How to Protect yourself Physically: Why TIME is KEY in Self Defence

 Offenders need a moment in time to commit their crime. Especially in public spaces. So, time is an important variable in criminal behaviour. An offender has to commit the crime and exit the scene without being caught. This means the longer the duration, the greater the risk to the offender. Therefore, delaying or frustrating an attack could be an effect weapon in knowing how to protect yourself physically.

So, if you can delay the moment, deny the offender time to perform the crime, you may be able to buy your safety. Now this may seem farfetched, but keep watching the video, as I am going to show an example of when this strategy worked well.

Before that let me explain one important but relevant point.

Frustration is an effective weapon for self defence

Offenders have to act quickly to reduce their risk of exposure, and prevent intervention or apprehension by Law Enforcement.

Logically, if  there is a sense of urgency to perform the crime, then delaying the temporal moment may frustrate the offender. Perhaps, even force a non-committed offender to give up and seek an easier victim. Be aware that highly motivated experienced offenders, have a different rational calculation.

Regardless, whether it is a robbery, assault, or kidnapping, time is a key factor in conducting the offence. This is why being taken to a secondary location is extremely dangerous. It allows the offender more time to act against you, so never allow yourself to be taken away.

45 Seconds and Counting… This Defender Uses Frustration as Effective Weapon

This case study is a good example of how to frustrate an attack and buy safety. The important point to note is that the offender was unwilling to go longer than 45 seconds. More importantly I want you to pay attention to the behaviours that indicate the offender was trying to reduce his risk of exposure and intervention. You will see his sense of urgency.

Also, the simple but effective tactic the defender does to thwart the attack. Keep watching and I will explain some simple lessons that will help us all.

Defender Uses Frustration as Effective Weapon

The defensive encounter starts with a woman walking along. The offender runs up, grabs her from behind and drags her into a side road. The first behaviour Cue, note how he’s looking around as he’s dragging her to away. He looks left then right. This is an important indicator of time sensitive attacker. He’s actively managing his exposure.

In order to gain control of her movement, he grabs her around the waist in a bearhug to lift her. This is a good time to know how to grapple. Naturally, she does the right thing in struggling and dropping her weight. Unfortunately, this results in her dropping to the ground where he’s able to consolidate a top position. Note again, in the struggle he looks up to check for witnesses. This is another indicator of urgency.

How to Protect Yourself Physically

In this situation it is always best to put your feet on your attackers hips to make space, or even use them to up kick. In fact, I often instruct when fighting defensively off your back that your job is to frustrate the attacker. Force them to make mistakes, or in this case give up.

She does an excellent job of keeping her left knee as a shield to prevent him from flattening her out. Not only has she delayed his attack, but denied control of her body. She’s squirming enough underneath that he can’t settle on top of her. Combined with hand fighting, this appears to be enough to thwart his attack. I’m not sure if he picks up her phone, but he runs away without fighting on.

What the Video Suggests

Now this event suggests that when an offender is acting in a time sensitive manner. Frustration may deter the uncommitted. In this case, I suspect he was an opportunist. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Before you go. There is one important observation here. He didn’t try to strike her or beat resistance out of her. What was interesting was that he appeared to try to kiss her at one point.

That aside, he was very aware of his exposure of being discovered. Remember 45 seconds was all she needed to buy her safety.

Take Away: How to Protect Yourself Physically

So the takeaway is that some criminal offences require time to perform. If you can delay the moment, you may be able to buy yourself some safety.

Delaying the moment, can be physical as in this case. However, simply paying attention to your environment in order to prevent people getting close to you can make a difference. This is a time deficit for the bad guy.

Thank you for reading.