Here is a simple but effective chart that will help you explain situation awareness to any age group.
“Always be in yellow alert if you are away from your home. Even than, precautions should be made.”
Thought for the day : “No man fears to do that which he knows he does well” The Duke of Wellington.
Continuing on the theme of situational awareness. I was sent this over night for review, it is worth passing on:
Another view:
Restaurant situational awareness:
1.Avoid the Valet. The last thing you want to do in an emergency is wait on someone to bring your vehicle up. They’ll already be working with other cars and more than likely not have the resources to help you quickly.
2.Where should you park? Can you maneuver your vehicle out of the spot, even if someone double parked in front of you? Is your parking spot in an optimal position in relation to the egress points of the parking lot, or is that not something you have to worry about, due to having a lifted suspension to negotiate curbs and sidewalks if you had to?
3.If you’ll be leaving the building at night, what does the parking lot lighting look like? Will there be dark areas you’ll be crossing to get back to your vehicle? If so, consider parking elsewhere in a well-lit area. There’s always the health benefit of more walking by parking further out, but realize that you’ll need to cover more ground if you have to get back to your vehicle in an emergency.
4.Back in to the parking spot for easier egress when you leave and take the time to observe after you put the car in park. What’s the baseline? Is anything out of the ordinary with the vehicles you’re parked amongst? Do the people walking around, or coming in and out of the establishments, look to belong?
5.Note the location you parked and burn it into your memory, you don’t want to be running around trying to remember where you parked in an emergency. Ensure that anyone who could be responsible for driving if you were incapacitated, knows this info as well.
6.As you approach your destination, note the building layout. What direction is the front door / front side of the building facing? Is the front of the building all glass? What’s the composition of the exterior walls? Are they made out of concrete, stucco? This is important to note for not only the purpose of cover, but also for how wide your field of view will be from the inside as you’re looking out towards the front entrance.
7.As you step inside, note the table layout, where’s your optimum seat at? Can you put your back to the wall and still see the entrances? If the restaurant isn’t self-seating, ask the host or hostess for a specific location. Don’t be afraid to speak up and let it be known where you’d prefer to sit.
8.Start looking around for additional entrances and exit doors, emergency or otherwise. There’s usually always an exit in a restaurant kitchen that leads outside for easy disposal of trash into a dumpster. It might be impossible to confirm this, but put that into your memory bank.
9.Does the restaurant have cameras? How many are there and where are they pointed? Being recorded isn’t always a bad thing, it can often prove your location if it was ever called into question.
10.Where’s the hard cover? Meaning if bullets started flying, where would you move to for cover? FYI, a flipped over restaurant table is not the answer. Kitchens are usually a great spot, not only because of the heavy cooking equipment and thicker walls designed to mask the noise coming from inside, but because there’s also probably that exit door we talked about.
11.Size up everyone in the restaurant, even if eye contact makes you uncomfortable. Get a read on people and notice if the way they’re acting looks out of the ordinary for the baseline of the establishment. Is it just a quarrel amongst a couple, or something that could turn violent at any moment? Anything that piques your interest should be followed up with noticing distinguishing details about said person. Not just what they’re wearing, but any identifying marks or features.
12.Keep your head on a swivel and keep observing. This shouldn’t be to the extreme of detracting from your enjoyment of having a meal with friends, but look at the entrance every once in awhile and scan the restaurant. If you think of this in terms of the Col. Cooper Color Code, you’re still in the Yellow here.
13.Your departure from the establishment is no different than your entrance, continue observing the environment all the way back to your vehicle. Once there and everyone is back inside the vehicle, get in the habit of immediately locking the doors if they don’t do so automatically when you turn the key. It’s better to habitually lock them anyway, to avoid a surprise of someone intent on doing you harm from opening the door while you were distracted and hadn’t turned the key yet.
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Thought for the day (2):
_Are any women on this thread?_ If so, let me know and I will start posting items dealing with CC, defense and others items, pertaining just to you. The last female LEO / Martial artist / I am aware of was Miss Parker. She was KM instructor and a deputy in Texas. She has not been seen in several years.
After what happened to Nicky last week, I would like to see more women on this thread and discuss their training methods. Thanks.
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@idaho Thanks so much again mate for these contributions (and everyone else also).
As I think I mentioned before, my friends younger sister is heading around South America backpacking in a couple of months and I recommended that she (and her sister) give this thread, and the Bad Ideas thread a read, which they’ve done. It’s helped with their awareness, and definitely made them (and me) more mindful of their many vulnerabilities.
