I have conducted nearly 2000 Self Defense For Women classes since the mid-80’s. That’s thousands of girls and women coming to me for guidance and training on overcoming threats ranging from personal/professional harassment to sexual assault all the way to lethal attacks. In almost every case, the student feels insecure about her ability to prevent and/or survive an assault.  While each comes to me with different levels of strength, power, athletic skills, mental toughness, the key almost always comes down to the student’s willingness, not necessarily ability to not only fight back when the time comes, but to do what is required to do what the attacker least expects – to preempt the assault by taking the fight to the Bad Guy (or girl) with all-out viciousness (see past blogs where I talk about Fighting A-socially).

If you haven’t already puzzled it out by perusing past postings, to me the key to knocking the aggressor out of the fight is the willingness and readiness to recognize the pre-attack signs, to mentally and emotionally gird yourself, and then to have the courage to quickly and decisively explode into the attacker, to take the fight to him, to knock him back on his heels, and to keep attacking until you can escape.

Unfortunately, what I think it comes down to in many of my students is a willingness to examine how theyreally think about self defense, and, of course, making changes where it is required in order to by really prepared to successfully prevailing in a fight for their lives.  I can safely say this, not only because it is my personal belief, but my professional observations and other empirical research shows that of the thousands of women I have trained over the years, over 85% of my students, when tested during scenarios, questionnaires, etc:

• During scenarios, even when they know that the trainer is portraying a stalker or predator, when approached and asked a question (Testing, Distraction Tactic, Pre-Attack Posturing by the Bad Guy):
  1. Freezes in place or fails to move.
  2. When asked, tells the stranger her name and gives other information.
  3. When predictably grabbed, does nothing, and, worse, freezes and stops breathing,
• In scenarios where the woman is surprised by a male popping out of nowhere:
  1. Almost all hesitated before acting.
  2. When the woman did counterattack, over 96% struck once and did not follow up.
  3. A large percentage hesitated then attempted a perfunctory and ineffective counterattack.
  4. A large percentage closed their eyes and began wildly slapping, mostly at air,
• In scenarios where a woman who was on a cell phone when a man, who had been stalking her and now sidled up next to her, only 5% immediately gained distance, verbalized defiance, etc.
• Only 5 to 10% (not sure) of women, who were grabbed from behind or the front “by surprise,” used an improvised weapon that they were holding at the time to aid in their escape.
• 100 Percenters:  With rare exceptions – and most of those were distaff law enforcement people – zero percent of the women:
  1. Verbalized or screamed )”Kai!” “Back off!” ).
  2. Moved tactically as she fought or responded to a threat or pre-attack sign.
  3. Used barricades in the environment to evade or escape or at least buy time, or, better yet, to throw at the attacker, strike him with, etc. (chairs thrown at his feet/waste baskets/tables/desks/knapsacks and backpacks/books/trees/cars (scenarios in parking lots).
  4. 100% failed to try a second tactic (Failure Drill) when the first thing they tried failed.
  5. 100% froze when confronted with an “attack” that was not scripted or trained in a previous class.

There are more empirical data and observations, but I hope the message is clear.  Knowing the profile of the attacker you can do the math.  The above noted responses to male testing and his dependence on Victim Compliance to give him the courage and confidence to wage an attack. It is clear that in order to prevent and prevail against an assault, women have to consider changing the way she thinks about defending herself.  

Stay Safe.

Hammer

It happened not too long ago at one of my self-defense courses.  During a routine blocking drill one of my students “accidentally” hit her partner in the face.  Mayhap “hit” is misleading.  My 94-year old aunt packs a punch like Mike Tyson when compared to this “hit.”  Still, the assaulted student froze like a statue immediately upon being struck, she then blanched, her eyes getting about the size of a redneck’s belt buckle, and then she topped it off by collapsing to the floor in a pile.

I have seen this remarkable episode before.  Frankly, it is almost always a woman, once it was a male officer.  Gender aside, it is always someone who had never been in any kind of fight before.  More specifically – and here is my point – without exception, it is a student who never expected to get hit!

Now, Hammer Fans, this is always an interesting phenomenon when it happens at a training.  Actually, I like it.  Gives me a chance to make a point, which I always do.  I will get to that in a minute.  However, when a citizen or a law enforcement officer dies or is seriously injured in real life because of what I call A-Tactical Expectations, it is tragic.  Catastrophic because it could have easily been avoided. 

Inability to respond properly to surprise leads to debilitating shock, and this type of shock leads to a massive shutdown of one’s Autonomic Nervous System, activates Survival Stress (Sympathetic Nervous System Activation), virtually cutting one’s wires, a sniper’s term for icing a subject in his or her tracks.

