Assaults can happen anytime you are vulnerable, such as when walking to and from your vehicle, on a public sidewalk, in a park, or anywhere that an attacker can get at you. Some places are more high risk than others, but even if you live in a safe neighborhood it pays to learn self defense moves.
Imagine yourself heading to your vehicle, perhaps after shopping, when you are faced with a stranger fast approaching. What do you do? Given that most criminals bank on their victims not knowing what to do or how to defend themselves, what is to keep them from attacking you? The answer lies in learning the basic techniques that keep you safe and protected.
What are Self Defense Moves?
These are moves or techniques that are designed to either prevent someone from striking or grabbing you or escape from being grabbed or held. In addition, learning the right self defense moves will help you recognize a dangerous situation before something occurs. This is because part of proper self defense is recognizing the signs that you are in a dangerous situation or are about to be assaulted.
The self defense moves consist of how you position your body, especially the arms and legs to protect yourself from being attacked. Such moves may be purely defensive in nature, such as warding off a punch or grab. Or, they can be used to strike in response. Catching a person trying to grab you with a punch to their nose can stop them in their tracks.
In most situations, the moves are designed to be quick and decisive. The goal is to ward off the attack and put some distance between yourself and the attacker. The more time you can buy, the less likely they are to be successful in their assault.
What Self Defense Techniques Work Best?
The right techniques will depend first on your state of physical fitness. This means tailoring the moves to fit what you can do. In other words, a person with arthritis and a bad hip is probably not going to do a jump kick. But they can grab and pull back the fingers of their attacker who is trying to grab them.
Obviously, the fitter and more mobile you are, the more choices that you have in choosing different techniques. The basic ones that you should learn can be selected from the following.
Blocking: This can be as simple as raising your arm to stop a punch, turning your body to prevent a kick from striking a vulnerable area, or moving your body to prevent being grabbed or held. Blocking involves the simplest techniques that delays being struck or grabbed, so you can buy more time to get out of the situation.
Striking: This includes kicking and punching. The goal is to stop the attacker before they can harm you. A punch or kick is quite effective against an assailant who is trying to grab you. It can catch them by surprise and allow you more time to get away or strike again if they still present a threat.
Escaping: What happens if you are being held or pinned? You will need to learn how to escape. This means using your arms or legs that are free to strike the assailant. Or, to use them to pull away, so you can gain some distance.
Of course, one of the simplest techniques needs no training. Screaming is one of the most effective means of halting an attack, especially in a public place. Anything you can do to draw attention to yourself means the attacker becomes less comfortable with the situation. This makes screaming for help one of the better self defense moves, especially when combined with other techniques that buy you more time.
Why Learn How to Defend Yourself?
There are good reasons why learning how to defend yourself is recommended. Especially if you are living, working, or traveling through a dangerous area.
Recognize Danger: The best way to prevent being attacked is to avoid the situation before it can happen. This can be
as simple as avoiding short cuts through dangerous areas, taking along a friend or two for added safety, or simply avoiding the times of day when an assault is the most likely.
In addition, you can recognize if a dangerous situation is starting to develop. This includes someone following you or people looking at you again for no apparent reason. By seeing the signs, you can take the appropriate action to avoid being attacked.
Prevent Being Attacked: But what if you are taken by surprise or simply misinterpreted what was going to happen. In this situation, you can block punches and prevent being grabbed to maintain a safe distance. This will allow you to either get away or pull out a self defense weapon. Such measures can help prevent an attack from occurring.
Plus, screaming for help is always a good idea, especially if there are people nearby. A combination of blocks, a self defense device, and yelling makes for an excellent deterrent.
Know What to Do: Most importantly, you will know what to do in dangerous situations to avoid or extricate yourself from being attacked. Not knowing what you do can paralyze you from taking the appropriate action. The result is that you can make things worse by not reacting at all.
Knowledge is power. And when you know how to defend yourself, you have the power to prevent yourself from becoming the victim of an assault. That type of knowledge is quite valuable and can protect you and those you are with when finding yourself in a dangerous situation.
By learning a few self defense moves, you can escape from a dangerous situation, prevent being injured, and buy enough time to employ self defense weapons or get assistance. You do not need to become a black belt or master a complicated technique. You only need to learn enough moves to block attacks and escape from being held. If you can do that, you can better control the situation while protecting yourself and your family.
