Martial Mindset: 5 Strategies to Prepare for Violent Encounters

Martial Mindset: 5 Strategies to Prepare for Violent Encounters

In today's society violent encounters are becoming more common, just look at the recent rioting in Las Angeles. You can often see news stories of road rage incidents that become violent, random, and unprovoked attacks on people in public spaces, and even reports of missing people that are later found to be murdered. Attacks on innocent people while they go about their routine in public are now more likely to occur than they ever were in years past. If you want to prepare for a violent encounter one must train oneself to having a martial mindset, a mind prepared to not only avoid potential danger, our ultimate goal, but also to engage in combat with an attacker if left with no other option. In the latter, you must be prepared to be more aggressive in your counterattack and in our self-defense options than the criminal is in order to survive the encounter. Here I will discuss key elements in the martial mindset and five strategies to prepare for a violent encounter and to survive the engagement.

I. It is often said that self defense is 95% mental preparation. With that in mind, first, one must practice the art of detection. Detection meaning the ability to spot potential danger before you enter the "danger zone". Thinking about the things you see in public and deciding if it is going to potentially be problematic. For example, as you walk into your local convenience store you notice a strangely acting person sitting in a vehicle observing all that enter the store. This action could be innocent enough, but it could also be something else. The fact that you see it beforehand allows you to make a mental note of your observations and allows you to decide to avoid the store or enter knowing the potential risk that may be lurking nearby. However, it is key to note that avoiding an observed potential violent encounter or danger area is the only guaranteed way to survive the potential encounter. When in situations such as this you can appear less like a victim by:

• Making eye contact with the potential predator. Let them know you see them. Predators are looking for a victim that is unaware. Someone they can attack by surprise. Someone that cannot fight back. Showing you are aware and have detected their presence will let them know you will not be an easy target if they try to approach you.

• Seconds count! Do not walk around with a cellphone to your ear or while texting. Putting your head down and not scanning the area as you walk takes your attention away from your environment. This inattentiveness makes you appear like an easy to attack victim. Violent encounters will occur quickly and without much notice. Seeing a potential violent encounter early even by only a few seconds, gives you the advantage and will increase your chances of surviving the attack.

• Use all of your senses and set a baseline. Observe anything that seems out of place or not what everyone else seems to be doing. A person wearing clothing that is inconsistent with the weather or what everyone else might be wearing, someone sitting in a vehicle with the light off, or someone running from an area for no apparent reason should make you think and ask "why?" These indicators could be your early warning sign that danger is near.

• Scan the area both at eye level, ground level, and above eye level. Most people walk and only scan the area at their eye level. Doing so can make you miss danger signs at other levels. For example, a predator observing people from a rooftop or upper level of a building could be missed if you only scan for what is directly in front of you.

  
  

II. Second, one must practice the art of deterrence. Deterrence is a method you can use to make a predator lose interest in you as a potential victim. Using this method, we deter bad actors from identifying us as victims due to our proactive efforts in our self-defense measures. Practice the following deterrence measures:

• When driving, always try to leave a minimum of one vehicle space between your vehicle and the vehicle in front of you when stopping. This gap would allow you an escape avenue if you had to leave an area of traffic quickly.

• Walk with the crowd when going to your vehicle. Do not take shortcuts that separate you from others. This leaves you vulnerable to attack.

• Avoid dimly lit areas and park in well lit parking lots. Criminal do not want to be seen before they can commit their crimes. They will lurk in the shadows looking for someone to prey upon. Do not be their target.

• Avoid walking into blind spots such as when walking around a corner. Instead walk wide around the corner to allow you to see a potential threat before they can get too close to you.

• Attempt to keep barriers between you and any potential attacker. Utilize furniture, vehicles, or other barriers to your advantage as you move.

• When walking into a building try to avoid letting others follow you in and to get behind you. Allow others to enter in front of you to avoid an attack from behind.

• Stand and walk with confidence, looking people in the eye as you move about, and step off of the line of attack if approached by a potential predator.

• Keep at least a 21 feet distance between yourself and a potential predator. Attackers can traverse an unobstructed path to you in about 1.5 seconds. Not much time to react if needed. A distance of more than 25 feet is best, but 21 feet is a minimum.

  
  

III. Third, one must be prepared to defend themselves if required. Defense requires mental preparation and physical preparation. The predator who want to harm you will be violent in their efforts. They may try to bind your hands, silence your screams, or to quickly take you from one area to another. You must be ready to react with more violence and more aggression than your attacker. Self-defense will not be pretty. It will require forceful, deliberate, focused, and precise striking of your attackers vital areas to survive. This is sometimes difficult to those that do not prepare for violence and or reluctant to be violent. You will have to fight as if your life depends on it. It does! Colonel Jeff Cooper once said "The criminal does not expect his prey to fight back. May he never choose you. If he does, surprise him." Such as true statement! Surprise him! Fight back aggressively!

