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Street Awareness

While surfing the web A couple of weeks ago I happened to come across an article about an American woman who was assaulted one evening in Rohrmoser. As I recall a couple of men attempted to pull her inside of an automobile. Fortunately she managed to fight them off and get away. She did very well the circumstances. The outcome could have been far worse. However, she could have probably avoided the confrontation if she had developed a sense of “Street Awareness.”

When I was a dedicated student of martial and self-defense I once attended a seminar on “How to Avoid Gettting Mugged.” The teacher was the World Lightweight Martial Arts Champion. He told us that about 99% of not being victimized had to do with awareness of ones surroundings. He said one should walk with authority and self-confidence. Muggers choose their victims by their body language. If you look weak there is a greater chance you will be attacked.

Another expert, Mark “The Animal Young”, suggested that for one month a person practice the following exercise.

When walking down the street think of every possible place from which you can be mugged or ambushed by a mugger – behind a parked car, from a doorway, from around a corner or from the bushes. By practicing this exercise a person can increase their awareness of their surroundings. He also suggests looking at stranger’s body language. For example, Are they standing suspiciously with their hands hidden to possibly conceal a knife or gun.

If all of the above measures happen to fail and you do find yourself in life threatening situation, the best thing to do is to run and scream. If you find yourself cornered, try using an object like a pen or your car keys to scratch and maim your attacker’s eyes and face. Always aim for targets along the center line of the body like the eyes, throat, solar plexus, and groin. The shins are another good target. Why do you think soccer players wear shin guards. A hard blow to one of these areas will render your attacker helpless for a few seconds. This should give you time to escape.

Forget mace! It takes time to pull it out and if the wind is blowing you can end up making yourself.

Another idea is to carry a six-inch wooden dowel in your pocket. A solid blow to the ribs, collar bone or solar plexus will even stop an N.F.L lineman right in his tracks.

If you have the time and energy you can enroll in a basic self-defense class or make a long-term commitment to study martial arts. The latter are often to theoretical and make take you years of training to become adept. On the other hand a good self-defense class can teach you to master some of the methods I describe in a relatively short time.

In addition to being an author Christopher Howard has been a student of karate, Northern Shaolin Kung Fu, Aikido, Combat Tai Chi, Contemporary Fighting Arts and Jeet Kune Do (Bruce Lee’s system for street fighting).