Response, what to do during an attack

Mitigation, Preparation, Response and Recovery.   Whether it is emergency planning or self defense, these four phases of planning can be used to assist you in making sure you are covered and ready to survive a critical incident.  In our last article we covered these phases.  In this one I would like to look at the Response aspect in more detail. 

It’s a beautiful night.  You and your significant other are out for a walk under the stars.  You talk and hold hands, everything is so wonderful.  Wait!  What is that uneasy feeling you just got in your stomach? 

Was that someone moving in the dark over to your right?  Are there two of them? 

Being aware of your surroundings you spot your escape route.  You analyze your physical readiness, assess your environment for weapons of opportunity, barriers, concealment, cover, anything that you can use to give you tactical advantage. 

You reach into your pocket and feel the high intensity 2000 lumen flashlight that you carry.  With the other hand you remove your tactical folding knife from your belt.  Your adrenaline starts to kick in so you change your breathing to the tactical breathing you learned in self defense class last week. 

You start moving toward the parking lot where there are lights and other people around.  You tell your partner to get her pepper spray out of her purse and to take her kubotan out.  You tell her what you have observed and she replies she has already made them.  She is just as prepared as you are because she attended the class as well and knows she can kick butt if she needs to. 

The perps move in closer.  They think they are being stealthy and are going to surprise you.  Boy, are they in for a lesson.  You step away from your partner, moving about 6 feet to the rear and side.  You keep moving towards the lights when a third perp you didn’t see steps out from behind a tree and blocks your way.  Startled,  you blind him with your light, kick his shin and knee him in the groin, you break his nose with your flashlight and smash his collar bone with the butt end of your knife then sweep his leg so he falls groaning on the ground.

Your partner has engaged perp number 2.  You look over just in time to see him put his hands up in the air and scrunch his face up as he gets hit with a full blast of pepper spray, right in the eyes.  She knows that may not be enough so she smashes her kubotan down onto his nose, shattering it, then drives her shin up between his legs.  You hear a forced exhale of breath as he bends forward just in time to meet her knee, straight to the solar plexus.  Vision gone.  Breath gone.  Mobility hindered. 

Perp number 3 isn’t that stupid, he looks at his friends and takes off the other way. 

Wow, you are shaking, breathing is fast and you are in shock.  Did that just happen?  You can’t remember exactly what you did, but it appears to have worked.  Your partner is on her knees, she is crying, adrenaline is pumping.  You need to move, breathe deep, in through the nose, out through the mouth, nice and slow, there you go.  Control you responses, breathe, breathe. 

You won.  You didn’t just survive, you dominated them.  Surviving is not enough.  Surviving often means you made it through something where at one point you were a victim.  You are never a victim when it comes to self defense.  You either win or you lose.  Some people say there are no winners in a fight.  That can be true when you are talking about fighting another person for ego gratification or some other insignificant reason.  In a life and death situation you are absolutely a winner.  

In self defense there is no second place, no consolation prize or metal.  There is only one acceptable outcome.  Your attitude has to be one of perseverance, dominance and control.  If for one second you give up or doubt yourself you could lose.  Losing on the street may mean losing your life.

Mental preparation, creating a tactical mindset, never accepting defeat; these are all necessary attributes that will help you to prevail in a violent confrontation.  

A battle is won before it begins.  If you utilize the four phases of emergency planning as described previously, if you train right and practice what you train, you will have a much better chance of winning. 

Besides, in any aspect of life, who wants to be a loser?  Not me.

In our next article we will look at how you can create a winning attitude and what a tactical mindset is.  The physical skills are only a small aspect of learning how to protect yourself.  They are the easiest.  The rest is where you really have to work at it. 

Until next time, be safe, be smart.