The following is a limited suggestion piece based on the force-on-force exercises I've been involved in over the years. I think these suggestions could easily fit into a general day to day personal plan, and should also be part of your personal defense programming. Please, use what will work for you, and throw out the rest. But don't forget it, because someday it might help you stay alive.
Remember it only takes once to make all the effort well worth it. It might happen to you 3 seconds from this instant, or it might not happen to you during this lifetime. We don't get the chance to choose, and must deal with it in the moment or expire. If you haven't thought it through and developed some responses you won't have very many options to access when the shit hits the fan. As Jeff Cooper said; "you can't make an appointment for an emergency". You have to have some things already in place or you're in trouble.
Also, remember that if it isn't specifically forbidden you're free to improvise. To a large extent that's what good tactics and survival skills are all about.
1. Nothing ever says that you have to travel along the expected and normal routes everybody else does. Even a limited study of movement patterns around common areas reveals that only a small travel route, or path, will be used by the vast majority of people. Any travel outside these common routes immediately throws you into the "what's wrong with this picture" category for those who pay any attention at all. This also throws you into the unknown risk category for most predators, and if they had planned an attack they now no longer have the home field advantage. This is not something they want. Circling / taking the long way is also the best way to check the enviroment before you must make yourself more vulnerable. For example, when you enter your car, but before it's started and in gear. Also remember that crowds increase the risk for preditors, so if you can travel in a group you will be a lesser target than alone. Crowds of strangers also can provide exellent cover and/or good distractions for your safe escape if need be.
2. When confronted by anyone even potentially a risk, don't stop to talk! When confronted don't retreat along an expected route! These are both societally conditioned behaviors and already expected by an assailant. If you can't safely retreat then start circling the person / threat. This will greatly reduce the chance of being approached from behind and ambushed. This will also, most likely, make it much harder for the aggressors to initiate an attack, since you won't stay in their planned kill zone for any length of time. Whatever you do don'?t allow yourself to be cornered or flanked, always keep moving.
3. If multiple threat areas start to get too separated (over 90 degrees), you need to immediately move to get them located more in front of you. More separation by the aggressors leads to a much less defensible position for you, bottom line. 180 degree separation means that you will lose if they do attack. This cannot be allowed to happen. Even if it means that you must move directly between the threat areas to change it, do it. If you must, do this quickly and then continue moving to place them more in front of you.
4. Always try to place something between you and any potential threat. Anything to make it more time consuming for the opponent to initiate a problem will work. Even psychological barriers, like hand positioning, can greatly reduce the risk to you. Barriers may also create just enough reactionary gap and a small cushion for you to better check the rest of your environment. Additionally, please remember John Farnum's classic understatement " anything is better cover than your shirt".
5. The "shuffle step" clearly works better for retreating on uneven, or unknown, terrain. During testing those who use the shuffle step exclusively will find additional threats far better than those who don't. People who just walk backward when retreating from a potential threat, spend most of their attention looking for their footing when they do look over their shoulder. Not so, those who use the "shuffle", they are freed to look at their environment when glancing over the shoulder, and much more secure in their footing. The "shuffle" isn't the optimum for speed but everywhere else it rules the day.
6. Never hesitate to LIE, or BS someone, to redirect a potential problem elsewhere. We are conditioned to always tell the truth, but strangers giving you a hard time don't deserve this common courtesy. If lying can de-escalate, distract, or divert the opponent, it should be used in a heartbeat. If someone asks you for drugs - tell them you know a dealer just down the street. If someone says your car has the exact right color as the one that hit his - point out another one of the same color. Even if it's not the same, it may divert him just enough for you to bail.
After a convincing lie to divert / re-direct, if the person doesn't leave, or at least cool off a bit, this tells you a great deal. It also will tell the justice system a lot if it comes to trial. If it does come to physical force this behavior will also probably allow you to start at a higher level than otherwise possible. Your statement (through your lawyer) clearly becomes very important here.
7. If you carry a gun you MUST know the rules! You must know when, and under what circumstances, you can and can't brandish a gun, or threaten deadly force. If you screw up at this point you may just sacrifice several years of your life, and your life savings. You will also be an ex-felon forever, if you go to prison. If you hesitate to long, it could well mean the end of your life. It's a hard world, and you will not get a second chance in this environment. LEARN THE RULES ahead of time if you own a gun. Then program them in through mental rehersal so that they're automated when crunch time comes. I've seen lots of people who didn't quite get it, even though they had experience and knowledge. All because they hadn't pre- programed where the force line is, and they were forced by real time time constraints to over react.
8. The vast majority of people who are ambushed or startled either momentarily freeze, or continue moving at the same pace in the same direction with little apparent reaction to the stimulus. Both these movement patterns are completely expected movements by the aggressor. He doesn't have to reprogram, or react to you at, all if you do this. Unfortunately freezing and/or not reacting and continuing the same movement, are both instinctive and societally trained. This habitual movement pattern will be a real bear for most of us to get rid of. Clearly, experience and testing have shown that those who move faster, or in a completely new direction, have a much lower degree of "center mass" hits than those who follow their instincts and conditioning. Often they are not hit at all even though ambushed and far behind in the reactionary curve. It is clear from force on force experiments and real world gunfights - those who move immediatly have the best survival chances. I would suggest that you work to change your default position to immediately moving on any unexpected stimulus. And, then digesting what's going on while on the move. You might get funny looks once in a while, but that is the only price to be paid for immensly higher chance of survivability.
9. Most people who are shot in simmunition exercises stop immediately upon getting shot. Why??? Just because the enemy shoots first, or you get shot, certainly doesn't mean the fight is over. In the scenarios I?ve been involved in the only thing that was supposed to stop the action was a whistle blast, or certain very limited cues. The vast majority of trainees stop long before that occurs. When asked why, the universal response seems to be "because I was hit". This is seriously bad conditioning for survival, and should be pointed out and corrected, immediately. Nothing could be worse for survival training, and this behavior should never be tolerated, and always corrected when first observed. Never stop fighting until you have no other choice, should be the mantra of every serious student. EXACTLY how you practice, is EXACTLY how you play.
10. Never forget to do everything you can to maintain contact with your environment and awareness of what's going on in it. Natural and instinctive TUNNELVISION, that occurs when your heart starts to race, will kill you in a 360 degree world where the "plus one" rule and "Murphy's law" rule the day. The "plus one" rule states that no matter how many people you have observed, or dealt with, there is ALWAYS at least one more assailant that you haven't seen yet. Immediately start looking for more when you notice the first. Never stay completely locked in on the one threat that you are most concerned with. Always try to move to a better observation and defense position whenever something doesn't feel right.
Dave Vaughan
