1) Know Your Outcome
You must have it in your mind that no matter what, you will fight and you will survive. You will get home safe. This is your ultimate goal. Additionally, you must also know in advance what you are willing to do, how far you are willing to go, in order to protect yourself.
2) Action First
Do not allow yourself to get pulled into “paralysis by analysis”. It doesn’t matter (right now) why this is happening to you, only that it IS happening and you must take action NOW. You can analyze and Monday Morning Quarterback yourself when you are home safe.
3) Do the Math!
If you are attacked by only one opponent, but you doubt yourself, you are outnumbered!
4) Breathe and Move
Intense stress wreaks havoc on the body. Heart rate and blood pressure elevate. Vision narrows. Blood roars in your ears. Your breathing gets faster and higher in your chest, or you may even hold your breath as your heart pounds. You freeze. The way to break this cycle of destruction is to sharply exhale and MOVE!
5) Keep Your S.A.
S.A. stands for situational awareness. Do not walk in public with you head down buried in your cell phone. Do not run with headphones on oblivious to your surroundings. Do not walk to your car alone at night without knowing where your keys are!
6) Stand Tall
This is a corollary to the one above. Stand up straight and walk with confidence. Keep your eyes scanning around you and look like you are aware. This signals to a potential attacker that maybe you are not a good target and they will move on to someone else less likely to notice them.
7) C.W.C.T
This stands for Closest Weapon Closest Target. Do not fixate and focus on a particular target. Do not over analyze where you should strike your attacker. Just strike fast, hard, and often. Hit the closest thing on him with the nearest weapon you have whether that is your fist, foot, knee, elbow, purse, keys, etc. Also, ladies, please note that the groin is not always the best target. Yes, it hurts, but guys are trained from birth to protect that area. Make sure you have more in your bag of tricks than just a groin shot.
8) Get Away!
Remember your outcome in #1. Your job is not to subdue your attacker and hold him for a citizen’s arrest. Your job is also not to beat him to a pulp. Your one and only job (assuming you are by yourself) is to get away as soon as possible, as fast as possible and to a safe location.
9) Be the Momma Bear
Remember that you are powerful. When you see a bear in the woods, are you scared? Yes, of course. When you see a Momma Bear with 2 cubs in the woods, are you more scared or less scared? MORE!
10) Who Do You Love?
Building on the Momma Bear concept above – even if you are alone, you still must fight and survive for your your kids, your family, your loved ones. If you don’t fight, who will protect and nurture them when you are gone? Get it into your head to fight. Always.
11) Beware of Normalcy Bias
I owe this one to my good friend, Josh Sager of the New Jersey Personal Defense Academy. From Josh’s article on Normalcy Bias:
“In layman’s terms, normalcy bias is the condition where a person’s fear manifests itself so acutely that they cannot process a traumatic event and, essentially, blocks it out of their mind. ” I highly suggest you read the entire article HERE.
As the father of 2 young girls, women’s self defense is a subject very near and dear to my heart. Over the past 15 years I have taught women’s self defense workshops to schools, clubs, companies, MOMs groups, church groups, and women from all walks of life who simply want to know more, be more confident, and learn the mindset, psychology, and skills that will help them survive in the event they are attacked.
To book a Women’s Self Defense Workshop for your organization, please contact me HERE.
Jon H
aas, “The Warrior Coach” has been training in Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu for more than 25 years and is currently ranked as a Kudan (9th degree black belt) under Jack Hoban Shidoshi. He has also trained in Okinawan Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Russian Systema, BJJ, Krav Maga, as well as Internal Martial Arts of Yiquan and Aiki.He is also a certified Underground Strength Coach-Level 2, an ACE and FMS certified Personal Trainer and the founder of Warrior Fitness Training Systems. In 2008, Jon wrote the book, Warrior Fitness: Conditioning for Martial Arts, and since then has created numerous other online training and coaching programs helping people around the world become the strongest, most capable versions of themselves!
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