How to practice situational awareness safety for self defense

Learning situational awareness is one of the most fundamental skills you can learn in self-defense. As children, we were very aware of our environment. Unfortunately as we grew older, we lost these skills due to many factors such as social media. Why is situational awareness important? If you don't have full awareness of your environment, you won't be able to respond to a threat quickly enough. Thus, you will be unprepared for an attack and possibly die as a result. How do you hone your skills in situational awareness safety? The tips below will be based on a certain degree of scientific understanding:

* Practice keeping a safe distance - In order to react quickly enough to an attack, you need to maintain a safe distance between you and a potential threat. How? Stay a few feet away from strangers or potentially dangerous people. Practice verbal assertiveness and establishing healthy boundaries. Use "I" messages. If you don't keep your distance, your vision will be limited. You won't respond quickly enough or if you do respond, it's too late.

* Learn to read body language - One of the fundamental ways of reading an attacker's intent is body language. It's very difficult for people to mask body language. By reading non-verbal cues, you'll raise your alertness levels and act accordingly. What are some signs that someone is about to attack? Dilated pupils, sweat, a clenched jaw, fist, stiff neck, legs in a fighting stance, etc. If you want to learn more, read my blog post "7 warning signs of an impending attack." 

* Study your environment - Whenever you plan a trip to a certain area, take the time to research the crime rates. The higher the crime rates, the higher your alertness needs to be. Familiarize yourself well with your environment. Learn where the nearest exits are, where to find cover and concealment, where potential weapons are, where potential allies are, etc. 

* Observe your relationships - Sometimes the people you keep in contact with be it associates, friends, parents, lovers, etc. can be potential threats. This can be due to various underlying factors such as unresolved conflicts, negative emotions, violent behavior, physical or emotional neglect, abuse, etc. When you notice changes in your relationships that could potentially lead to violence, you need to act.

* Eliminate distractions - In order to respond quickly enough, you need to get rid of all distractions. If you're driving, turn off your cell phone. If you try to do too may things at once, you may get caught by surprise if an attack were to occur.

* Know where to direct your focus - You don't have eyes at the back of your head. It's impossible to have a complete 360 degree view of the world around you. Therefore the only solution is to figure out where your attention needs to be. You don't have to constantly keep looking over your shoulder for a potential threat but you shouldn't completely let your guard down either. You should divide your focus in order to keep from getting caught off guard. 

There was a study done where volunteers were asked to count how many times 3 basketball players in white passed a ball. A woman in a gorilla costume came in and walked away. Half of the viewers missed her. Why? This phenomenon is called inattentional blindness. It's when our attention has become so focused on one particular thing that we lose sight of other things. See the link below for more details.

https://www.livescience.com/6727-invisible-gorilla-test-shows-notice.html

* Establish a secure parameter - We know that you can't always have your guard up. That's why it's important to designate a safe area and take precautions to secure it. To increase your situational awareness, you must take advantage of the resources already available. This could be in the form of security cameras, alarm systems, and other smart security systems.

In conclusion, these are a few key tips to increase situational awareness safety. Above all, you need to accept that there's a small chance that you'll be caught off guard and unprepared for an attack. Situational awarness safety doesn't make you completely invincible but it will help you in most cases. Practice these skills in your daily life.

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7 warning signs of an impending attack

Just as it's important to learn hand-to-hand combat skills, it's also important to learn the potential warning signs of an attack. Why? You'll have the ability to asses the situation and prevent conflict all together. How can you determine whether or not someone is a potential threat? One method is by reading body language. Most of our communication is through body language. Below are a list of seven warning signs of a potential attack with a helpful resource.

* The pupils - When someone is in a flight-or-fight mode, adrenaline will rush into the bloodstream which causes the pupils to dilate. If you're approached by a potential threat, watch the pupils. 

* The pulse - When someone's about to become violent or aggressive, blood flow and blood pressure increases. You should notice a pounding pulse in the neck or temple areas. You don't need to worry about them concealing it as it's very difficult for most people to control. 

* The hands - Another huge indicator of a potentially violent person is the hands. When someone is violent, he or she will usually ball the fists. Pointing or making threatening gestures are also other signs. If he or she is armed, he or she will usually hide the hands. Pay close attention to the hands. 

* The mouth - If someone is about to attack, breathing will be heavy and he or she will likely gasp for air. Sometimes the lips will be parsed. 

* The shoulders - If someone is about to attack, the shoulders will give it away. Tight and raised shoulders indicate a potential threat. The person might lean forward a bit. 