I was wondering also if anyone’s got any advice it terms of getting people (specifically young women) to respond decisively when they’re in dangerous situations. I was thinking about this as I recently picked up a couple of neck knives for them (following some older advice from Robert A), and have had some hard contact sessions with them wearing the empty sheaf, just so they can get used reaching for the knife with either hand, while seriously choked, bearhugged, held down, etc. I’m definitely no expert in this area, but I was working with the idea that ideally you avoid ever being in the situation; but if not, dropping your levels, making distance, fighting back hard, and knowing where you knife is helps, and so these need to be trained under realish pressure.
From my background, I’m well aware of the disabling effect that the shock of a certain level of unexpected violence can have on people, and those last couple of accounts of trained and capable people in those situations and their responses drove the point of training an prepping at a high level of intensity home even harder. I can’t imagine what that must be like for people to be shooting at you.
While I know it’s possible to get people to get over at least some of the initial punched-in-the-face “freeze” with training, what do all of you - who are far more experienced with the realities of serious violence and combat - believe are some of the best drills or methods of getting someone as prepared as possible for a degree of violence that is otherwise alien to them?
Thanks again, and the insights and advice in this thread are appreciated.
P.S this was my oddly well appreciated present to my girlfriend a few days ago
I hope it helps, you at least got them to read the thread. Suggest for them to invest in a sat phone, cell service is never good in the mountains. I have only worked in two countries in South America and that was only a couple of weeks each, so, I don’t know a lot about the local laws concerning weapons. If they are legally allowed,( in whatever country they are in), I would definitely buy a blade. Suggest to them, that weapons are everywhere and a " walking stick" is better than nothing dealing with an person not armed with a gun, hell, even a rock in a sock makes a makeshift mace.
The most important thing is their awareness, if something doesn’t feel right, it usually isn’t. One of the hardest things to deal with is trying to convey to person who has never experienced violence that it can happen to them, they are not special snowflakes. I wish them all the best and a safe adventure.
For the trained and untrained, one of the best for a physical attack (IMHO) is “two on one drills”. If you have the proper safety equipment , such as a Redman Suit, have the “victim” suit up and have two attackers. Just say" don’t let them put you on the mat" . A couple of minutes of fighting off two people will put them in a different mindset, they will realize they are not superman after all.
If all three are wearing safety gear, then add mild kicks and punches to the body, and you have another level of training. If you dont have any access to the right equipment, most professional martial arts businesses will allow or charge a small fee for an introductory class. This is where JJ, Wrestling, and Judo are king. Once you have been twisted in knots or slammed in a double leg, or tossed over someones shoulder then you will learn how helpless you are, and, hopefully gain a true appreciation for training.
Just some suggestions. Nice blade, you are a lucky man.
Flashback Friday:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
President Theodore Roosevelt
The Battle of Iwo Jima (19 February – 26 March 1945) was a major battle in which the United States Marine Corps landed on and eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. The American invasion, designated Operation Detachment, had the goal of capturing the entire island, including the three Japanese-controlled airfields (including the South Field and the Central Field), to provide a staging area for attacks on the Japanese main islands.This five-week battle comprised some of the fiercest and bloodiest fighting of the Pacific War of World War II.
26,040 total casualties
6,821 killed
2 captured but recovered[4]
19,217 wounded[1]
1 escort carrier sunk
1 fleet carrier severely damaged
1 escort carrier lightly damaged
**_The Medal of Honor was awarded to 27 U.S. Marines and U.S. sailors (14 posthumously), during the battle of Iwo Jima. 22 medals were presented to Marines (12 posthumously) and 5 were presented to sailors, 4 of whom were hospital corpsmen (2 posthumously) attached to Marine infantry units; 22 Medals of Honor was 28% of the 82 awarded to Marines in World War II.
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Saturday Morning Coffee Break:
Coffee Break:
Coffee Break:
ED Brown 1911 SF Models:
I just stopped in and saw this. Timely. I don’t usually come to this forum, but I’ll want to get up to speed a bit. Will read through over the next few days.
I saw that there was another thread about training women in this forum about female martial arts. I have no self-defense or martial arts training. I’ve been considering doing something together with my teenage daughter. Both of us petite women. For sure, all the situation awareness information. She started asking me questions after the Las Vegas concert which made me think that I need to review, and review with her.
Thank you, Idaho. I may come back in and ask some questions.
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Powerpuff,
Of course, Welcome, its good to have you here. Please revisit, I think you will find a lot of professionals here who are always willing to help. BTW, go back about 6 posts and read about what happened to my friend on Veteran’s Day. That can happen anywhere, to anyone.
