The Fighting Feminists of Leeds University

Mixed martial arts has fast become the biggest stage for female athletes in the world of sports. This, in conjunction with a rapid explosion in the feminist movement in recent years has led to many more young women becoming eager to protect themselves in dangerous situations.

Universities are often the epicentre of social movements such as feminism. Whilst walking the halls of my own Union at Leeds University, I came across a flyer for a “feminist self-defence class” which vied to “smash the patriarchy!” I was intrigued, and got into contact with head instructor Jae Millard to find out what it was all about. (Article continues below)

Hi Jae! First of all I want to find out a little bit about your martial arts background. Could you tell me which disciplines you train in and where you’ve learned these skills?

I have trained in Freestyle Martial Arts, with a specific specialism in Kickboxing. Before moving to the University of Leeds I trained at Tring Martial Arts Black Belt Academy (or TMA), mentored through an Instructor Development Program by Sensei Laura Hobson where I gained my ProMac Assistant Instructor certificate last year.

I can see that the class you held was called “Feminist self-defence”. Does your class have any practical difference from women’s self-defence, and if so could you tell me about the nature of this distinction?

The class I ran was advertised as a “Feminist” self-defence class as opposed to a “women’s” self-defence class because it was not only aimed at women. The class was ran in collaboration with LUU Feminist Society and aimed to provide simple, yet effect techniques to people who may feel more vulnerable than your average white, straight male. This included men, women, people from different ethnic backgrounds and of different sexualities and gender expressions/identities. This aspect of inclusivity and intersexuality is something that I believe is core to modern feminism so we wanted the class to be open to all.

Generally speaking, women are most likely to be attacked by a bigger, stronger man. What kinds of strategies to combat this do you teach in the class, and what other issues specific to women do you think apply in self defence?

A large proportion of the techniques taught originate from Krav Maga due to its extreme efficiency and reliance of aspects of physicality other than weight and or size. For this reason, it provides highly effective basic techniques, which regardless of you physical nature, you should be able to perform well. Throughout the class, I structured these techniques around realistic events that more vulnerable people, such as women, may encounter in everyday environments e.g. clubs, walking home etc. We also provided specific focus on confidence, body language, and the ability to communicate clearly and effectively under stress, all of which are particularly important for women.

As I’m sure you know, any self-defence situation requires a difficult balance between avoidance and aggression. Sometimes the best option can be to run away. What’s your opinion on this and how do you explain it to your students?

As mentioned above, I aimed to put a particular focus on non-physical effective self-defence throughout the class. The ability to prevent a situation from escalating into something physical is always to be a priority and is something I make sure to communicate to my class. With this being said, the techniques that were taught were rarely aggressive moves, they included getting out of wrist holds, shirt grabs, choke holds, clinch moves and dangerous possible rape positions. This was self-defence at the most fundamental level and with all techniques taught, the final stage involved a sprint away from the attacker in order for this to become engrained as part of the technique.

As many of the people who attend self-defence classes simply don’t have the time to become fully fledged martial artists, how do you streamline their learning and what are the most important techniques that you focus on?

The techniques I tend to prioritise when teaching are those which require the least experience, and are the most effective. Commitment to a sport or to regular practise, whist ideal, is not something guaranteed, especially in the case of a free ‘give it a go’ session. I therefore aim to streamline learning by teaching techniques that memorable and in my view, the most important e.g. palm strikes, escaping choke holds and clinch holds and wrist locks.

The explosion in the popularity of mixed martial arts has greatly changed the way that people understand real combat. Do you use any examples or techniques from the world of MMA and apply them to self-defence? Are you a fan of the sport yourself?

I believe the increase in popularity of MMA is doing nothing but good for people’s attitudes towards self-defence. Particularly with the rise of female professional athletes, the perception of strong, confident women is starting to evolve into a goal for young girls and whilst there is still some room for improvement in diversifying the MMA scene completely, it is certainly going in the right direction. Techniques used in MMA, such as arm-bars and the use of knee/elbow strikes are of course highly effective in a self-defence scenario, especially when as previously mentioned, you are not guaranteed to be as physically strong as you opponent/attacker.

How do you think the first class went? Is there anything that you yourself learned from the experience, and what changes if any would you make to the syllabus in the future?

I believe the first class was a real success. The atmosphere of the room was just brilliant and whilst almost everybody who attended had no previous martial arts experience, I believe they all left feeling confident and able to defend themselves more effectively than they would have been able to do previously. The level of engagement and enthusiasm was something I hadn’t prepared myself for, with turnout numbers being higher than anticipated it just goes to show what a need there is for this type of education on university campus’ across the country. Changes I would make in the future would mainly be venue specific, ground work was limited due to solid wooden floors, as whilst of course I would have loved to have got through more technique, there is only so much you can do in 2 hours.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to talk to us Jae, and good luck in the future!

No problem!

I’m not going to lie, I’m usually suspicious of self-defence classes. They can so often be a haven of wishy-washy traditional martial arts techniques and misplaced confidence, which can often do more harm than good with regards to one’s personal safety. But after talking with Jae, I was really pleased to find that there was a real emphasis on evasion, efficiency and reality in a class headed by somebody who clearly has a deep understanding of combat. Personally I’d like to echo Jae’s sentiment in saying that many people could benefit from similar classes being rolled out in universities and gyms across the country.