Self-Defense with Improvised Weapons

Series Summary

Self defense is a system of combat techniques used to prevent another person causing harm to your person or property. There are many forms of self defense including women's self defense, karate, judo, jujutsu, tae kwon do, and other forms of martial arts. Some forms of self defense teach non-violent techniques like verbally de-escalating confrontations in order to avoid the use of force, but most utilize strikes, throws, locks, punches, kicks, elbows, and other close combat attacks.

In this free video series, our expert Tres Tew will show you how to defend yourself with improvised weapons. He will teach you about the mentality behind self defense, and what weapons to select. Tres will show you how to use an umbrella, a cane, a pen, a scarf, a purse, a chair, and a broom, a bottle, and a magazine as an improvised weapon. Tres will even show you how to use the opponents clothing and your surrounding area to defend yourself.

Video Transcript

"Hi. My name is Tres Tew. I'm an instructor at Yeshua's Ryu Martial Arts and on behalf of Expert Village, I'm going to be teaching you about improvised weapons. I'd like to talk to you a little bit about when to use an improvised weapon. Say Nick were to pull a knife on me, now I could use my open hands, if I've been trained. Or, I could pull something similar to his weapon (a pen), and utilize that to my advantage. Now, my open hands, they are good in and of themselves, but they aren't quite as hard or pointed or able to deflect a knife as some sort of weapon. Now, if he were to come in, I'm pulling out my pen and I'm taking it straight into the arm. I could punch the arm (and that may deaden it), or I could puncture into it, causing him to drop the knife completely. Okay? So, that's one situation where you would need to use an improvised weapon. There are many different situations, but pretty much, what you are looking for is someone else that throws an attack at you or on you, and you have to have some means of defending yourself (other than your hands). That's pretty much when you would need to use an improvised weapon. "