Well, I’m going to start off tooting my own horn a little bit. I can scrap pretty decently. In fact, I’d say that I can probably defend myself against most people walking on the street if it comes down to it. But, just because I can doesn’t mean everyone can. So, I thought that a good topic to write on today would be self defense tips.
And just to be clear, this isn’t going to be like my combo series. This is going to mostly cover the most bare bones stuff that you could know. So don’t expect a clinic on how to drop someone with a one-two-legkick-overhand combo.
Awareness
Now, just to clear the air here, I’m not saying that you should be one hundred percent on guard all of the time. Paranoia is no way to live. But, you should always consider certain things when you’re out and about. Are you in a rough area of town? Is it dark out? Are there alleys nearby that are dark and sketchy? You’ll be surprised how much trouble you can simply just walk away from.
Keep to well lit areas if you’re out at night. And, if you’re out jogging or walking, keep your eyes up and your headphones out of your ears. Someone that’s alert is more likely to escape than someone with their eyes on their facebook timeline. Just basic, common sense stuff like this will take you a very long way. And I’m not saying that you can’t enjoy music or podcasts out on your run, just know where you are. Be smart.
Don’t buy self defense mythology
There’s so much absolute garbage information out there about this topic that it makes me sick. This goes double for self defense for women. I’ll give you a quick run down of a few of the worst offenders.
For example, the ol’ “kick ’em in the shin”. Sure, bumping your shin on an end table when you’re groggily walking through your house at night hurts. But if you kick someone in the shin who’s goal is to rob, kill, or drag you off, it’s not going to do much. In fact, throw out just about any of those small, useless strikes you’ve heard of (outside of the groin). Things like ear slaps, “nerve strikes”, and foot stomps are all useless. Most of the time a single real strike isn’t enough to bring a man down, so how is a kick to the shin or a foot stomp? Oh, and you’ll almost never be able to clap someone’s ears so hard that you’ll disable them. Something like that takes extreme force and accuracy, not to mention a mostly static target.
The next myth I hear circulated a lot is the “keys are a good weapon” myth. To be honest, regular keys don’t have much in the way of stopping power, or even cutting power. They may cause a few small, superficial wounds, but the time you take to thread your fingers properly isn’t worth the few cuts you may cause. Not to mention the fact that if you hold them wrong and throw a poor punch, you may just injure yourself.
The last one I’ll touch on today is the effectiveness of traditional martial arts in self defense. You may not like to hear this, but someone out to hurt you isn’t going to behave like a training partner. If you want to learn how to fight for self defense, I think that’s great. Just make sure it’s something with live sparring, and trains you for both standing and ground fighting.
So what do you do if you’re attacked?
If you ask me, the best self defense method is track and field. But in this scenario we’re going to imagine that’s not an option. We’re also going to imagine that the attacker doesn’t have you held up with a gun, which is a whole different topic, and I’m going to give you my three most important self defense tips.
Number one is always going to be mental preperation. You’d be shocked at how ready you aren’t for your first physical confrontation. Fighting is intense, exausting, and almost blinding. A lot of people don’t remember how their first fight went, even if they didn’t get struck in the head. By being prepared through proper training you can have an advantage that is endlessly empowering. Nine times out of ten a fight between two people who aren’t pros is going to be a lot of windmilling with closed eyes. Just think of what you can do with the smallest amount of head movement, a clear mind, and a few well practiced strikes at your disposal.
Number two is going to be fighting efficiently. Pulling hair and stomping toes hurts, sure, but in a life or death situation you’re looking for maximizing your damage. Punches and elbows are my go to in a street fight. I’m not saying knees or kicks aren’t effective and devistating, but if joe mugger catches your leg and slams you onto the concrete you could either be knocked out or, worse, killed by the impact. By keeping it to throwing hands you’ll maximize your balance and lower your risk of being slammed. And remember, strike to disable. Bodyshots are good in a long fight to wear your opponent down, but this isn’t a ring or a cage. You want to swing for the head and the groin, either to knock them down or burst a testicle. Good luck fighting after that. Headbutts aren’t bad either, but make sure not to throw your head into a punch or a knee.
And finally, be loud. No criminal out to hurt people wants a crowd. Scream, yell, make a scene. Draw people to your location. And don’t try to remember some kind of line. Trying to remember that mid fight may ditract you. A simple, ear shattering scream of “HELP” will do just as well as anything else.
