The importance of personal preparation and personal protection.
What I’m going on about here will be heavily influenced by an article about personal protection by Andrew Williams, Rolf Clausnitzer and David Peterson, and can be viewed here…
It’s a great article and I urge you all to check it out. Regardless of whether you know a karate-chop! from a judo-kick!, a personal system for recognising danger and preparing for trouble can only be a good thing. I’m not talking about paranoia here, just general personal safety through limited spatial awareness, preparation and recognition.
I’ve been aware of my immediate surrounds for longer than I can remember, and I’m willing to assume it started in my tween/teen years. At some point it was probably an unhealthy paranoia driven by frequent associations with bullies, however i think it grew into something a lot healthier…eventually.
By high school it had turned into an expectation that everyone was too scared of me (i’d filled out and with my Native features in a predominantly european high school in east Auckland where it was still rare enough to notice. My ego was fairly out of proportion and I had the potential to become a bully too.
In spite of this, as I grew older and started frequenting social events involving alcohol, I’d turned to a healthier form of perception. Less ‘be bully’ and more ‘be aware’.
Walking into a room I’d take note of the exits, potential weapons that could be used against me, and who was most likely to kick off first. There would seem to be an anticipatory air about them that registered with my level of preparation like a note in the margin. I wasn’t often wrong, but then I’m looking through the eyes of time and memory…so take that with a grain of salt.
It wasn’t a difficult exercise, merely the noticing of details and silently filing them away…believe me when I say that retention fails the more one drinks. Its certainly safer to control how much you drink if you’re in a potentially dangerous situation, but how are you to know? Any location can house the potential for danger and injury.
I was never attacked and only involved myself in the occasional defending-of-a-friend. I’m no saint, but who wants to hang out with a dick that was always violent? So I tried to not be the aggressor. From time to time I’d see some of my friends get their drunk on and either become aggressive, or encounter aggression. More often than not it was a misunderstanding, but their minds had slowed down too much for them to do anything other than escalate.
Without preparation it was difficult for them to realise where they were heading until it was too late…and violence ensues.
Even though I seemed, to myself, to be prepared…I really wasn’t. If I had time to think I’d end up over-thinking the situation and making mistakes, the biggest being inaction…allowing fear to control me, rather than allowing this mechanism to super-charge me.
Having a “Traffic Light of awareness” in place can save you time, pain and embarrassment. If you don’t have this, I recommend you look into it or something similar. In the article I’ve borrowed from you will find a great definition of this in a much deeper detail than you will in the opinions I’m providing here.
Using this grading system has allowed me to understand that I’m constantly in a “Yellow” state of awareness, with the grades being:
- White - blissfully unaware. You’re unaware of potential threats and aggressors around you.
- For this i would assume how I would be if i were at home, in bed just having woken up relaxedly. Or perhaps wonderfully drunk, and thus not in control of all of my faculties.
- Yellow - Constructively aware. You are aware of your surrounds, you are ready to evaluate the situation should one arise. You’re more than ready to follow the path of avoidance.
- This is my starting point. This is where I am from the time my head clears in the morning, until I got to sleep. It isn’t tiring, it isn’t stressful, and it isn’t a task. It’s just taking notice of things around me.
- Orange - Time for action. You’ve registered a threat and it’s time to decide about your response.
- In my mind I would consider this to be scenario such as a party where someone is about to kick-off and I have to concern myself with potentially being drawn into it against my will. At least that was my position in my 20’s…these days I’m much more adept at keeping clear.
- Another scenario could be my being out on a main city street at night, in a state of revelry and being bumped into someone who gets instantly aggressive. There’s no guarantee a fight will ensue, but even apologies don’t seem to be working. So my guard is up.
- Red - This is where training meets emergency, where preparation can define the outcome.
- This is a true fight or flight moment and you realise you’re in danger. Not just in danger of getting punched. Not a danger of talk and bravado. This is where you realise it is on and all stops will have to be pulled.
- Either you get out, or you fight for your life. This is an extreme level where the only option is to attack first, get the upper hand and get out as soon as you can.
Despite training in martial arts, the RED category is where I never want to be. Some of us will often consider how cool it would be to have our lives on the line and win the struggle. The older I get, the less interested I am in that sort of need.
The RED situation is that moment where one needs to commit themselves to the struggle and disregard the potential outcome…in a worst case scenario this may mean your life is on the line. Take a moment and think about this…don’t romanticise it. You’re not Yip Man, Bruce Lee, or Chuck Norris. Without preparation there is a reasonable argument that death could result.
Understand this. Its a position I don’t think anyone would want to be in.
To be honest, the idea of reaching this level of urgency and requirement gives me the shits.
It means that every defence mechanism I’ve ever created to avoid violence hasn’t worked. All outcomes point towards The Fight with no obvious way out. Its where I will be seeking to maim, disfigure and control.
Better to realise the fear now rather than later.
Being prepared could be the difference between harsh words, or grievous bodily harm.
We train to be safer than we otherwise would be, so why wouldn’t we extend our preparation to our minds? Isn’t it a natural extension of our arts to be mentally prepared?
An added benefit to this process is that, by extension, you can begin to take control of the mechanisms we recognise as the onset of fear.
Fear is a biochemical response to a perceived threat and is stimulated by our thinking. As such, through use of our agile minds we can create a formula of management. By understanding the physiology of the fight or flight mechanism we can hopefully minimise the likelihood of our own untimely deaths.
And that’s what its all about isn’t it? Making sure that we continue to exist. Making sure that our families are safe. Its a worthwhile outcome isn’t it?
