If you are untrained and have to fight, fight like your life depends on it — because it might.
There’s a huge hunger — and need — for personal self-defense in a real-life context these days.
The veneer of civilization we all enjoyed most of our lives in America is thin and cracking. Just last month in Los Angeles, hundreds of “follow-home” robberies occurred, the most recent resulting in a murder in Beverly Hills. Assaults, mass looting, open-air drug markets and tent cities right outside our doors have become features of the urban landscape. Criminals are increasingly emboldened.
This represents a big shift in our culture. Widespread violent crime has been held in check for much of our history. The Western world took centuries to lay down a robust law enforcement foundation built on the framework of Judeo-Christian values. We counted on the collective moral character of citizens and a strong, decentralized structure of local policing, prosecutors and judges.
But in recent years, political activists have forced hazardous changes in law enforcement hiring practices, removed the tools of proactive policing and created media campaigns built on the fictional premise of a systemically racist police force. In 2020, we saw stand-down orders during violent riots and an open push to defund law enforcement. Left-wing politicians enacted a series of galling state laws, like Prop. 47, which reclassified violent felonies as misdemeanors and put an artificial $950 threshold on theft and related crimes. Activists also helped elect prosecutors who refuse to prosecute real crimes and willingly release thousands of violent criminals onto our streets under the guise of protecting them from Covid.
Now, with the attempt to force law enforcement officers to take Covid shots, we have a diminished and demoralized force looking for early retirement. For all these reasons and others, communities are becoming less safe.
Awareness, volume and violence
I am daily asked for advice on how to prepare and protect ourselves in this new era when we may have to serve as our own first responders. The spectrum of self-defense responses ranges from simple physical presence up to the use of deadly force. Between the two are many tools we can use for our safety and the safety of others. Let’s start with less-lethal options in this column and save firearms and other heightened options for future examination.
Awareness and readiness
Walking tall with your eyes up and shoulders back reduces your attractiveness as a target. Alert prey is more often left alone.
Awareness is the single most important component of self-defense. Most people walk around oblivious to their environment and with their faces in their phones. This posture signals weakness to thieves and ne’er-do-wells. Even if you are not very strong or big, walking tall with your eyes up and shoulders back reduces your attractiveness as a target. Alert prey is more often left alone.
Get your eyes up and off your device when out in public. Look around and pay attention. Scan from side to side and use your peripheral vision to see who’s behind you. For men, projecting a ready state may be easier, and we will naturally be lower on the list of desirable targets. Women must make a more-concerted effort to project readiness and look like more trouble than they’re worth to any bad guy.
Verbal engagement
Next come verbal skills: “Are you following me?” “Can I help you?!” “No, thank you!” “Get away from me!” Be noisy and draw attention to yourself if you feel threatened. Use assertive, loud words to get out of tight situations. Mentally rehearse what you would say and do in the worst possible circumstances.
Physical resistance
If you are untrained and have to fight, fight like your life depends on it — because it might. Compliance under a physical attack is almost always a mistake. Act like a feral cat — scratch, scream, bite, rip and tear. Shout, scream and go ballistic on your attacker until he (or she!) stops or someone comes to help.
Training for self-defense
Then there is the possibility of taking self-defense classes. Without being disrespectful, I will say that in my view, most such classes are not helpful for the purpose of actual self-defense. Most martial arts classes barely rise to the level of fitness classes, and a Wednesday date night with your husband or wife would be a better use of your time. If someone claims to be able to teach you how to fight in a couple of one-hour classes, stay away.
That said, there is one martial art I consider superior to all others in terms of self-defense.
Brazilian jiu-jitsu
The overwhelming majority of forceful confrontations require the use of hands. When awareness, noise, de-escalation and flight won’t work in a potentially violent encounter, the martial art which provides the best result in a minimum effective dose is without question Brazilian jiu-jitsu. This is not only because Brazilian jiu-jitsu is my primary area of study, but because it has been tested in real-life situations and is geared towards techniques that work well for smaller, weaker individuals including women. It utilizes effective strategies of leverage and can be adapted to your particular size, shape and personality.
Brazilian Jiu-jitsu also takes the least amount of time for a practitioner to become proficient and effective. And it results in few training injuries and a massively reduced number of injuries for both parties in a combat or arrest-and-control scenario.
Earning a blue belt (usually, one year of dedicated training) means you build basic competency and can successfully handle a physical confrontation with most untrained people. You understand how to manage distance and positioning. You develop balance and learn how to control most attackers. You build an arsenal of chokes and joint and pain locks, plus a higher level of confidence and calm in uncomfortable situations. Women in particular learn to slip out of attacks and escape, and to fight with enough effectiveness to cause an attacker to think better of pursuing his attack.
Whether it’s Brazilian Jiu-jitsu or some other martial art, the only useful training includes going up against an opponent in a controlled competition. Any martial art that doesn’t have a sports equivalent can be safely ignored. If you cannot pressure-test in a merit-based sports environment, you cannot see what comes out of you and what actually works in a combat type of situation. When your adrenaline is flowing and your opponent is trying to exert his will over you, and you over him, you glimpse what a real fight could look like. As warriors, we must become inoculated to fear and the adrenaline rush that comes in a combat situation. You can only approximate this in a controlled sports contest.
I mean no offense to the Krav Maga crowd and have friends in that universe (many train with me), but many of their movements cannot be pressure-tested easily in training. This can lead to a situation where an experienced bar brawler, who spent his youth beating up college football players or something, can wreck a Krav guy’s day simply because he is used to explosive violence in a real exchange. To be really dangerous, you must train and compete in some kind of grappling sport (which can include Muy Thai, kick boxing, boxing and wrestling, in addition to Brazilian jiu-jitsu). I have observed that it takes a minimum of three days a week of training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu for one year to become proficient in self-defense and community protection.
As the responsibility for maintaining community safety and personal self-defense falls more to citizens, now is a good time to have the conversation about what that looks like for you and your loved ones. Preparation and training give confidence so you can respond well when community- and self-defense are literally in your hands.
Bryce Eddy is an executive at Covered6, a physical security services and vocational training school. He is also co-founder of 805 Combat Sports/ 805 Machado Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and the training company www.JoinTheRatio.com.