So, here’s the lesson.  The primary psychological underpinning of a successful knife defense is expecting to be stabbed or cut when defending against a lethal edged weapon attack.  This psychological strategy is based upon the reality that a person, almost automatically, when he or she realizes that he or she is bleeding from even a superficial cut, will avert his or her attention from the attacker and his/her weapon.  The superficial cut is usually the result of a flick tactic of a smart edged weapon attacker who flicks the hands, wrists and/or forearms in order to cause superficial bleeding in order to distract the defender.  Once the victim is distracted, the merciless attacker slashes and thrusts vital targets to finish off the victim. 

A well trained civilian or officer, however, who is trained to expect to be cut, will be indifferent to any wound or bleeding that might distract him from defending his or her life.

If ever you have to defend yourself against a lethal gun, knife or empty hand attack, then, give yourself a fighting chance by psychologically accepting the reality that you will receive some sort of injury.  I ask you to think of this:  If you are still alive and you realize you have been shot, stabbed or struck with a blunt object, the wound is most likely not fatal.  Even if it is a serious injury, believe me, you are far better off concentrating your efforts on the task of fighting for your survival.

Research shows that military and law enforcement officers who give up the fight and believe they are about to die once wounded, usually do perish.  Those who breathe tactically and mentally and spiritually control themselves, more likely than not do survive.

Until next time, stay safe.

Hammer

LET’S face it, Hammer Fans, in the context of this blog when we talk self defense, with maybe the rare exception of a schoolyard bully, what we really are talking about is a dead bang fight for your life.  You are either fending off an abductor, (power) rapist, maniacal, enraged and maybe homicidal (former) spouse or boyfriend, or desperate criminal.  Any one of these attackers is there to do you irreparable damage, not to spar and run. 

I fashioned the Fighting Arts for a life or death, no-holds-barred, ultimate risk, back-against-the-wall Blood Battle.  I tailored it for situations where you, in the great majority of situations are:

• The smaller, weaker, least experienced fighter.
• Tracked and marked like prey, selected because you have been perceived as vulnerable, weak, unwilling to fight back, or, even if you do fight back, selected because you will likely freeze or at least hesitate at the moment of truth..
• Distracted.  You might have articles in your hands, or, you may be distracted by answering the “attacker’s” questions, etc.
• Attacked in a low-witness environment chosen by the attacker for its isolation, for the terrain, which makes fighting difficult (for you), for its low light or for other elements advantageous to the attacker.
• Alone or accompanied by a weak, defenseless child who might further distract you or absorb your attention.
• Inside-Out.  You are attacked just as you are either going in to a car, building, house, etc., or coming out.  Inside-Out is when you are most distracted, criminals tell me.
• Betrayed.  You are being attacked suddenly, spontaneously and with astonishing cruelty by someone whom you trusted – allowed into you home, allowed to get close to you after he has earned your trust.  Worse, the attacker taunts you by claiming that no one will believe you were attacked because it was you who invited him into your car, house, whom you shared drinks with etc.
• Surprised and further weakened and slow to counterattack as a result of all  the preceding issues.

WHEN YOU are attacked, your HR (Heart Rate) will spike from about 60 to 70 BPM to something like 220 BPM in a few seconds.  This is the Fight or Flight Syndrome kicking in, and, in some ways this is good because your system will be flooded with cortisol and you will be two to three times as strong so you can either fight or run much better.  Sounds swell, doesn’t it?  Problem is the accelerating heart rate makes it virtually impossible to take advantage of Fight Or Flight because:

Ø       You will not be able to access your Neo-Cortex, your Smart Brain, because of the perceived lack of time to respond.  You will be at the mercy of the Primitive Brain.  Unless you are properly trained, or have a Pre-Determined Survival Plan, you will not be able to spontaneously think of an Escape, Evasion, or even a Survival Countermeasure in the two or three seconds you will have to properly respond.

Ø       You will not be able to perform any fine or complex motor skills when your heart rate passes 145 BPM, which renders any Martial Arts you may have learned virtually useless..

Ø       Your vision will be greatly impaired.

Ø       You will experience Auditory Exclusion.

Ø       When you do fight back, you will only be able to fight at 100% maximum output (M.O.) for 10 to 15 seconds.  After that, you will only be able to fight at 45% M.O. 

Ø       In many situations, you will have trouble even talking and/or moving.  You will hold your breath and freeze in place, hence, making you the Ideal Victim.

Symmetrical Countermeasures, or Gross Motor Skills.

