Inside This Week’s Self-Defence Class
If you’ve been thinking about joining a self-defence class in London, one of the most common questions people ask is: “What actually happens in a session?” So here’s an overview of what we covered in this week’s training at Brixton Self Defence. Each week has a theme that builds practical skills, confidence, and real-world capability. This week’s focus: using your voice, protecting others, and becoming more adaptable under pressure.
Why Voice Matters in Self-Defence
Your voice is an essential part of your personal safety toolkit. We explored how tone, clarity, and confidence can help you:
Set boundaries
De-escalate when possible
Break a freeze response
Draw attention and call for help
Students practised using grounded, assertive dialogue that supports both self-regulation and self-protection - a skill that often transforms how people carry themselves outside the training room too.
Warm-Up: Building Stability, Awareness & Safe Movement
Our warm-ups aren’t just fitness; they prepare your body for real-life self-protection. We worked on footwork patterns that build balance and stability, changing direction quickly, falling safely with breakfalls, and staying mobile and alert even under pressure. These foundations help you stay on your feet or recover quickly if you lose balance.
Floor Drills: Tools for if the fight goes to the floor
Many real-world situations involve slipping, tripping or being pushed, so we review fall drills regularly. Students practised moving on the ground, staying aware, and creating space to stand back up safely. These drills develop:
Spatial awareness
Calm decision-making
Confidence in unfamiliar positions
The ability to keep moving even when surprised
You don’t need to be strong or athletic - just willing to learn.
Anger vs Aggression: Lifting Your Fire
A big part of effective self-defence is understanding the difference between anger and controlled aggression.
Anger is overwhelming, unpredictable and often uncontrollable.
Aggression, when trained correctly, is focused, purposeful and completely under your control.
This week we explored how to tap into the right level of intensity at the right moment - a mindset shift that empowers students far beyond the training room.
Protecting Others — Including Small Children
Self-defence isn’t only about protecting yourself. We looked at scenarios where you may need to guide someone else to safety - a friend, a partner, or in some cases, a small child. We explored:
How to understand range and create space whilst protecting others
How to communicate clearly under pressure
How to move together safely
What to consider when a child is involved
How to avoid accidental harm while protecting them
These are valuable, multi-layered drills that we build into over the weeks, eventually moving the into live scenario drills to test how we manage under pressure.
Power Generation & Simple, Effective Techniques
When physical action is absolutely necessary, power matters, but complexity doesn’t. We focused on how to generate strong, controlled strikes using simple movements that work under stress. No fancy techniques, no flashy martial arts tricks, just practical, reliable skills designed for real-world self-defence in London. This is the foundation of our training: techniques you can actually use when you’re scared, surprised or overwhelmed.
Scenario Training: Bringing Skills Together
Each session gradually builds towards controlled live scenario drills. These scenarios help students learn to:
Move around obstacles
Navigate multiple people
Work through noise and unpredictability
Make quick decisions while staying calm
They’re challenging but confidence-building and one of the reasons students say they feel more capable in everyday life.
Cooling Down & Integration
We always finish with mobility, breathwork and a short Q&A where students can ask or comment about what we’ve covered in class. This helps integrate the mental and physical elements of self-defence.
Ready to Feel More Confident? Try a Free Self-Defence Class in Brixton
If you’re looking for a friendly community and realistic self-defence classes in South London, we’d love to welcome you.
We train every:
➡ Monday evening 7:30-8:30pm AND Wednesday evening, 7:30–8:45pm
➡ Brixton, London
➡ Safe, supportive, inclusive classes
➡ No experience needed
Book your free trial here → CLICK HERE
Our goal is to help every student feel stronger, safer and more confident. If you’ve been thinking about trying it, now’s the perfect time.