Scenario for your consideration:
It's 9:00 P.M. and you are walking out of the front door of your workplace to your vehicle with your headphones on, music blaring, your thoughts focused on what you will do when you get home. You were a little late for work so you parked in a farther off area of the parking lot than usual and are tired from working so much that day. You reach your car and start digging around for your keys in your pocket while standing facing your car in the dark. Suddenly, you feel a forceful push from the back and a loud command, "GIVE ME YOUR MONEY!" You spin around upon impact with the car's driver-side door and see a female teenager with a knife pointed straight at you and again you hear the command over the blaring music in your headphones: "GIVE ME YOUR MONEY NOW OR I'LL F******* STAB YOU!"
You then realize that this same girl came into the store earlier and was probably there when you parked, running into work with your headphones on, totally unaware of your surroundings, and most importantly, not aware of her. In fact, she was so bold as to tail you around the store for a while, watching her future potential victim. You did see her inside a few times, but thought little of it. So much for customer service and interaction; you were worried about finishing and going home. Looking back, you realize that she wasn't really looking at the merchandise as much as she was looking at you. Perhaps she even had some help, as you can see farther behind her a young man smoking a cigarette while leaning on the side of the building you just left. He seems content to watch you get robbed, or worse, and doesn't lift a finger when you yell for help, seeing fit to take a longer drag on his cancer stick and continue to observe the action. The cry for assistance goes unheard and irritates the knife wielding robber causing her to yell again, "FOR THE LAST TIME, GIVE ME YOUR MONEY B***** OR YOU ARE GONNA DIE!" You are stunned that you could be taken by surprise and can't figure out in the confusion of it all how or why this is happening to you. You reach into your pocket for your wallet, but you left it inside your work locker by mistake! You try to explain, but the girl just yells, "SHUT UP AND GIVE ME THE CASH!"
The man on the wall at the back starts walking toward the young girl and says, "WHAT THE F*** IS TAKING SO LONG?! JUST GET HIS WALLET AND LET'S GO!!!" You try to explain that you don't have anything, but the bully man decides you are lying and punches you in the face. You fall to the ground after one decisive hit that knocks you out flat upon your connection with the cold pavement. You wake up in the hospital robbed of your shoes, clothes, music player, car, and dignity. Your face is swollen on the left side where the thug sucker punched you and there is a nasty bump on the back side your head where the pavement and it met. Thankfully, you have no knife wounds, but the psychological damage is done. You are, however, lucky and blessed to be alive; your encounter could have easily been a lethal one. You are informed later that a passerby who happened to be an off-duty emergency medical technician and police officer came to your aid when they saw what looked like a dead body in the parking lot on her way home.
Bad situation to be in, right? Well, the worse part of it all is that the whole situation probably could have been avoided by the use of just a few simple tactics that I plan to discuss in this article. The point of this work is to discuss situational awareness and body language skills that can be employed by the reader to help better their own self defense systems as well as exploring the criminal predatory mindset to see how to better defend against it and hopefully "pre-empt" it before it can take any action. The main idea is to create a type of "predator barrier" that will deter or altogether eliminate their advances and also increase, by proxy, the confidence, happiness, and lifestyle of the user. Before we can discuss, however, we must understand, so that brings us to our first question:
What is Situational Awareness?
Situational Awareness is being aware of your immediate surroundings and making quick, concise decisions based on the information you perceive. Some would refer to this process of decision making as an OODA Loop.
The OODA loop (for observe, orient, decide, and act) is a concept originally applied to the combat operations process, often at the strategic level...
Awareness bases itself mainly in the first two O's, "observe and orient", which is important because without these two steps, any "decision for action" would be flawed or ill-informed. You cannot react to a negative situation in a positive way unless you have a way out that is positive by seeing what options you have available. With an informed and more clear perception, your decisions will likely prove to do more to help you than hurt than one who is uninformed. Information is the secret that many people and cultures the world over fight for, protect, and steal daily. The sheer amount of free information that is available to the person willing to take a moment to really see what is in front of them can give them a powerful edge, because "knowledge is power."
The concept of awareness is so simple that we're almost embarrassed to teach it. Ironically, though, it's one of the most ignored yet effective forms of self defense available.
If you think about it, awareness of your surroundings is somewhat of a "no-brainer" in terms of any defensive strategy. It kind of makes one wonder why more people don't teach it as a starting point instead of kicks and punches. Being able to see a threat before it is upon you may prevent the threat (at least to you) altogether. Whether it is knowing the layout of your own home "like the back of your hand" or knowing your workplace's fire escape routes and returning clientele, it makes sense that you have an advantage over others who aren't paying attention.