THE Fighting Arts, therefore, are comprised of skills and techniques that are easy to perform, easy to retain (while most Complex Martial Arts techniques require 5000 or more repetitions in training to inculcate them into your Blood (Physical) or Psychic Memory while the Fighting Arts, dominated by Gross Motor Skills, require only about 25 repetitions in order to Hard Wire them into your system), and, importantly, not diminished by Survival Stress.  As a matter of fact, most GMS are more effective under stress.  Consider the simple, push-pull (GMS are actually simple push-pull events) activity of the bench press.  An athlete either competing in this kind of power events (GMS) will enhance his or her chances of achieving his or her personal best by actually artificially increasing his or her personal stress level or heart rate.  I call the strikes and other techniques I teach Symmetrical Countermeasures because – as opposed to Complex Motor Skills – GMS involve one, maybe two body parts working as one unit. 

ONE KEY FEATURE of practically every Symmetrical Strike is that the techniques replicate an activity that person performs during routine everyday situations.  All the person has to do is remember to perform that act under stress and hit a high-value target (since we can only fight at 100% for about 10 seconds, we cannot waste time and energy).  For instance:

• THE HEAD BUTT is a powerful and virtually unstoppable strike using one our body’s “battering rams.”  The temple is designed to withstand tremendous assaults and to protect the brain.  Ever gotten hit on the nose by an 8-month old baby you were holding in your arms?  If you have, you know how powerful this Symmetrical Strike can be.  You will also realize how simple, easy and natural is this GMS.
• THE AXE HANDLE STRIKE is a tremendous weapon against a Bad Guy unlucky enough to be standing in-range.  Comprised of the (little finger) side of your hand and along the bony surface of your forearm right down to your elbow.  Using the same motion you would use to stop someone from advancing past you (take that portion of your arm and hold it out straight where the chest of someone standing slightly behind you would be) in line and you have the motion for the Axe Handle Strike.  To strike properly, keep your palm down, fingers relaxed and together, and swing that hand until your thumb touches your chest.  Now, drive the Axe Handle from that position hard -like dead weight – and penetrate that target (picture your arm going all the way through the chest and out through the attacker’s back).  You can use this Symmetrical Strike also in a devastating preemptory strike into the Bad Guy’s throat, stomach and groin also,
• PALM HEEL STRIKES are, in my book, the best all around symmetrical strikes in the system.  They require very little skill and absolutely survival stress resistant and they always work if the target is open.  Turn your palms of your hands up, facing you.  At the bottom of each are the hard heel area.  Touch your chin with the palm coming straight up.  That is all it takes as far as the skill goes.  Now, place your hand, palm down on your chest and look straight ahead, as if you are an attacker looking a victim in his or her eyes.  Now, slide that hand deliberately up, staying close to the chest, and then touch your chin again with the heel of the palm.  At what point did you actually see your hand “attack?”  Truth is, you never did.  Take advantage of the Bad Guy’s Blind Spot and drive that Palm Heel Strike up from the chest, rotating your hips and using your body weight (Total Body Mass) to triple the power.  If you hit the side of the chin right, you will rattle the Bad Guy’s brain just enough to cause a knockout or a short circuit at least.  Combine the Palm Heel Strike with the fingers to create a powerful TIGER CLAW STRIKE.  Simply hit the chin or nose with the PHS but continue driving the head back and clawing with the fingers into the eyes.  Follow this up with a TIGER CLAW STRIKE DOWN.  Slap down on the nose with the palm and rake the eyes, face, neck and chest hard with the curled fingers on the way down.  Devastating, surprising and demoralizing to the Bad Guy.
• THE FRONT KICK is a great Symmetrical Strike using practically the same quick, scooting motion you would use to kick open a screen door when you don’t want to set down whatever it is you have in your arms.  The target is the lower shins, just above the tongue of the Bad Guy’s shoe.  This kick almost cannot fail because the Bad Guy more often than not expects an upper body counterstrike.  Enhance this belief (Singularity Of Focus) by looking into his eyes and/or distracting him with your hands.  Drive the point of your shoe into his lower shin and snap it as if you were wearing a new pair of shoes and had just stepped into a puddle and you were trying to shake the muddy water off.  Hit hard several times and follow-up with an ascending knee strike *while holding his head in place with both hands) and I guarantee the Blood Battle is over!

By Hammer

The great majority – if not all – of those who come to me for self defense training are men, women, boys and girls who, without actually saying it, are forever looking for what I have long called the Self Defense Silver Bullet.  The Silver Bullet, in case you’re not a fan of the old werewolf movies where the hero, when all else failed, would kill the beast with a silver bullet.  The Silver Bullet has become a law enforcement and self defense training metaphor for any one technique or concept seen or hoped to be a simple, easy and total solution to a threat or problem.  Insecurity and a sense of vulnerability are key motivators for those coming to me.  I rarely get those who feel secure and powerful, fearful of no predator, who come to my self defense classes.

