In this video from the online self defense training “Martial Studies: Defense Against Multiple Attackers”, discover how to remain watchful in a public place.
Table of Contents
Simulation
You’re sitting quietly in the middle of a square or a public garden. It’s crowded. You are having a quiet chat with a friend, when suddenly, you see someone coming straight towards you. Usually, people walk around but don’t come after you, isn’t it? Hence, you start to worry!
However, it is quite possible that you don’t see it coming. You must not become paranoid, but you must remain lucid, because back attacks exist, and in this case, you have no other choice than to undergo. No one is exempt from being attacked!
Here’s an example. You are seated on a bench talking, and then you see someone coming towards you. Depending on how you are positioned and thanks to your peripheral vision, you can determine if there is a danger by analyzing his pace, his gait. Here, your reptilian instinct may not be triggered.
A little detail. We often think, by default, that we have to live in small towns or villages to be safe, but this is not true! Just watch TV and you’ll hear testimonies such as “I don’t understand, he was nice, he said hello to everyone and yet, he slaughtered his wife”. Serial killers don’t have a tag on their forehead!
Now let’s say you’re talking and you see a shadow coming towards you: it’s high time you get off your ass and wake up, because it smells fishy! I’m not telling you to break his leg straight away “Excuse me, could you tell me where the street is…” and bam, you break his leg. No! On the other hand, there is danger when there are 2, 3 or 4 of them! There is no need to discuss, be suspicious and leave! “Go and ask someone else, leave me alone.”
This may seem completely logical to some, but this is a strategy, and it is very important! When someone comes straight at you, you have to immediately tell yourself “Fuck, it’s my shout”
Quick anecdote
In such a situation, you have to look into the eyes of your suspected assailant, and that’s when you get the 20-second connection.
For instance, someone approaches you, a small Chinese man wearing glasses, a camera and a card in his hands. You should be wary, but it doesn’t look like a great threat.
Now let’s says that a man approaches you. He’s looking quite dangerous, so be careful! You see? Your instinct is going to wake up… or not.
Your supposed assailant is walking towards you, with a dirty look. You look at him, the connection is established, that’s it, you are in survival mode: “Get ready, something’s going wrong”, you can read it in his eyes.
It happened to me once, I was 16, it was 2 years ago. – Why doesn’t anyone believe me? – It’s because of my beard – I was already a black belt in karate and stuff, but I let myself be fooled.
I was seated quietly in Toulouse where I used to live. I didn’t have headphones on and at one point I saw a man with a strange face coming towards me. I could have walked away, I saw him coming and I was looking at him. But in such a situation, remember one thing: what are we afraid of? The unknown! It was the first time I saw a real dickhead coming towards me! – He’s not there? – That’s just theory right now, but it’s important to remember!
He had a good face. Because as you can imagine, if he had a “Resident Evil” face, I would have left a long time ago. But, despite everything, he had a crazy face. He was a little taller, and he came within inches of my face, and I found myself “mesmerized ” like a fool. “Don’t you have a cigarette?”
And it’s to help them deal with situations like this that I teach my trainees not to lower their heads. “No…”. I looked at him, he was very close, I could have gotten a head butt, but when it happens to you the first time, you can say whatever you want “yeah, but you should have done this…” – “you should have, you should have…” – “yes, you should have, do it and you’ll see one day when it’s going to happen to you, you will react just as I did”.
In the end, you never know how you will react. You can predict and anticipate any kind of reaction, but not the unpredictable, precisely. However, I can now say to a guy who comes up to me, “I don’t smoke, beat it” – just kidding.
