Violence Awareness & Avoidance Training For Everyone!

Working in the self defense field I see a lot of programs out there. Many seem to use scare tactics just to get you into the program. The fact is most violent situations can be avoided if you simply know a few things. What I've decided to do is just save you a lot of time and tell you those things. In this article you will find some basic ideas and strategies that you can sit down with your family and be proactive about raising you own awareness the also that of those you love.

The first time I ever saw this triangle was over 20 years ago on a website run by author Marc MacYoung called nononsenseselfdefense.com. Back then it was Ability, Opportunity, and Intent. In recent years, I've also seen it listed as Means, Opportunity, and Intent but it means the same thing. Basically, what it means is that for a violent crime to happen all 3 of these things must be present. If they are not present then a violent crime will not happen.
If someone has the ability to attack you but not the opportunity then it can't happen
If they have the opportunity to attack you but not the ability then in general it won't happen
If the have both the ability and opportunity but no intent then they simply won't attack you because they don't want to do so.
This same idea can work for legalities as well but that will be addressed when we talk about preclusion. During your normal week and day to day activity you may be in situations where all three of these things line up. When you are in an area like this you simply need to be more aware of your surroundings and what is going on.
Now we will come back to that triangle a little later but right now I want to show you another exercise that goes a little more in depth. This was introduced to me by a self defense expert and mentor of mine named W. Hock Hocheim.

As I mentioned earlier this is a little more in depth but it's something you can sit down at your table and speak with all your family members about. You see if you really think about it we don't really go to as many places as we think we do. Now I'm not talking about vacations or a situation where you are a business person that travels constantly and is always in a different place. Though for business people there are definitely common things will all places that we will discuss soon. I'm talking about a normal weekly schedule for the average person. You may simply just go to work and home. You may go to the grocery store or where you pay your bills. Truthfully most people only go to about 7 or 8 places. When you think about it this way it seems much more manageable. You take each place and ask the questions for each one. Write it out and you will be surprised jut how much more aware you are where ever you go. We'll do a sample exercise with you now. For our exercise we will choose the grocery store.

Who? - This could range from many different situations. It could be a stranger wanting to commit a robbery. It could be a former spouse, for example if you are in a bad divorce or a child custody situation or both. So this is something that is always changing. It will depend on your situation at any time. If it is the latter they could very well know your routine. There also could be times when the answer to who is simply no one.

What? - In the case of a robbery someone will most likely have a weapon unless it is what is commonly known as a strong arm robbery. Strong arm robberies often happen with packs of people but this isn't always the case. Many times the motive isn't even a robbery it's just plain old assault. For situations like robberies though it could involved a knife, gun, or various other weapons.

How? - Here I will add cases where the person knows you and the attack could be more emotionally driven. These attacks tend to be more violent because they have been personalized

Where? - This may be the biggest question and I will have an entire section on it in part 2. So if you are at the grocery store it's unlikely that a ninja will jump up out of a fruit bowl in the produce section and attack you. This is why you ask yourself these questions reasonably because this will tell you when Ability, Opportunity, and Intent are actually present and when to heighten your awareness so you don't walk around paranoid all the time. As I will discuss in part 2 these things tend to happen in areas where your awareness could be at it's lowest. So when you are at the grocery store that ninja may not jump up out of that fruit bowl but if someone is going to attack you it would be more likely when you are walking to your car fumbling with your keys or talking on your cellphone. It could be while you are putting your groceries in the car and not paying attention.

When? - Sticking to the parking lot example of grocery stores here in the US I can't help but think about Wal-Mart Supercenters. They are open 24 hours and a lot of times people working night shift jobs stop by there when they get off work because they think there will be less people there and they can get in and out faster. It's not that crimes don't happen in the daylight. They certainly do but are more likely to happen at night. This could apply to any 24 hour establishment not just Walmart of course.

Why? - Why would most likely be connected to who and if you know who then you probably know why.
So I don't like for these to be too long so I am going to break it up into 2 parts. I will publish the next part tomorrow. I just wanted to get this info out there and do something free for everyone. These questions will apply to everyone different. If you just take the time to ask them of yourself you can increase your awareness of violence which of course can lead to avoidance of violence. In the next post I will go more in depth and expand on the Where question to talk about transitional or fringe areas. I will also be discussing preclusion which deals with legal issues in case you have to actually defend yourself. Thank you for reading and have a great day! Be Safe!