So it makes sense that everyone is “seeking the bullet,” as I like to say.  And I am not saying that is a bad thing, either.  After all, most of my classes are only about 8 hours long, spread over 4 weeks.  They are looking for something they can learn, something they can wield, in the least amount of time with the least amount of effort that will be The Great Equalizer against a bully, sexual predator or psychopathic and violent criminal who they perceive will almost always be much larger, stronger, combat-hardened and confident .

There are many Great Equalizers, to be sure.  For instance, a firearm is probably the best.  There are pros and cons to the gun, which I will go into in another post, but, with or without a gun, knife, bat or other real weapon, I have advocated the Element Of Surprise as my Great Equalizer/Silver Bullet For Prevailing in a Fight for years.  Even if you are armed with a powerful weapon, real or improvised, in order to vanquish that hulking, feral and/or psychopathic attacker, you need to invoke the Element of Surprise.

Explosive Surprise as the Great Equalizer:  The Formula.

1. Distraction:  Distractions weaken the Bad Guy’s motor actions by changing his mental process.  Change his mental channel from channel 6 (what he intends to do, what he is attempting to do) to, say, channel 34 (what you are doing, which is totally unexpected).  This fragments his physical being from his mental process, therefore weakening him.  As a PPCT Instructor Trainer, I teach officers to distract the Bad Guy by focusing his attention to one’s upper body and then attacking him low.  I call this Invoking Singularity of Focus by getting the subject to expect either no counterattack or to expect one high.  When the low counterattack comes, then, the Bad Guy is more often stunned, weakened and even temporarily frozen in surprise!
2. Preemptive Attack:  I call this using the Principle of First Touch as a Trigger To Explode into the Attacker.  The great Self Defense Guru Bob Pierce calls this principle the Preemptive Attack.  Either way, combining the elements of Distraction with this Explosive Action is the Great Equalizer.  As Pierce says, “Hitting first is the great equalizer for a weaker opponent—“

For years I have been teaching students to set the Bad Guy up with a series of meticulously contrived actions designed to give the weaker “victim” that temporary edge that can make the difference between getting bullied and humiliated, beaten, injured, raped or killed and ending the fight quickly and going on with your day.  This reaction sequence basically consists of::  Being aware of oneself, one’s environment, etc.; threat recognition – assessing danger and cascading signs of an imminent attack; a pre-determined survival strategy – having a plan of action based on one’s assessment of the threat, distance, time available, etc.  Breathe Don’t Freeze and Take an “Athletic Stance” and tell the Bad Guy to stop where he is. 

Once a Bad Guy enters a “victim’s space and makes contact (First Touch), however, the “victim” invokes a distraction by doing what the Bad Guy expects (Channel 6), eg:  pulls away and/or begs to be let go.  This builds the confidence and feeds into the fantasies of the Bad Guy, who pulls the weaker victim toward him.  This is when the “victim” attacks first, hopefully driving the attacker backwards and on his heels.  Once this attack begins, the “victim” must not give up his or her edge.  Attack Open and Vital Targets as they open up.  Never Lock-In on only one or two targets.  Create an Overwhelming and Continuous Attack, sustaining one’s counterassault to whatever level it requires to end the fight.

One of the key differences between a victim and a warrior-survivor (I profile these in my classes) is that the victim almost always harbors thoughts of injury, death, humiliation and of “paralyzing sorrow (they are frozen, in other words, in thoughts of their fear, their helplessness) but the Survivor (Warrior)

·         Converts fear into determined action.

·         Thinks only of how to survive and/or prevail against the attacker.

·         Concerns self with hitting open targets and escaping.

And that brings me to my final points about the Silver Bullet.  While there is no such thing is self defense against a larger, meaner and stronger attacker, there are Equalizers.  If you distract the Bad Guy, change his channels, so to speak, and then explode into him when he least expects it, you will be following up with a sustained attack on vulnerable targets, one after the other, you will also be concentrating on hitting targets, one after the other as they open up, and you will not be focusing on what can be debilitating fear. 

So, in a situation when your child is facing a much larger bully, or your daughter is facing a dangerous sexual predator think of this:  Your son/daughter holds out both hands, palms out, in a “Surrender Posture.”  “Please,” I don’t want any trouble,” he or she pleads, hands waving.  As the attacker confidently strides forward and touches this “forward barrier,” the intended-victim drives a strong palm-heel strike into the attacker’s nose, and the other hand pistons forward and the predator is back on his heels and the intended victim takes the fight to the stunned bad Guy.

