on Violence, I think it's an excellent book on the behavior of vermin.

Also search for "Principles of Personal Defence" by Jeff Cooper. There are .pdf copies all over the net. Buying a legit hardcopy for a few dollars will help his estate, but I suspect the Colonel would prefer that potential victims read it, rather than be without it because they hesitated to pay.