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Sunday Funnies: Pat Mac.
Pat Mac wrote this and I think it’s funny as hell. LOL…tell it like it is brother, you are one of the best I ever trained with:
Pat Mac’s ‘No Snowflake’ Guide to Holiday Safety and Survival
Whether stepping into the holiday season with excitement or trepidation, it is upon us. Holiday safety, where you realize it or not, is of the utmost importance.
Thanksgiving, Black Friday Holiday Safety
We turn our clocks back and Thanksgiving follows shortly thereafter. Plan a strategy on the busiest travel days of the year. Make sure you are tanked up and invest in a power station with a compressor and jumper cables.
If you are flying, check in your gun if you’ve got reciprocity in your destination state, aka, “free America.” If you haven’t flown with your gun, you’ll need a double locked hard case (don’t use TSA locks), declare it at the ticket counter, and hand carry to TSA. Scan the TSA website. Chances are you will know their rules better than they do, so be prepared to absorb the ass-wound once buffoonery ensues.( I get all kinds of shit and I got a fed badge, so, know the law)
On the day after Turkey Day, don’t get sucked into the shenanigans of Black Friday. It’s not worth the heart burn.
If family members do get drawn in to this rookie play, tell them to keep their wits about them. Don’t get caught** in the white**. Check your target fixation and stay visually aware. Parking lots are a good place for would-be scammers who wait for you to back into them.
Once you find a place in the parking lot of Walmart (what I call the epicenter for disaster planning), perform a scan near and deep. Smash-and-grabs are a common theme around the merry ol’ holidays. If you lock eyes, even for a second, with a piece of dung waiting for you to let your guard down, you have taken away his ability to prey on you. A predator, just like in the wild, does not want to get caught.
Driving & Prepping:
Don’t overlook the roads when it comes to holiday safety. As you are driving the roads with all of the other experienced and well-trained drivers out there, stay vigilant. Drive the roads like you are playing chess.
On those two-way 55s, make sure you’ve got your seat belt on. Think of it this way: That car coming at you at 60-plus miles-per-hour, they have your life in their hands. That 17-year-old girl who’s texting or that 70-year-old man who’s been out day drinking to escape the bane of his bitching hag wife, they decide whether you live or you die.
If you live in those parts of the U.S. where the weather gets bad, don’t wait until a storm is forecast before you go and stock up and milk and bread. Milk and bread?! WTF?! We don’t plan to fail, but we sometimes fail to plan. ( truth)
*You should already have a generator, gasoline, water, first aid, light, food, fire, first aid, coffee and booze!
( LOL)
The cars in your driveway need a full tank of gas This should always be the case. And no, just because you live in the north does not mean you know how to drive in the snow.
Good citizens shouldn’t be punished for being stupid enough not to be prepared prior to a crisis incident. Make sure you are not among the idiots.
Concealed Carry Christmas:
Christmas hits us smack in the face. It sneaks up quick. There is where holiday safety needs to ramp up.
There is no better feeling than to have all of your stupid gifts bought weeks prior. Poking around the mall with all of the other ill-prepped dads the day before Christmas is an indicator that your planning skills suck!
(LOL)
If you are a trained gun handler, you should be carrying. You should also have your CCW permit. It is your duty and responsibility to protect and serve; to protect yourself and your loved ones and to serve your community as a responsible and trained gun handler. You need to be your own first responder ( Take responsibility for your own life). You should also have performed a few dry fire reps, seeing how you are likely wearing a couple of extra layers.
Post-Holiday Gym Pledge:
Now that you’ve thrown caution to the wind and have turned into a gluttonous, gelatinous mess, you feel compelled to get back into shape. After all, New Year’s Eve is next. It’s what I refer to as “amateur hour.” Is buying a new calendar really that big of a deal? ( LOL)
The first of the year obviously follows New Year’s Eve. Yay! You are going to join a gym! Don’t bother! If you are capitulating to practices of yore, where the calendar is telling you to turn over a new leaf, it won’t stick. Trust me, you are a lost cause. Keep eating processed shit. You need to draw inspiration from somewhere other than the calendar. ( So True)
Super Bowl Sunday:
One month later is Super Bowl Sunday. This is one of my favorite days of the year, and not because of the game.
No, I will not be watching. I do not support the bad behavior that the NFL condones. If any of the bad behavior bothers you, yet you still watch, you need to STFU. You are not allowed to bitch about it. You are paying their bills, so you do not have a dog in the fight. Which, by the way, are OK to torture if you are in the NFL. The debauchery goes way beyond kneeling for some cause.