Without becoming paranoid, learn to direct more of your attention outward into your field of vision, which is as far as you can see and asses potential enemies.
Keeping your eyes more open to outward threats will immediately show results in making you more aware and thus safer. Also, doing as such will give you a much-needed edge should a situation arise.
Remember that distance equals time and the sooner you can observe the enemy's actions, the greater the distance they have to cover, allowing you to react or pre-empt.
Some people already have the skills but just don't trust or don't use them due to conditions of their environment, or just not knowing any better. For those persons, I hope this article is a wake-up call to cognizance.
Learn to respect your intuition and use your awareness in any situation. Everyone has awareness, yet many people silence their inner voice and ignore their better judgment.
It is debated heavily whether or not human beings have instincts at birth. I'm not going to discuss whether or not that is true, but I will say that I know that human beings can learn things and create a memory bank of survival related skills that starts in early childhood; when we learn what pain feels like. Pain, contrary to popular belief, is your friend, it tells you when you should likely stop doing something and lets you know you are still alive. When you no longer feel pain from something that should hurt like heck, that's when you worry.
Over time, we develop a "bank" of known dangers and learn thus to avoid them or take precautions to handle them. For example, you don't touch a pot of boiling water on a stove or the fire underneath unless for some insane reason you want to burn yourself. At some point in your early life, you learned that fire is HOT and heat can BURN and burns cause PAIN, therefore, you avoid directly touching things that could be hot so you don't damage yourself.
From this bank of common dangers, we can also build a "database" of dangerous situations and such to avoid. For example, if you are alone walking the street at night on your way home and know a shortcut through a dark alley, but see two people down the alley standing over what looks like someone beaten and/or dead, do you go down the alley? Hopefully, your answer would be "heck no" (and alerting the authorities with a confidential phone call isn't a bad idea either). The rule "don't be a hero" applies here. Truth be told, you shouldn't really be taking a "shortcut" (cut your life short?) through a dark alley any time of day as it would usually be safer to travel where and when other people are traveling. Traveling in a group of persons you know and trust would be even safer.
90% of self-defense is mental attitude, and 10% physical technique. The foundation of self-defense is to become a hard target by developing your awareness.1.
Preparing one's mind is a mandatory part of self defense training of any sort, especially when you consider how many element of the mind you are dealing with when it comes to awareness because:
Awareness is the most important aspect of self-defense.
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Situational Awareness is an advanced self defense technique in that it can be a means of avoiding confrontation altogether or reacting to a threat much faster. Awareness helps to create security in movement, the same reason that a burglar is at a disadvantage from the get-go when robbing a house. The homeowner likely knows their dwelling inside-out and can move about it in the dark whereas the area is foreign to the other. This allows the armed homeowner to protect his family and allows the thief to blunder around in the dark banging into the coffee table, giving away his position, and eventually receiving either jail time or a few fatal bullet wounds for his poor decision to rob someone else in the first place (not to mention a banged knee or two). This is a type of space and proximity awareness that is built over time and there are few substitutes for it. This is also why spies survey an area before they infiltrate it; they create a sense of familiarization as well as awareness with plans to escape should problems arise.
One often overlooked aspect of self defense in both traditional and sports martial arts is the environmental awareness aspect of self defense. Go to a boxing gym and they will teach you how to throw and dodge punches till the cows come home, go to a karate dojo and they will do the same. But neither will tend to give advice on how to spot bad situations before they occur. This to me is a major oversight. The first and most important aspect of a solid self defense mindset is a solid awareness of your environment. Good environmental awareness skills will keep you out of trouble most of the time and are the first step towards a true understanding of personal self defense.
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So, does situational awareness mean you have to be hyper vigilant all the time?
No, you don't have to go crazy and start carrying the equivalent of a small howitzer everywhere you go or start wearing tin foil hats. This article is not meant to justify unreasonable paranoid delusions, but rather to give you tools to employ in life that will help you stay ahead of the more unaware persons. In fact, during writing this, my situational awareness would be rated as fairly low since my attention is focused on a computer screen rather than my surrounding area as much. It would be foolish to think that someone could or would want to stay super alert all the time; eventually, all humans sleep. There are different levels to awareness and it is up to you to decide on how alert you need to be at any given time, but that decision should be informed by the two O's, observation and orientation, spoken about earlier.