By Hammer

In the first two Never Be Abducted postings, I appealed to parents to become their child’s Safety Coaches and instill their child with the mentality and attitude to prevent and/or successfully resist deadly (sexual) predators and kidnappers.  Given the profile of the predator (“If you want to know what the animal will do today, learn what the animal did yesterday and the day before—“), which I went into in the first posting, an equation consisting of the right Mental Conditioning and Attitude, a cluster of Escape and Evasion Tactics combined with the abductor’s tendency to break off an attack when faced with any signs of awareness, aggression, “craziness,” and/or “instantaneous countermeasure that will either delay the abductor in the initial crime scene or draw attention to his intent” will prevent or overcome over 98% of abduction attempts.

Bold statement?  Empty boast?  Hardly.

It is crucial to know – as your child’s Safety Coach – that the Chicken Hawk (cowardly abductor) relies on several behavioral staples in the child he picks as his prey:

• Silence.
• Timidity.
• Fear (he or she will often abide by the command “Never tell your parents about this or I will hurt you and I will kill them!” and he or she will therefore – if he or she survives – keep the abduction and/or actions of the predator confidential).
• Confidentiality.
• Immobility (the attack will shock the child and he or she will  freeze in place, allowing the predator to scoop him or her up and quickly abduct that child..
• Invisibility (No public awareness of the abduction taking place).

BUT WHAT IF MY CHILD IS GRABBED?

 Preparation, Prevention, Practice and Parental Coaching (the 4 P’s of Counter-Abduction Techniques, or C.A.T.) discourages all but about two to three  percent of these miscreants.  That still leaves too many predators and too many children who come together in situations where the child is isolated and alone and the Bad Guy perceives he has all the time in the world.  What now to do?  Here are a few tactical suggestions to teach your child:

1. Always be aware of your environment and adults in the area.  Aware of escape routes, people and places toward which you can run, and aware of barricades that can buy you time.
2. Be aware of and use “weapons” in the environment.  Sticks, stones, other objects.
3. Teach Your Child To Always Keep Moving.  Peruse past postings where I discussed games you can play with your child to teach him/her how to move.  The abductor wants your child to freeze like a deer in the headlights.  Teach your child to always move diagonally, never straight back!  Your child will be harder to catch this way.
4. Always move with your eyes on the adult.  When your child turns and runs it triggers the Predator-Prey Principle and your child is easier to catch. 
5. Teach your child to Drop and Roll away from the larger, less agile adult.  Always try to buy time.  If knocked to the ground, the child should know how to Crabwalk away and, once again, if cornered, use his or her feet to prevent the adult from bending over and scooping him/her up.
6. Teach your child that when the abductor does catch him/her, that his face will be close enough for him/her to Gouge the eyes, head butt the nose, and/or drive his or her fingers or ridge hand hard into the throat.
7. Teach your child to understand how to use whatever objects he/she has in possession as an Improvised Weapon.  Many kids have survived by using Cell Phones, DVD cases, books, magazines, keys, flashlights, water bottles, wallets, back packs, fistfuls of change and other objects to ward off bullies and predators.  There will be more on this in the next blog, but, briefly, let me say this about wielding improvised weapons:

IMPROVISED “SNEAK” ATTACKS:

Almost anything in your child’s possession can be effectively used as a weapon if the proper element of surprise is used.   The great Sensei Michael Pace advocates the S.N.E.A.K Principle:

Surprise.  Hold the “weapon” in such a way that the predator never would expect that the child is going to use it to attack.  In other words, a cell phone is just a cell phone until it is driven into the Bad Guy’s throat.

Non-Aggressive.  Until the instant the cell phone is used, it is being held in a low profile, normal way.

Explode the improvised weapon into the vulnerable target with everything in your child’s power.  A cell phone exploded into an adult’s Adam’s Apple, for instance, only requires about 5 pounds of direct force to knock the pervert out of business (if held and used the right way, of course).

Aggressive.  Give your child permission to be aggressive.  By this I mean to never stop hitting the potential abductor until your child is able to escape the scene.

Knock-Out.  Knock the Bad Guy Out so he cannot pursue you.

In the next post I will finish the Never Be Abducted series with what you can teach your child to do if ever he or she is abducted.  How to escape from the car before he can take your child to the deadly, isolated and pre-selected (final) secondary crime scene.

Hammer

In the last post I discussed the Chicken Hawk – the pejorative call name I use for the loathed predator and abductor of defenseless children.  I also boasted that with parents working with their children as Safety Coaches, we could create an attitude and skill set that would prevent almost all successful child/teen kidnappings (96 to 98%).

ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING  Attitude is the residue of how one is reared, environment and experience.  In the context of a confrontation with a sexual predator or a bully, then, a child without the guidance of a Safety Coach would naturally react aggressively or passively.  A passive child (I will expound on the aggressive attitude in a future post) is the ideal victim, and, doubtlessly will freeze when confronted and offer no resistance, probably signing his or her own death warrant.  But the parent(s) who takes the crucial role as Safety Coach can implant a Survival Mind Set, an Attitude that communicates to any potential predator, kidnapper, or bully that:

1. I am no “Free Lunch.”
2. I know who you are. I am aware.  I will make others aware of who you are and what you want to do. 
3. I will fight you tooth and nail and I will never give up.
4. I will never give up because my family loves me and I love them and I will do whatever it takes to get back to them.
5. I am aware of escape routes, other adults in the area. 
6. I will never leave the (initial) crime scene with you, even if you hurt me badly!

STAYING IN THE INITIAL CRIME SCENE:  Parents can teach the importance of doing whatever it takes not to go anywhere with the kidnapper.  As painful as it might be to impart this, teach your child that, even if the child is severely injured, preach that at least the ambulance and/or police will find him or her at that scene, and, hopefully, in time, he or she will return to the home where he or she is loved.  The child must keep in his or her mind at all times that the parents love him and he or she must do what it takes to return home.  This philosophy has saved several children who have fought to stay in the initial crime scene.  But—

While teaching a Survival Mind Set and the philosophy of staying in the initial crime scene is important, a philosophy without a Winning Set of Procedures (Tactics) is like a great car without a motor.  Every one of the below tactics can be taught easily by Parent/Safety Coaches:

1.  
   • Serpentine Run:  The best strategy is to run from the scene as soon as the child detects that a “strange” adult (Strange Adult can be defined as anyone who does not “fit” into your child’s environment; any adult who sets off your child’s “Creep Alarm;” any adult whom your child has observed “sharking -walking or driving back and forth, back and forth, watching your child) is approaching.
   • Barricades:  Child should run in a zig zag pattern while identifying barricades in the environment that can buy him time or give him refuge.  Make a lot of noise and look for “safe” adults who can protect you.  Barricades include stores and other common sense rescue spots.
   • “Last Ditch Escape and Evasion (E & E) Techniques”  All the following tactics are techniques to be used only when running away is not an option:

Ø      SURVIVAL ROLL:  Teach your child to quickly and safely Drop and Roll when the adult attempts to grab him or her.  Quickly roll away and roll as if his or her shirt is on fire and he/she is trying to put it out.  Yell, “Help!  He is not my father!”  A large adult will most likely have trouble reaching the child who is rolling.

Ø      KICK WITH FEET:  The Survival Roll will buy your child some time, but, let’s face it:, eventually the adult will catch him or her.  Teach your child to buy more time by spinning onto his or her back and bicycle-kicking viciously with both feet and even spinning on the hips as the Bad Guy circles, trying to find an opening.

Ø      LOCK ON:  By this time I guarantee that the great majority of child predators will have broken off the attack since Speed and Invisibility are their dual goals in any abduction attempt.  Already seconds have turned to minutes and the damned kid is making all this noise and acting crazy (molesters/kidnappers find noisy and “crazy” kids confusing, even frightening).  But there are those kidnappers whose fantasies have driven them into a frenzy and who disregard their fear of the cops showing up and make one last attempt to grab the child.  Teach your child the easily learned skill of Locking or Latching on to the Bad Guy’s lower legs.  As soon as the legs get close, clamp on with both hands and drive the head against the lower shin area.  At the first opportunity Spin the body and Lock Both Legs around the predator’s ankles and hold on for dear life!  The abductor now finds himself trying to pry the child off of his legs as more time ticks away.  True, the adult can kick and punch the child, but as John Hall, the ingenious founder of Kid Escape will tell you, “Self Defense is not an injury free experience.”  John will also point out that whatever injury the child endures in the first crime scene, it will be nothing compared to what will happen once the child is abducted and taken to an isolated scene where the Bad Guy has a lifetime to do what he has fantasized doing for months!

There is much more in the way of Escape and Evasion to talk about, but we will have to wait until the next post where I will discuss other survival tactics, like Improvised Weapons, Strikes and Gouges and Extreme Tactics Once Inside the Abductor’s Vehicle.  Can’t wait.

Hammer

The bad news for parents is the child abductor is out there.  Out there in big numbers.  The good news is, with the help of you, the parent actively working as their Safety Coach, the great majority of children (96%) can stop the Chicken Hawk – the cowardly child molester – in his tracks, or at least cause him to break off his attack and drive off empty-handed.

