Self Defence part 1: Awareness

I’d love to share a series of articles on Self Protection/Self Defence.

this first article is drawn from our martial arts school’s self protection guide.

“Avoidance

This chapter will deal with methods of avoiding dangerous situations and having the awareness to do so.  

Awareness is vital to self protection and personal security. If you are not aware of your surroundings you cannot notice the unsavoury character watching you from across the street, the footsteps that have followed you for several minutes.

The best form of self protection is not to put yourself in dangerous situations in the first place. You don’t take the short cut across the dark park, you don’t walk straight through the group of thuggish looking men because “I shouldn’t be intimidated by them, I have a right to walk here”. Of course you have the right (within reason and the law) to do whatever you wish, but that doesn’t protect you from those who don’t hold the law in such high regard as yourself.

When you are going about your daily business, make it a habit to note what is going on in your surroundings. Keep a mental commentary of the people and places. Has that person showed up multiple times? Have you seen the same car several times in different locations throughout the day?

If you make this a habit it will begin to happen without thinking, but you have to make a conscious effort in the beginning. Most people who drive cars don’t pay the due care and attention they should, they do just enough on their car journeys to not crash into anyone or anything (most of the time). We do the same while out and about in town; we walk along, possibly chatting to a companion if we have one, narrowly avoiding bumping into multiple people around the market stalls.

If you keep alert, eyes scanning, absorbing the voices around you, you will gather so much more information. Even if you feel like you won’t remember it all, if you are really observing the surroundings then any suspicious people will become evident if you see them again.

A degree of common sense is also important in avoiding dangerous situations; for example don’t catch a taxi home alone if you can help it, if you get a ride home from a friend ask them to wait until you are safely inside your front door. If you are out drinking with friends, make sure you don’t consume so much that your senses are impaired. Perhaps wear sensible footwear? I know you’re thinking “shut your mouth, I can wear what I like and drink what I like” and of course you can! I just want to make you aware of steps that you can take to reduce risk to your personal safety.

If you find yourself in a questionable bar or club and you feel threatened, perhaps it is a better idea to leave and find somewhere that feels safer rather than staying because “you have the right”.

If something doesn’t feel right, use your intuition. People often talk of “women’s intuition” but this is exactly the sort of situation to trust it. If the environment or situation feels wrong, withdraw yourself from it to a safer one.

On the other side of things let’s look at your home. Are you one of those people who fastidiously shuts all the windows and checks they’ve locked all the doors several times before you leave? Or do you leave the odd window open? Do you have a back door that’s older than you are and the frame has gone rotten?

While a new, good quality door and locked windows will not stop a potential home intruder indefinitely, it will certainly make their job harder and they may choose to move on to other, easier targets. Do you have CCTV? This is getting cheaper all the time, but even if you opt not to, you can always fit dummy cameras and alarms to put people off breaking into your house.

When considering your self protection and personal security it may be useful to refer to Jeff Cooper’s Colour Codes. Cooper was a combat pistol instructor who developed the colour code system to encourage and teach situational and environmental awareness.

COOPER’S COLOUR CODES OF AWARENESS 

Code White

This is where an individual is switched off to danger from their surroundings. They are totally unaware of anything that is going on, and totally unaware of attack rituals (see next chapter)

Code Yellow

This is where the individual does have an awareness of their situation and surroundings and can be considered switched on. This relates back to what I mentioned earlier about keeping an inner or mental commentary of surroundings

Code Orange

This is a state of evaluation of a threat or threats. This can be constantly changing as the threat level increases or decreases

Code Red

This is fight or flight mode. The threat previously assessed at code orange and this is the action stage. If the threat dissipates, do not drop your guard, but return to stage orange or yellow and maintain your situational awareness.”

I hope that was informative and useful to anyone who read it. I will follow it with additional articles relating to self protection.

have a great day!