You don't have to go around in a continuously paranoid state, however. Simply keep your attention outward, and if something looks amiss, you'll notice it. Best of all, if you are aware, any predator out there will (likely)notice that you're cognizant of your surroundings and so (you) won't be an easy target.
Walking down the street is not the time to listen to your IPod or Walkman, but rather to be alert and walk confidently with purpose to your chosen destination. Give yourself enough time to reach your destination early so you aren't rushed and can keep your attention outward. Check your local news sources and resources for reports of high crime areas and try to avoid them in your commute. This will also serve the opportunity to find out what the weather will be like so to be even more prepared. When choosing a parking spot (and yes, it IS a choice), you should be on the lookout for spots not blocked from view by larger vehicles and should avoid parking next to cars with people sitting in them. These same persons could be waiting for a victim to rob and/or carjack if working in teams. It would be a good idea to park near a more lighted area where you could see possible threats before being surprised. If you are so inclined, you may also check with store security to find out if the cameras, if any, pointed at the parking lot actually work and if they are monitored on a constant basis to improve customer safety as well as store security. Some persons only choose to shop in what they consider "safer" stores so that's also something to consider. (In my opinion, you should have your flashlight in one hand and keys in the other ready to identify threats and get the heck out.) When you get into your automobile, you should lock the doors, buckle up, and leave; don't hang around in the parking lot, you're a "sitting duck" if you do. Writing in your checkbook, messing with your make-up, checking your appearance, and checking receipts (that last part you should have done before you left the register)can all wait till you get home to the relatively safer environment of your domicile.
Situational awareness relies heavily on how the person pays attention to an outside stimulus or what is going on around him and how he fits in the situation.
You may have noticed that many of these tactics are proactive because there is work you have to do beforehand and things you have to commit yourself to doing daily. They may be difficult at first, but with enough practice these things become second nature. There is little reason why many of these lifestyle changes cannot be incorporated into your everyday routine and practiced with your own group of survival-minded friends in role play scenarios. If you can practice a technique to put someone on the ground with a punch, kick, lock, or throw of some sort, then there is no reason not to practice a set of skills that may enable you not to have to use those punches, kicks, locks, and throws. Just the application of the more physical techniques mentioned may get you hurt somehow by proxy, so better to not have to apply them if you can avoid using them by seeing the possible threats before or if they become actual.
Does the use of awareness negate the need for me to receive real self defense instruction, both hand-to-hand and weapon training?
In a word, No. A higher state of cognizance in everyday life will translate to one being safer, but it doesn't negate the need for self defense training because you can't always see or control every variable in life. In the best case, you may never need to fight at all, but since the worst case must also be seriously prepared and accounted for, it makes sense to have a plan B, and C, D, E, and so on. In the worst case, you may initially have no choice but to fight to save yourself or someone else. This is where higher awareness can give you a needed edge in seeing a way out sooner and remembering details when the legal stuff hits. Sure, you could learn just to be aware all the time and never shut off, but that is a bit unrealistic for most. Also, it would be nice to have a proverbial set of "Aces" in case someone decides to "call your bluff." Remember, one of the best bluffs is when you aren't bluffing.
The famed Jeff Cooper, credited with the creation of the Modern Technique of the Pistol, believed in being aware as evidenced by his Color Code of Awareness, which coded different levels of awareness (or readiness) with a simple color scheme and explanation of each level.
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- White – Readiness is non-existent. The individual's readiness would be white if he were asleep, or reading a book, or otherwise without any perception of his surroundings or movements within them.
- Yellow – Readiness is general. The individual is aware of his surroundings and monitoring what is happening in those surroundings.
- Orange – Readiness is specific. The individual is aware of any activity or person within his surroundings which presents a threat.
- Red – Readiness to face danger. The individual is aware of an immediate threat, which will likely result in the use of deadly force.
If this system was believed in by a man of Mr. Cooper's stature and importance in the world of self defense and is still in use as one of the most prolific systems still taught, then I think it would behoove the reader to consider implementation of some small amount of it into their own daily life (if not all of it). It also proves that the concepts of awareness are not new and this awareness translates into many types of defensive actions.
Even if you are licensed to carry a handgun and have sought the necessary professional training to be able to use your gun safely and effectively, it's important that you remain aware so that you can reach for it in time.
So, don't quit those self defense courses you are paying for, (unless of course your instructor is just after your money) you might still need what you learned and are learning from them in the future. If anything, awareness will make your training that much more effective by allowing you to see more quickly when an attack is coming and where from so to avoid and counter more effectively.
What do criminals look for in a victim?