When we develop our martial mindset we must also understand our potential reactions to a violent encounter. In these situations we can fight, flee, or freeze. Fleeing could be a viable option if time allows you to escape the attack. Freezing will often happen if you are not mentally prepared for the attack. A situation where your mind responds with "I cannot believe this is happening", resulting in your freezing with uncertainty on how to respond. This will no doubt get you killed or seriously injured if you are not prepared. Fighting to save your life without hesitation, or at least being prepared to do so, is the one martial mindset option we want to have developed prior to an encounter. Consider the following to prepare your martial mindset:

• Practice mental exercises by rehearsing how you would respond to a potential attack. Police officers use this technique as they are responding to a call. They will go over in their mind how they will manage a situation if certain things occur. Athletes practice their techniques in the head and visualize their form or technique as they go about their day and in their training routines. We have all probably seen a golfer practicing their shot in areas outside of the golf course. The concept is that if you rehearse or practice "what if" scenarios in your mind, when the time comes to respond to a similar scenario, you will have trained for the scenario mentally allowing your body to respond more quickly than if you had not practiced or rehearsed the scenario at all.

• Train! Physically train for responding to the most likely physical confrontations you may encounter. Go to a local martial arts training hall to learn and practice self-defense techniques to use to protect yourself in likely attacks on you by a criminal. Do not train just to train, however. Train with realism. Train with a level of speed as if you were actually using moves to save your life. Learn how to strike a potential attacker with power and enough force to stop their attack on you. Learn how to apply joint locks and how to utilize pressure points to escape and subdue your potential attacker.

• Your counterattack on your potential attacker must utilize the concept of "violence of action", an action that is rapid and aggressive to achieve dominance in the attack. During the Global War of Terrorism this same concept was called "shock and awe", using overwhelming force to dominate a situation. The same strategy is applicable to surviving an encounter and in developing your martial mindset. Train to be fierce in the face of evil.

• Remember, martial skills are perishable. One must continuously train and practice to keep their learned skills sharp and ready to deploy when needed.

  
  

IV. Fourth, do not forget to study the laws on the use of force and deadly force in your state. Generally, one can use force to prevent or defend themselves against the unwanted and imminent unlawful use of force against them. Once the unlawful use of force has been stopped, your use of force must also stop. When it comes to deadly force, in general, one can use deadly force to prevent or defend themselves against the unwanted and imminent unlawful use of force that has the likelihood to cause death or great bodily harm to the defender.

Any force you use in self-defense will be judged later by others using a reasonable person test. This test simply means would a reasonable person faced with the same circumstances, acted or used the same level of force you used to survive the encounter. It is for this reason we have to understand that we can only use the amount of force or the level of deadly force that is necessary to stop the attack against us. Once the attack has been stopped, our use of force or deadly force must also stop.

In order for you to respond with force, your attacker must have the ability to cause your harm, they must have the opportunity to cause you harm, and you must be in jeopardy of being harmed by the unlawful and unwanted use of force against you. As discussed in section two with deterrence, using barriers can take away the opportunity an attacker has to make you a victim. If you are being threatened with a knife, utilizing concrete barriers or tables can help prevent the attack against you as they create obstacles between the attacker and you. Since the attack is not imminent and you are not in immediate jeopardy of harm you must refrain from using force in return. The situation changes if the attacker is threatening you with a gun. Now you are in immediate jeopardy and the use of force to defend yourself is allowable and justifiable.

Consider adding legal concepts to your martial mindset training. For example, if you are training for knife disarms, and you successfully disarm your attacker of the knife, should you re-engage the attacker and stab them after the disarm? Doing so may run you afoul of the law if the attacker was stopped and the danger was over. If the attacker continues to attack you after the disarm, the situation would be different as the attack is still active. Train in the training hall as if the situation is real. You do not want your marital mindset to learn bad habits and skills that will not be legally defensible after you use force in defending yourself.

V. Lastly, in your martial mindset development, consider training with any tool that is allowable in your state. For example, Taser's are legal in many states to possess and use for self-defense. Pepper sprays are also legal in many states and can be a great force tool to utilize for self-protection. All states now have some form of a Concealed Carry of a Firearm law. Consider getting trained on utilizing any or all of these tools to enhance your physical martial training to deal with would be attackers. The more options you have the better your chances of surviving a potential predatory attack on your person.

CONCLUSION: Self-defense and developing a martial mindset allows you to have options. Never allow a predator to take your options away. Never allow your hands to be tied preventing you from using them. Never allow a predator to take you to a secondary location. Data shows us when a person is moved from the initial attack location to a secondary location their chances of survival decrease dramatically. Take a stand at the initial attack location and fight back. It does not matter how big you are, how big the attacker is, or how strong they are. With proper mental and physical preparation and developing a martial mindset you can defend yourself and escape to safety. If you are interested in learning more about developing a martial mindset, self-defense training, or have an interest in obtaining your concealed carry license in Illinois contact Self Reliance Self Defense to discuss available courses or to book a group class. Stay vigilant, stay prepared, stay safe!