This I say boldly because I know the Chicken Hawk from too many years working the streets as a state parole agent.  The Chicken Hawk is cowardly on one hand but extremely dangerous on the other.  Dangerous because he chooses only prey who are smaller, weaker, and, if possible, more frightened than he.  He is deadly because he possesses no soul.  He is a total psychopath with absolutely no concern for the feelings, the safety, even the life of a small, beautiful child.  His only thought is of and for himself.

The Chicken Hawk is a cold blooded sociopath who chooses his prey methodically,.  calculatingly.  This is a game to him and he has the unnerving patience to play the game for months, tracking, profiling and abducting just one chosen victim.  Even when he attacks, it is rarely rash and impulsive.  Even then he has a set up where he can test his prey, set the prey up by gaining his or her trust, and, then and only then, when the child is ready, does he strike, catching the child off guard and hitting the kid with blinding speed, carrying him or her off before the child can make a move.

The moment that every Chicken Hawk lives for and prepares months for is that instant when he sees the shock hit the child, witnesses the paralysis that freezes the child’s entire body just before he tosses the child into his car or van and drives away from the initial crime scene and heads to the isolated secondary scene.  A house, apartment, section of woods or lonely grove minutes or hours away.

You might be thinking, Um, Thanks, Hammer.  Thanks for all the Bad News.  What can I possibly teach my child to stop this type of predator in his tracks?  To which I reply – Plenty.  You can teach them plenty.  And most of the strategies are based on the hated Chicken Hawk’s personality profile:

The Chicken Hawk

• He is not looking for a fight. 
• He is looking for a mild, meek, compliant child.
• He abducts through intimdation in most cases, not physical force.
• He does not want to physically harm, injure or kill the child in the initial crime scene. 
• He is a coward, an opportunist waiting for the moment the child is alone, weak, distracted.
• The Chicken Hawk has a pre-planned scenario or script.  The longer the script is allowed to play out by the child, the bolder, more confident he becomes.
• Speed and Invisibility are the Chicken Hawk’s greatest friends.  He needs to get the child out of that child’s milieu and into his as quickly as possible and with as little notice by witnesses as possible.
• The Ideal Abduction Scenario is:  A lone child in an isolated area who acts “normal,” is quiet, un-aggressive, who can be snatched quickly without drawing attention.
• The Worst Case Scenario (where the potential kidnapper will most likely break off his attack and go elsewhere) is:  The intended victim is with another child(ren).  When that child spots the Chicken Hawk he makes direct eye contact, moves to gain distance, screams or makes noise otherwise, points at the Bad Guy, demands to know “What do you want?  Get Back!” and uses barricades (tables, chairs, benches, garbage cans, trees, picnic tables, cars, et al.) to create distance as well as a barrier.
• The last type of child the abductor will profile and choose as a victim is a kid who Acts Crazy.  “Crazy” children can scare off a potential abductor for any one of a zillion reasons, but the fact is they are unpredictable, possibly dangerous, and have unlimited potential to screw up any kind of predetermined abduction plans (Note:  I am not saying your child has to BE crazy.  He/she just needs to ACT crazy, like rolling on the ground as if his/her shirt is on fire, screaming, pointing, grabbing a branch off the ground and wielkding it like a weapon).

Parents:  As your child’s Safety Coach, here is your assignment.  Accepting what I have written in the above passages, what can you teach your child in the way of preventive measures to maximize his or her chances of escaping and evading an abduction attempt?

In Part II I will delve specifically into several Escape and Evasion Strategies for your child, like:

• Improvised Weapons.
• The Element of Surprise.
• Waiting For the Best Time To Counterattack.
• Delaying the Bad Guy in the Initial Crime Scene.
• Simple, effective strikes and gouges against vulnerable, primary targets.
• Escape and Evasion tactics that REALLY WORK at the initial crime scene, just outside the Bad Guy’s Car and Inside the Car!

By Hammer

I Dont’ Know if I have any steady readers, but, if you happen to be one, you have noticed that I haven’t been posting in a while.  For the last couple months I’ve been on The Road conducting back-to-back-to back PPCT (Pressure Point Control Tactics) Instructor Certification Trainings for law enforcement officers

 from State College, Pa. to Bryan, Texas, to Charlotte, North Carolina and, now, Reading, Pa.  While I am sure my global positioning is not why you are reading this, I thought maybe you would be interested in some SSPS - Super Secret Police Shit -  which I shared with some of my classes in Spontaneous Knife Defense (SKD), Ground Avoidance and Ground Escapes (GAGE), Defensive Tactics (DT) Violent Patient Management (VPM) and others.  Who knows?  Might save your butt some starless night in any one of a number of attack situations.

