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damaging or destroying his ability to engage in further combat or pursuit. Sometimes eye contact
can back someone off. An alert look could create enough doubt in a bully's mind that he chooses
to go for another target. Again, trust your intuition, use your “feelers,” and don't make it easy for
an assailant by feeling and acting vulnerable or inattentive.
3. Sometimes, such as the case of my friend Allison's story, simply breaking loose and sprinting out
the door to a public area is all that is required to reach safety.
4. At other times, if you have weaker people in your party (such as other family members), or there
is no nearby “safe” location, then simply breaking free is of no value. If your opponent is bigger,
stronger, and faster than you are, what good would it do you to just break free and run? He will
simply catch up with you and be more careful the next time. In this case, you must use all of the
skill, knowledge, strength, determination, will power, and strategy that you can muster to launch
an explosive and crippling offensive that renders your opponent physically incapable of striking
again, incapable of pursuit, or in the least to have inflicted enough pain and suffering that your
opponent decides to find easier prey elsewhere.
5. Survival in a true self-defense scenario involves decisive aggressive action! The goal is to avoid
injury and death. If unsuccessful at avoiding conflict, in order to minimize your chances of injury
and maximize your chance of success, your attacker must be neutralized quickly and decisively.
A counterattack must be initiated as soon as possible, with explosive action, preferably simul-
taneous to your defense, shifting the aggressor immediately to the defensive. Most criminals are
looking for a victim, not a battle, and will be surprised when an opponent inflicts immediate in-
jury and extreme pain, often dropping their attack to make a hasty retreat.
6. Assess the situation. If someone has a gun and is pointing it at you, what do they want? If they
simply wanted to shoot you, they would have done so already. Are they trying to force you into
a car, or a private location, where they may do with you as they wish? Are there potential make-
shift weapons around, such as a table lamp, paperweight, vase, cane, stick, etc., that you might
use to your advantage? Are you on home turf where if the lights went out, you would be at an
advantage knowing your way around in the dark? What is your opponent's body language telling
you? Body language, both yours and your opponent's, speak volumes when we know what we are
looking for. During the assessment phase, which could be just a few seconds in duration, gather-
ing a little information can make a big difference. How is your assailant standing? Is he conceal-
ing something? Is he tired? What is he wearing? What is the terrain? Are there exits or objects
that you could pick up to use as a makeshift weapon? Are other people nearby? Simply the act of
calmly and consciously assessing your opponent may generate enough concern and doubt on his
part that he chooses to leave you alone.
7. Many women have a fear of violent attack and/or sexual assault. This fear happens to be well
groundedinfact,giventhestatisticthatoneinsixwomenwillbethevictimofatleastoneattemp-
ted or completed rape over the course of their lifetime (for Native Americans the rate is a stag-
gering one in three) (RAINN 2011). Rape-aggression defense (RAD, see
www.rad-systems.com
for more information) is a practical empowering program for women interested in a quick and
definitive self-defense program.
8. Trust your instincts! Nature has built into each and every one of us an inner radar and compass to
both warn us of impending danger, and to instinctively guide us toward optimal action. Millions
of years of natural selection means that those human beings lacking in these traits simply died out
and left the gene pool. Trust me, you were born with what it takes, but you need to allow your