Human predators are not that different from other hunters. Tactics used by aggressors, such as the use of stealth and surprise to isolate and then overpower a victim, often reflect the hunting habits of wild animals.
There is a common trend to compare the actions of people with harmful or criminal intent to that of predatory animals and for good reason. The criminal mind tends to work by picking out its victims in the same way that a lone wolf might; by first watching, making decisions based on the actions of the possible prey, and then ruthlessly attacking when the prey is most vulnerable. Believe it or not, there are certain traits a "bad guy" looks for in a victim and techniques used by the predators to find a target:
A little tip that criminologists have found is that a lot of criminals will use a technique known as “interviewing” before a physical attack to find out how easy a target you will be.To stop this kind of technique succeeding you should try to develop solid self defense situational awareness skills.4.
Interview techniques are tools often used in many media and police applications but the "bad guys" can use them too. In an interview, usually, questions are asked by one person to another about a specific topic seeking certain answers. However, an interview does not have to be an actual verbal conversation/confrontation between two (or more) parties. Someone with intent to harm has only to pay attention to the body language you display. This is where your deliberate body language choices speak volumes to predatorily minded individuals who are actively searching your unspoken dialogue for signs of being prey, or a person not to mess with.
These "interview" techniques when broken down are really just body language reading skills, known by some as street smarts or people smarts, that allow the criminal element to "read" the body of a potential victim "like a book." These body language reading techniques are not new and anyone can learn to read another person, but it may be much simpler to learn how to send out the right signals to prevent a situation.
There are methods and means to defeat and/or otherwise deter any physical interaction or up close interview. If you look like a victim through your outward communication, then you will likely be seen as one and, thus, treated as such. If you look like someone who is not a victim, then you can expect that the chances of being "interviewed" up close to be slimmer. Learn to better communicate with your body that "you are worth fighting for" and you will be well on your way to being safer.
(Interviewing) allows them to get close without setting off alarms . But if your mind is focused outward, it's not so easy for a stranger to simply walk up and attack you.
There are many things a person can learn by reading body language and I recommend personally that you read as much information as you can about the subject from credible authors who have worked in a field where its use is a highly prevalent part of the job. This stated, body language reading takes a lot of time to do effectively whereas changing what signals you send out to the world through your own body language takes far less. Therefore, you can be safer the minute you are done reading this article by simple walking more confidently and being more aware of the world around you. Walk with your head up, your back straight, and your eyes surveying your environment (preferentially in condition Yellow). On the street is not the time to withdraw into yourself and consider what you have to do when you get home. Rather, let what needs to be done at home stay at home and live right now by paying attention to what's in front of (and behind )you in the present moment. If you see or notice something that seems out of place of "normal behavior" of people, then make a mental note of it and decide on actions to take depending on the circumstances.
Final Considerations, Disclaimer, and Thanks.
There are tons of pieces of advice concerning self defense on the market. One Google search on the subject will make this fact even more evident. This stated, what you choose to do with any information in this article is entirely your own responsibility. I take no responsibility for what you do with it and cannot be held liable for your actions. Yes, I do realize that the article does not really address actual physical techniques as much as some survival theory and philosophy, but I still felt it needed this disclaimer. If you find that something you are doing works for you and you are willing to take certain risks, that is your prerogative.
I am not here to tell you that "only this tactic works" and I'm not going to put down other systems. In fact, if you already know a martial art, I hope adding this practice to your system helps to streamline your way of using it. I am a firm believer that the reason you learn any martial discipline is so to avoid having to resort to it's use while still having the ability should it be NEEDED. (Also known as the "condom method"). I will say, however, that just about every self defense based discipline will come back to the basic principals of situational awareness whether they teach you to BE aware or not. Very often in the "classroom" setting of a dojo, you learn what to do in the event of something happening, but not how to possibly AVOID being put in that position aside from a few (sometimes laughable) dojo tenets or what to do immediately following an altercation. If you want that kind of training, you may have to seek other instruction or teach yourself so that you are truly well rounded in your capabilities. It is my hope that this article has enlightened you to some new potential, possibly made you more confident in your daily life, and helped you instructionally. Thanks for reading.
Works Cited:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Cooper
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[1] http://www.selfdefenseresource.com/general/articles/getting-started.php
[2] http://www.selfdefenseresource.com/general/articles/walking.php
[3] http://streetselfdefense.org/environmental-awareness-for-self-defense/
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Technique_of_the_Pistol
Note to the reader: I hope for this article to the be first in a series dealing with the topic of situational awareness and related topics regarding self defense. Thanks again for reading my article.