EDGED WEAPONS

My SKD program is simple and  realistic.  There are plenty of sexier trainings out there, folks, but edged weapon attacks are grisly, heart-freezing events, and, if the attacker has a plan and knows what he (or, she) is doing, you had better do something - like right the heck now -  otherwise fear will immobilize you.  I’ve been there and if you don’t respond immediately, you will be cemented to the ground.  And, trust me, epoxied to the deck is not where you want to be when the Bad Guy has a knife.

First, a few things about an edged weapons (knife) attack:

Ø       Almost every attack will be preceded with a distraction.   A distraction can be almost anything, including asking a question that will cause you to look away or to “go into your brain” to think of your reply.  A handshake, or just extending one hand toward you while flicking a razor in a blur into your wrist or forearm to cause a gush of blood designed to freeze you.  A harsh psychological wound. 

Ø       The intent of every edged weapon attacker are twofold:  (1)  To close the distance and (2) to penetrate a vital organ (heart, stomach, sub clavian (inside the clavicles, under the armpit), radial and carotid arteries). 

Ø       The Bad Guy/Gal - at least the dangerously skilled knife fighters - has a definite strategy aimed at, in my estimation, playing a merciless cat and mouse game with his or her victim.  The attack can begin with several maddening Flick Attacks, directed to the wrists and forearms to cause superficial wounds and bleeding to psychologically freeze the victim and/.or to cause him or her to grab the bleeding wound with his or her free hand, thereby opening him/her up for the next attack, usually a series of lightning fast slashes followed by a thrust or three, delivered like a punch into the vital target.  The Thrust of all the knife strokes is the most deadly.

Ø       The thing to remember here, though, is it all started with the element of surprise and a flick, which, while painful , is relatively benign.  Surprise plus speed equals the Freeze Factor equals serious injury or death.  The key is to Do Something ASAP and to Reverse The Elements on the Bad Guy.  Once uncertainty and fear takes over and the heart rate spikes from 80 BPM to well over 220, our Sympathetic Nervous System will flood our Central Nervous System with stress hormones and we will freeze in abject fear.

SOME SIMPLE SURVIVAL STRATEGIES

1.       THE 4 A’S.  Always be aware, assess our surroundings and others in the surroundings, anticipate, meaning have some idea in your mind what you would do if you were approached and/or attacked, and take action immediately when your gut instincts tell you something is wrong.

2.       BY “TAKE ACTION,” I mean one or more of the following acts designed to kick start your motor skills and break the Freeze/Fear Factor:

Ø       Breathe Don’t Freeze.  Our brain needs oxygenated blood in order to do what it has to do.

Ø       Disengage Quickly:  Remember:  the attacker must close the distance before he can use the weapon.  Distance Is Our Friend. 

Ø       Move Diagonally:  Most victims try to disengage by moving straight back.  Fact - an attacker can easily out run you moving forward as you run backwards.  Plus, you will most likely trip, and, if you don’t trip, you will definitely be off-balance when the attacker does catch you.  Use a neat J-Step or simply move diagonally.

Ø       USE BARRICADES IN THE ENVIRONMENT TO GAIN TIME AND SPACE ADVANTAGES:  This requires you to be alerts and aware of your surroundings.  Sadly, most of us are oblivious as to what surrounds us that can save our lives.  Use a chair, table, car, garbage can, door, desk, pole, et al. to make it hard for the attacker to get to us directly.  Doing this might short circuit the attacker’s thought process, also. 

Ø       THROW AN OBJECT(S) THE ATTACKER’S FEET, ET AL.  Throw whatever you have in your hands or near you at the attacker (this is a great strategy if you have distance on your side.  If the attack is spontaneous and at close quarters, we will have to rely on our personal weapons to save our lives (another blog perhaps)  I have delayed and eventually escaped an attack long enough to draw a firearm by throwing chair - one after the other - at an edged weapon attacker’s (sharpened screwdriver) feet.

Ø       A WOUNDED ATTACKER IS NO ATTACKER AT ALL:  I know this is easier said than done, but I know several people - none skilled martial artists or known warriors, but each and every one of them possessing that Warrior Mental Attitude filled with determination and grit - that understood my above Fighting Arts Premise and have turned the element of surprise against the Bad Guy and, immediately upon suspecting that the person in front of them - going by understanding body language and by trusting their gut instincts - had an edged weapon and was about to attack = have struck like a cobra BEFORE the attack even begun, both short-circuiting and fracturing the attacker’s plans and confidence.

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NEXT POSTING:  Strategies to prevent being taken to the ground.  Strategies to recover, even if taken to the groun