(Damn straight, I am proud to say, even as a die hard football fan, I have not watched an NFL game this year, college only. Fuck those PP’s for pissing on our flag.)
On Super Bowl Sunday, I have impunity to do whatever the hell I want to.
There are fewer people on the streets on Super Bowl Sunday than any other day. I can walk Home Depot and plan a project by myself. I can walk the aisles as if I own the place.
Or I can take my bride to any restaurant and sit where I please and have all of the staff’s attention, so long as that restaurant does not have a TV.
Or I can rent a car and practice threshold breaking, boot legs, J-turns and kissing apexes on pretty much any street.
It is also a day of the year where I feel that I need to stand guard. I feel that the nation is extremely vulnerable because every man woman and child is hunkered down fat and happy screaming at their TVs while they graze on frozen appetizers, bottomless bags of chips dipped in processed cheese food stuff. ( Same here, I have always been wary of the Super Bowl, what a prime target with half the world watching. Respect to all the agencies tasked with that security nightmare)
Rest easy. You are exempt from duty and I’ve got your back. If your holiday safety prep isn’t enough, I will be on guard.
I definitely don’t have the credentials of Idaho, but I can speak to my 2 years as a bouncer and give you my beginner perspective as someone who’s immersed himself in the fascinating and remarkably deep world of hand-to-hand self-defense and fighting fundamentals for the last 8 months.
My suggestion is to see if you have any Gracie-certified schools in your area. They teach a combatives program for new students. This is the same basic program that a friend of mine teaches to agents in the Department of Homeland Security, modified slightly to include LEO things like handcuffing techniques. This is all solid real-world stuff. There’s no guarantees when things get violent, but you can choose to invest some time developing a skillset that’s going to dramatically improve your odds for a more favorable outcome.
I don’t train at a Gracie-certified school, but I am learning the same combative techniques along with broader elements of BJJ. This has been great for me, but I won’t sugar-coat how grueling it has been to roll (live spar) since day 1. What you might like about the Gracie-certified approach is that you don’t do hard sparring at all until you’ve completed the combatives courses, which will take at least a few months.
Not all martial arts schools will teach these techniques, but plenty will still tell you that they teach you self-defense. Buyer beware. Ask what the curriculum is, and make sure you’re learning things like how to stop someone from pulling you by the ponytail, how to break the grip of someone bear-hugging you, stripping grips of all kinds, basic footwork, punch prevention, headlock escapes, and other common stuff that happens when things get violent. If you’re learning a new death-touch or some crazy spin kick, a sweep from inverted guard, or any other techniques that seem to be total bullshit in a fight, well, they probably are total bullshit in a fight.
I think focusing on these core combative techniques first is one of the fastest, safest ways to prepare someone of any size to protect themselves and prevail in a violent encounter. That doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be whooping everyone’s ass (they teach you that later, and it takes a long time to learn), but you’ll have a small toolbox of effective techniques to keep yourself safe. You win any fight you escape from unharmed, or stop from happening in the first place. Acquiring this effective skill set can be done in months if that’s what you focus your training time on as a new student. That’s my understanding of the basic theory of the combatives courses taught at Gracie Academies, and it has been my experience going through something very similar.
Gracie Certified isn’t the only game in town by any means, but I’ve seen enough to “believe in the brand” if your goal is to prepare for violence more so than, say, compete in a sport like Judo or just do something to get in shape. And if you decide to stick with BJJ and move on to roll for the first time, you’ll be much better prepared for what you’re getting into.
And be very wary of any school that claims to make you “street-ready” in an afternoon seminar. Beware of the “woo” element too, there’s no such thing as a death-strike and Bubba from the strip-mall probably didn’t train Kung Fu with an old man deep in the mountains of China. If you’re new to it all, it isn’t always easy to discern what someone is selling you under the mantle of “martial arts” or “self-defense”. Buyer beware!
That’s my $0.02 for you. I think you might surprise yourself with how much fun martial arts training can be. Good luck!
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As I have said before, guys like me are a dime a dozen, your own experience is what counts and that’s what you write from. I appreciative you being here.
Great point and so true. Great advise, brother.
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**_Thought for the day: For Women Only
If you are woman debating internally about whether you want to carry a firearm for protection, I am going to list two valuable sources that only deal with a woman carrying a concealed handgun. I believe they will address your unique issues and help you make a decision:
The woman in the photo is a former California prosecutor, mother, and married to a fireman. She has been shooting about three years and I only know of her because she is currently training with an instructor I trained with. She started her own blog to chronicle her journey and she now schedules class for women in firearms familiarization, basic safety, and shooting. Her blog contains articles that only deal with women shooters, worth a look:
https://www.gunterest.net/blog/
The second source is a website created by Kathy Jackson. She is a NRA instructor, mother, and small business owner. She has also written a book on women carrying concealed. Her website is a treasure trove of articles, all dealing with the woman carrying a gun. carrying safetly, carrying with kids, mindset, weapons and training. Go to her website and click on “articles” at the top. Good Stuff.
