A Word on Words: What is Self Defence?
This is where one party is generally not a willing participant in an 'encounter'. Typically this party tries to diffuse the situation but is faced with a generally aggressive and potentially hostile opponent. The opponent is building himself up into the point of no return. He then seems to undergo a quiet transition stage, and then attacks. Such an opponent could be an unhappy client, another driver in the parking lot, or a commuter on the same bus. Few martial art systems have traditional approaches to deal with emotional outbursts; thus it is the innovative martial arts school owner that leads exploration into these issues. Also the 'victim' (or person at the receiving end of the tirade) may be awashed with an adrenaline dump that may result in shaking, a dry mouth, tunnel vision, and shortness of breath. Some martial artists try not to use the term 'self defence' as it connotates that the victim is already being attacked. We use this term generically to describe the bag of mental and physical skills a person needs in this scenario.

A Word on Words: What is Women's Self Defence?
This is an encounter where a woman is nominally in an ambiguous situation which is potentially life-threatening, or is a potential victim of a sexual assault. She may know the attacker. She may just have been on a date with the attacker. The attacker is most probably a larger, stronger, male. The attacker may not even be currently exhibiting any overt signs of physical violence. The attacker may already be lying flat on top of her. The attacker may get more worked up the more the victim resists. This is women's self defence, and a jumping side kick would be inadequate to deal with the circumstances. Women's self defence has to be a wide range of skills that deals with general awareness and safety, to communication skills, self defence drills, and groundwork. Lastly, this course should specifically be packaged for females as end users. This means that you can have a women's self defence course for male instructors, but ultimately the audience that benefit from your efforts must be female.

A Word on Words: What is the difference between Self Defence and Martial Arts?
The Worldwide Self Defence Directory's initial objective was always to cater for the non-martial artist. This being said, we envision that self defence offerings would have a clear start and end date, and be of a set duration. Such courses would typically have theoretical and practical components wrapped and packaged as a formal offering. Such self defence programs may be created through innovative applications of martial arts techniques, cross-disciplinary research and study, and from demand by interest groups that do not currently practice the martial arts. Self defence is not primarily driven by any historical framework or artistic endeavours. It is a serious systematic method to deal with potentially life-threatening scenarios. Lastly, both general and women's self defence offerings must be visibly marketed or highlighted on your website (or similar marketing materials) and be distinct from your regular martial arts training to be included on this list. Such offline information has to be scanned and emailed to us for verification.