Hear me roar: "Model Mugging" self-defense courses teach women to fight back under attack and win

Twenty years ago, after a woman friend was assaulted and raped, a martial artist named Matt Thomas began training his female students to deliver full-force blows to their opponents. Although the woman was an award-winning black belt, her skills were useless after she had been knocked to the ground. Feeling she let him down, the woman went back to Thomas, her martial arts instructor, and apologized. However, Thomas felt he let her down in failing to prepare her to fight a realistic battle.

About 10 years ago, Thomas began teaching "Model Mugging" at Stanford University. Most martial arts classes train students to fight from a standing position, not a position of advantage for a woman fighting a man. More than likely, if a woman is attacked by a man, she will be knocked down, and may feel she has already been defeated at that point. Model Mugging teaches self-defense from the ground, where women are not only able to maximize their physical power (generally located in the hips and legs), but can put their attacker at a disadvantage (men are usually upper-body fighters).

What also makes Model Mugging training unique are mock assaults that help students develop skills through "state dependent learning." "You're going to be in an adrenaline state if you're attacked," says Donna Gershten, a Colorado instructor. "Sixty percent of people freeze in that state, 20 to 30% flail and only 10 to 20% act effectively. So to be trained in an adrenaline state with realistic scenarios is crucial to our class."

Within a male/female teaching team, the male instructor acts not only as an instructor, but also poses as the mugger. Mock muggers wear head-to-toe padded body armor for injury prevention. The female half of the teaching team oversees and referees mock muggings. "More often, in the course of her own fight, the woman will want to continue after she has knocked her opponent out," says Gershten. "That is not what we're encouraging, so it's the role of the female instructor to end the fight when appropriate." The woman instructor also becomes involved with the emotional issues that may surface during the class--especially among those women who have been previously assaulted.

"Most women are driven to Model Mugging because they fear rape and their fear is limiting their lives," says Susan Wilde, San Francisco Bay area Model Mugging instructor. "I keep track of my students and out of 93 students, around 65% have been assaulted."

Statistics show one of three women in the United States will be raped during her lifetime, an estimated 95% of all rapes will not be reported and in 50% of cases, the attacker is an acquaintance.

One Model Mugging student who lives in the East Bay area, was raped and stabbed four times during a cross-country drive. "Every time I cross somebody in the street the whole scenario plays again," she recalls. "I always thought of myself as tough, but I just went limp when this rapist attacked me. I was so terrified."

A woman who has been assaulted often suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. "Because of losses suffered during an assault, many women have difficulty functioning on a normal basis," explains Sheryl Hall Doran, director of Bay Area Model Mugging and Impact International (BAMM/Impact).

In Model Mugging courses, women first discuss what defense mechanisms they've relied on throughout their lives, where those came from and how they have become outdated. As the course progresses, the women can skillfully deliver knock-out blows to the mugger. The class also becomes increasingly serious and addresses emotional pain when a mugging scenario involves a mock attempted rape.

One student who has been abused in her life lies flat on her back as the mugger lies down on top of her. She bursts into hysterical sobbing, but the mugger continues. The class calls to her, "Groin, eyes! Go Mary!" Finally, after what seems to be several long, excruciating seconds, Mary gathers all of her hidden strength--the power once taken from her by her abusers--and strikes back. She plunges her fingers deep into the mesh of the muggers mask with a throaty yell. She drops the mugger with several direct blows.

For many women Model Mugging may be the first time they're confronted with the issue of empowerment--taking responsibility for their own safety by telling someone to leave them alone or physically striking out. These notions are not programmed into American society, which may explain why women hesitate or freeze when confronted with a debilitating or dangerous situation. "I didn't even think of hitting him," recalled the East Bay area student who survived stabbing and rape." And because I didn't hit him, he had all his resources. He was just holding and stabbing me without having to protect himself."

Model Mugging is designed to retrain women--to break through the psychological barriers preventing them from saving themselves. "Physical defense techniques are mostly useless until we are able to psychologically support those techniques," Gershten explains. "Women need to be able to say, 'I have a right to exist in this world, and I'm worth defending.' Those kinds of basic statements about one's self-worth are essential to physical defense."