What We Learned From Our Women's Self-Defence Course Pilot

Earlier this year, Shockwave Jujitsu ran a 6-week Women's Self-Defence Course at Murrayside Community Centre in Ipswich, supported by Active Suffolk's Test & Learn funding.

The aim was simple: create a supportive, practical course for women who wanted to feel more confident, more capable, and better prepared in everyday situations.

It was also a learning project. We wanted to understand what helps women take the first step into self-defence training, what changes during a 6-week course, and how we can improve future courses.

What The Course Covered

The course focused on awareness, confidence, and practical self-defence skills. Sessions included:

• recognising unsafe situations early
• managing fear or stress
• setting boundaries
• using your voice assertively
• improving awareness of space and surroundings
• creating space and escaping
• using simple physical techniques if grabbed or threatened

The course was designed for beginners. No previous martial arts experience was needed.

Who Took Part

Seven women signed up for the course. Four women started and completed enough of the programme to submit post-course feedback.

Of those who completed the post-course survey:

• 2 attended all 6 sessions
• 2 attended 4-5 sessions
• all said they would definitely recommend the course to other women
• all said they were interested in continuing training

Since the course ended, 3 participants have also returned to join at least one regular class.

We also learned that attendance barriers are real. One person dropped out due to injury, one cancelled due to illness, and two were no-shows. Reflecting on the course dates, we have decided to run 2 women's self-defence courses each year: one in April, after the Easter and Eid holidays, and one in September, after the summer holidays and before winter begins. For future courses, we will also look more closely at reminder timing and ways to help nervous beginners attend with a friend.

Confidence Increased In Every Area We Measured

Participants completed short pre- and post-course surveys using a 1-5 confidence scale.

Average scores improved across all seven measured areas:

• recognising unsafe situations early
• managing fear or stress
• setting boundaries with others
• using voice assertively
• awareness of personal space and surroundings
• confidence responding to physical confrontation
• comfort using physical techniques

The biggest improvement was in confidence responding to a physical confrontation or risky situation. This started as the lowest-scoring area before the course and became one of the clearest signs of progress.

What Participants Said

The strongest feedback was about confidence, welcome, and the value of practical training.

A course every woman should do. Amazing instructors who are very helpful and very knowledgeable.

Course participant, March 2026

Excellent course and a must have for anyone wishing to increase their confidence and ability in dealing with threatening situations.

Course participant, March 2026

This was a fantastic course with brilliant instructors and a very welcoming culture.

Course participant, March 2026

One participant also explained why the women-only format mattered:

Learning self-defence skills with other women gave me the confidence to attend initially. Not sure I would have signed up due to lack of confidence if it wasn't a women's only group.

Course participant, March 2026

That is important learning for us. For some women, the course content matters, but the environment matters just as much.

What Helped Women Find The Course

We asked participants how they heard about Shockwave Jujitsu.

The signups came from a mix of sources:

• friend/family referral
• Google search
• Facebook
• Ipswich.love

Google searches included "Self defence" and "Women’s self defence classes in Ipswich".

We also promoted a Women's Self-Defence Quiz through Facebook Ads. The quiz generated strong awareness:

• 10,508 ad impressions
• 5,539 people reached
• 132 landing page views
• £0.38 per landing page view

Web analytics showed 119 quiz starts and 37 quiz completions during the reporting period, with 8 people clicking the course CTA from the quiz.

The learning is that Facebook was useful for awareness and engagement, but course signups came from several places. Search, local listings, and personal recommendation all mattered. The quiz also gives us a useful retargeting audience: people who interacted with the quiz can be shown ads for the next women's self-defence course.

Supporting Lighthouse Women's Aid

As part of the pilot, we linked participant feedback to a donation to Lighthouse Women's Aid. We also sent individual reminder emails to participants who had not yet completed the pre-course survey, giving them 7 days before the first session.

We donated £80, based on £10 for each completed pre- and post-course survey. An additional £12 was paid as an admin fee.

This helped connect the course to a wider local purpose while encouraging thoughtful feedback.

What We Will Do Next

This pilot gave us useful evidence for future women's self-defence courses.

The main lessons are:

• continue designing the course for beginners
• preserve the supportive, women-only environment that helped participants feel able to attend
• continue with the 6-week format, rather than returning to the previous 4-week course, so participants have more time to settle in, practise, and build confidence
• prioritise SEO and word-of-mouth referral, because signups came through search, local discovery, and personal recommendation rather than social media alone
• run 2 courses each year: one in April and one in September
• encourage nervous participants to attend with a friend
• improve reminders and follow-up before week 1
• keep collecting pre- and post-course feedback

Most importantly, the course showed that practical self-defence training can help women feel more confident, safer, and more willing to continue training.

Thank you to Active Suffolk for supporting the pilot, to Lighthouse Women's Aid for their work locally, and to every participant who took part and shared feedback.