You Can Fight on iOS and Android: Keep Black Belt Techniques in Your Pocket
- Jul 17, 2013 10:05 AM EST
- [num] Comments
Do you feel unsafe walking around alone at night? There are probably a lot of women, including myself, who would answer "yes." One of the issues is that most of us are unsure of how to protect ourselves against potential attackers. That's where the You Can Fight app, available for $1.99 on Android and iOS devices, can help. Created by Helen Anzalone Gordon, a third degree black belt and instructor, the app is specifically designed for women to teach them how to fight back in potentially harmful situations.
The app features four self-defense techniques in videos less than two minutes long. These include wrist grab defense, punch defense, body grab defense, and choke defense. All the instructional videos follow the same format: Gordon explains the scenario the technique will be used in, demonstrates the defense skill with her black belt partner David Ortiz, and reenacts it in a real-life situation. She then repeats the strategies twice more, once with an explanation of the moves.
I liked the explanations of the moves because it lets users know exactly why they should perform each step that Gordon demonstrates. For wrist grab defense, it's important to raise the grabbed arm to a twelve o'clock position because the attacker's wrist will be compromised. Another useful feature is the accompanying slideshows with the four videos. The slideshows recap what each step of the technique is along with pictures to see how it's done. This comes in handy for strategies that have more than just a couple of steps, like punch defense.
While the app was informative and straightforward, I do question how effective it can be in really teaching self-defense. If users aren't applying or practicing the training, how can they be sure that they'll perform the moves in a real-life situation? Practicing the strategies effectively is an important component of committing self-defense to muscle memory. It's fairly easy to memorize the self-defense tactics while watching the video and slideshows, but it's important to know how to apply them.
You Can Fight is handy to have for an introduction to self-defense, but signing up for classes is a good idea if you want effective training.