* The legs - If someone is a threat, there will usually be a dominant foot forward shoulder-width apart. If the person is armed, he or she may shield the weapon from view. 

* Body tension - If a person is violent; there will usually be tension in several areas such as the neck, jaw, arms, shoulders, etc. Pay close attention to the person's posture. 

Practice reading these key body signals. If you enjoyed this post, subscribe to my blog for updates, more advice, product recommendations, and exclusive content in the near future. I'm proud and excited to offer a FREE sample chapter of my E-book "Jeet Kune Do: How to build your own fighting system for self defense!" It's essentially a step-by-step guide on how to make your own self defense system suited to fit your own needs using Jeet Kune Do. If you would love to receive your FREE chapter of my e-book, click on the link below and share a post via. social media then it's yours for FREE! Be sure to also fill out the survey on the right and provide feedback on my blog. Leave questions, comments, and suggestions below.

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Ineffective knife training for self defense

You've probably seen Filipino martial arts such as Kali engage in drills as shown above or similar knife fighting techniques for self defense. While it looks practical for self defense, i'm going to give you a few reasons why it's not. This post isn't to downgrade Kali or any other martial art that practices knife fighting. It works in the martial arts world. It might even work at least once in a real situation but you shouldn't rely on them for self defense. We need to be honest and not allow our preconceived notions of "art" get in the way of effective self defense. Here's my list of reasons why knife training in martial arts don't work in self defense with some helpful resources.

* Impractical training drills - Alot of masters like to teach traditional Kali "flow" training drills where two people stand in front of each other with knives and coordinate their movements. This type of training is ineffective for self defense for several reasons 1) It's static. In a real life violent encounter, your attacker is going keep moving forward with repeated strikes. 2) There's no intent to attack. In a real life attack, your knife attacker is going to throw alot of strikes to a point where you won't be able to deflect them all as taught in flow drills.

* There's no knife dueling in self defense - Alot of knife fighting in Filipino martial arts is geared towards knife dueling. Realistically, someone who intends on attacking you isn't going to wave a knife around and challenge you. He or she is going to surprise you by having the knife concealed then draw it and attack when you least expect it. By the time you realize the danger, it's too late. There's a difference between knife duels where you know it's going to be a fight and a knife attack where you probably won't expect it.

* Unrealistic knife attacks - In some martial arts self defense demonstrations, you might see someone put everything in one stab as you are taught a technique. In real knife attacks, your knife attacker is probably going to repeatedly stab you in a "sewing machine" fashion at various speeds. He or she might grapple to hold you in a firm position as he or she stabs or slashes away. Compare the knife attacks you see in Filipino martial arts to the knife attacks that have actually happened in the street.

         
* No situational awareness or distance control being taught - Very often, you will find a knife attacker conceal a knife before deploying it at the moment of attack. Situational awareness and reading body language are what's so crucial in saving your life in a knife attack. Someone in a crowd or store can walk close to you before quickly drawing a knife and slitting your throat before you'll have time to react. You surely won't have time to draw your own knife if you don't know how to create distance. If you don't know how to read a potential attacker's body language in order to recognize the threat, you will get seriously hurt or killed. Situational awareness and reading body language are two essential skills that you won't learn in a martial arts setting.

* Ineffective sparring sessions - Some schools like to teach point systems and rules (ex. no striking the face) or only making light contact with your knife. The result is when a real violent situation, your slashes are not going to be powerful enough to cut through muscles and tendons. They are only going to cut your attacker. Point systems are useless if they don't teach you how to end the threat efficiently. There's no rules out in the streets so following rules in training will only limit you when an attack happens in the real world.

There you have it. Knife fighting is alot more chaotic and intense than martial artists make it out to be. You don't have to take my word for it. Test it out in unrehearsed sparring sessions as you mimic an untrained knife attacker repeatedly stabbing you quickly as you try to apply Filipino martial arts then see the results. Knife-fighting is not a dance. It's a matter of life and death.

If you enjoyed this post, subscribe to my blog for updates, more advice, and exclusive content in the near future. I'm proud and excited to offer a FREE sample chapter of my E-book "Jeet Kune Do: How to build your own fighting system for self defense!" It's essentially a step-by-step guide on how to make your own self defense system suited to fit your own needs using Jeet Kune Do. If you would love to receive your FREE chapter of my e-book, click on the link below and share a post via. social media then it's yours for FREE! Be sure to also fill out the survey on the right and provide feedback on my blog. Leave questions, comments, and suggestions below.

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