Welcome and Thank You for visiting Protecting Women

I would like to introduce myself and give women who visit this site a little background on how this website came to be.

When I was 18 and just graduated from high school, a martial arts school opened at the top of my street. At the time, I was quite “small” and thought that learning self defense would be a good confidence builder. The instructor who ran the school was Dave Hebler…soon to find out, an ex Elvis Presley bodyguard and one of the most renowned names in the martial arts world. I signed up on the spot and it didn’t take long before I was hooked…I loved it! This is where my journey began.

Fast forward to the present and I will share with you some of the things I have learned along the way. One of the most valuable lessons that I learned from being involved with self defense training for more than 20 years now is that there is a peace that comes with the knowledge one gains. I am fortunate to say that in all these years I have never had to use my skills other than to practice. There is, however, a confidence that grows within you when you have this knowledge. The mission of ProtectingWomen is to help women achieve a level of confidence and self esteem.

When I operated a self defense school full-time, I was amazed at how many women did NOT come through the door other than to drop their kids off. Every now and then, one mother would take the plunge and join as a student and as she watched long enough, she knew as much as her child did. For every woman that joined, I gained a new inspiration. They taught me more than I could ever explain in words.

Here is what I learned about women and self defense – If they signed up to train in a traditional martial arts school, they were most likely there for a good reason. The thought of accidentally getting hit in the face (or even just hurt) doesn’t appeal to most women, especially when they are paying money to be there. Many women want to learn how to defend themselves but there is not much available to them. Here are the four methods that currently exist: books, video tapes, seminars/ workshops, and a traditional martial arts class.

While all of these methods have their merit, less than one percent of women ever learn ANYTHING about self defense. This was the inspiration for Protecting Women. I wanted to create a tool that gave MANY women a chance to learn how to defend themselves. It had to be in an environment where they did not feel self-conscious about people watching them or by having to wear a less-than-flattering uniform - or worse - being in the same class with their kids and the kids running circle around them! It needed to be something they could do on their schedule and something they could learn at their own pace. This was the foundation from which we built this site.

I went back to Dave Hebler and asked for help. He has 45 years experience teaching women how to defend themselves including writing books on the subject. He developed a curriculum that was effective and could be taught in a short period of time. Here is the basic premise - teach simple and effective techniques that work. In contrast, teach some difficult concepts to help understand some principles. We searched for the perfect balance.

That being said, we have worked diligently to put together tools to help women learn some life-saving skills. The scenarios that we defined are some of the more common attacks that take place. Many of the principles taught in our lessons can be used in a multitude of situations. The most important thing to understand is this is a complex topic. The thought of ever getting attacked or being a victim of violence is a terrible thought at best. However, ignoring it does not do you any good either. Being that it is a complex topic, it has as many questions as it does answers…meaning that if we play the “what if” game and try to identify every attack, we couldn’t do it. Therefore it is important to understand some fundamentals such as basic movement, weapons that your body creates naturally and a simple understanding of human anatomy. This is where the knowledge comes in.

We don’t expect you to become experts in the area of self defense. What we would like you to do is use the tools on the site and find out what works for you. If the techniques are difficult, learn one or two of the principles and practice those. This information is invaluable to you. Read the articles to understand the psychology behind some topics. Whatever you choose, it is better than not choosing at all. Knowledge is power, and if what we teach saves the life of one woman, than we succeeded in what we set out to do.

Thank you,

Jim Taczy, CEO – ProtectingWomen.com