Do not offer yourself as an easy target, writes Steve Drake on the topic of self-defence against street robbery and similar risks. Most of self-defence is awareness, he adds.
Walk with confidence and purpose. If an attacker sees you walking like you have no particular place to go, they are more likely to tag you as easy prey. If a stranger approaches you, maintain eye contact with them as you keep on walking. Most fights are won before they start. Many aggressors will back down if you convey the message that you refuse to be a victim. An attacker’s worst fear is getting caught. If you find yourself in an attempted abduction, drop to the ground to prevent him from carrying you. Draw attention to yourself and your situation attract attention from anyone you can.
The first thing he will say to you is “don’t scream”. That’s your cue to scream, and scream loud. He’s telling you exactly what will ruin his plan. Go ahead, ruin his plan − create a disturbance, scream, throw things, anything. If you think you should yell “fire” go right ahead. You can’t count on others coming to your aid, but you want to appeal to his fear of getting caught and make him think that someone could hear you and tend to use your strongest weapons against his weakest targets.
His weakest targets are those that are most valuable, yet ironically, cannot be entirely strengthened. His eyes, throat, groin and knees, shins are your primary targets. Your secondary target is his face. Strong weapons that you can employ are your kicks using the bottom of your feet, your elbows, edge of hand and palm heel strikes. People who’ve never been in a situation where they wanted to fight often think that they couldn’t fight, but you will find, if you’re faced with a life or death situation, that it’s very easy to fight. But you need to know how to fight back for that instinct to be effective. You need to break through that emotional barrier you’ve instilled and be confident that you have the ability to protect yourself.
About the writer: Steve Drake is security training manager at Magpie Security, based in Nottingham. On the self-defence side, he holds black belts in Karate and Jiu-Jitsu.