I am posting her book, however, I have not read it, but, if it is like her website, worth reading.
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Motivational Monday: What’s your excuse for not training ?
Thank you. I read the story about your friend Nicky being caught off guard by a crazy person in a parking lot. Terrible. Thank goodness she’s alright. @idaho, at the women concealed carry post, I think it’s pretty impossible where I live. CA laws are not friendly. I should probably at least have pepper spray. I live in a very low crime area, and really haven’t thought much about this.
@twojarslave, thanks for taking the time to give me some pointers. Appreciate it. I think the Gracie certification is only BJJ schools, right? I had to look that up.
So, I’m considering this as a starting place. Taking this class with my daughter. Four sessions, to try it out. $60 seems really reasonable. Could you guys let me know what you think of Krav Maga? If you have any experience? I’ll tag @Sentoguy here.
Course Description -
Women’s Self Defense Program
Krav Maga of … is hosting a 4 week self-defense program for women… Jan 2018. Training will be held on Saturdays from 10:00 - 11:00 am at the … location.
The program is free for members and $60 for nonmembers.
The Krav Maga Women’s Program has been carefully developed with valuable input from law enforcement officials, criminal prosecutors, psychologists, physicians, and rape prevention counselors. The Program deals specifically with how and where women are commonly attacked. Women are taught how to safely and effectively fend off an attacker with punches, elbows, knees, and kicks. More importantly, women learn how to defend themselves from worst case scenarios, i.e. when they are already in a choke, bear hug, or headlock whether standing up or on the ground.
The program incorporates training methods to build women’s fighting spirit and to train them how to respond both mentally and physically in a time of need, eliminating the danger of freezing, or shutting down in confrontations. Women receive hands on training in simulation based scenarios that may include attacks at ATMs, parking lots, etc.
In addition to regular classes, Krav Maga of … offer seminars that are tailored to women. In those seminars you will learn verbal and body language skills that can prevent an attack, as well as defenses against physical threats. To heighten the realism and adrenal response, in some seminars you might be practicing your self-defense techniques using full-contact against heavily padded assailants. During the seminar, these practical reactions to varying levels of modern threats will become ingrained into your psyche and become automatic reactions.
Really good to see you back and I agree, California is about as Communist as you can get. Good suggestion to carry pepper spray, but, word of caution, make sure you or your daughter are not allergic to capisum. If legal in California ( which i doubt) buy a small container of bear spray, used to stop bear attacks on hunters and hikers. It is much stronger and will put someone on their ass. But that is probably wishful thinking where you live, just get what you can, its better than bad language and fingernails.
I have trained in KM several years under different instructors but the art has became so watered down to make it more commercially viable, it all comes down to who the instructor is and his/ her background.
If they follow this curriculum, then it is well worth 60 dollars, just for the exposure to the martial world. I suggest giving it a try.
I consider Sento the most knowledgeable martial artist on the Combat Forum and would take his advise over mine. He is a Reality Martial Arts (RMA) instructor and I consider his “style” the best for the street. I am been fortunate to have training provided by the military that is “somewhat in the ball park” of RMA.
IMHO, take the KM class and get some exposure,its not that expensive and will help you evaluate other schools and styles.
Just one thing, write about you experiences here, both you and your daughter. Perhaps it will encourage other women to start training. Good Luck.
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Thanks again mate, I’m looking into satellite phones currently, and have managed to assemble a decent amount of protective gear so we’ve run a couple of higher intensity 2v1s. It’s been eye opening.
Here’s what I’ve picked up for my housemates sister re: knives. Kershaw Dune
Cheap enough that if it gets lost or stolen out of the checked baggage it’s no matter, pointy enough to help. While the handle size is a little small for me, with a little bit of paracord knotted on the end the retention and comfort for her seems pretty good. Pretty slim and inconspicuous, I think i might replace the lanyard with something a little more breakable.
She’s going to be wearing it everyday until she leaves just to get comfortable and habitual about it, and has mentioned that shes taken a liking to it. Has gotten pretty good at accessing it while being choked or monstered in a bear hug as well (running drills with a foam replica w/lipstick to see where she gets me).
Cheers,
Steak.