The Seven Pillars of Self-Defense

By C.J. Doyle, Personal Safety Expert

The study of self-defense cannot be defined with quick, easy , and over simplistic solutions.  Acquiring a legitimate sense of control over your personal safety requires knowledge and skills in seven key areas.  Neglect any of them, and you do not have a complete and effective safety strategy.

Pillar#1 Survival Psychology

The need to feel safe and secure is ingrained in all of us. Many  psychologists consider the fear of interpersonal violence to be a “universal human phobia.”  The thought of becoming the victim of a criminal or violent act is disturbing.  Unmanaged fear or a sense of helplessness can erode our health and the quality of our lives.  Being safety conscious does not mean being fearful, paranoid, or afraid to leave your house.  Quite the contrary, self-defense knowledge and skills build a sense of control essential to a sense of security and well-being. 

Survival psychology consists of three broad areas:

1.        Understanding and managing FEAR

2.        Motivating yourself to be “response-able”  for your personal safety through study and training, and…

3.        Understanding the impact SELF ESTEEM has on emotional resilience, crisis performance and victim selection.

Pillar#2 Survival Intelligence

Your most powerful weapon is your brain.  Understanding the dynamics of confrontations will have a big impact on your ability to recognize, avoid or respond effectively to violence.

Survival Intelligence is the cultivation of knowledge, intuition, awareness and assessment skills. Every violent situation is preceded by pre incident clues. Knowing how to recognize and respond to them is the essence of successful self-defense.

Pillar#3 Understanding Victim Selection

Psychologists showed a videotape to penitentiary inmates who were doing time for violent crimes.  The tape depicted several people going about their day-to-day activities.  The inmates were instructed to indicate which of the people on the tape they would select as victims.

The researchers were surprised at the consistency of the selections made.  An analysis of the results identified common traits unique to those who were selected and those who were passed over.  Not everyone will become the victim of a violent crime.  In fact, for everyone who is victimized, dozens more are evaluated and passed over.  By understanding first of all that there is a selection process, as well as the criteria of a “desirable target” , you can influence that process. 

People who are trained in self-defense are seldom confronted.  Their awareness and skills (movement, posture, etc.)  project unconscious signals to a predator that they are not an easy target.  The predator looks elsewhere.

Pillar#4 Recognizing Predatory Behaviour

There are no unique physical characteristics that separate people who victimize others from those who don’t.  Usually, they look just like anyone else.  However, behaviour is another matter.  Most communication is non-verbal.  We transmit much of our intent in the way that we communicate and behave.  There are essentially two types of “bad guys” to be aware of.  The predator, who deliberately sets out to locate, select and attack a suitable victim and the ticking time bomb.  The latter is emotionally unstable and prone to violent outbursts.  Unlike the predator , who is more methodical in his approach, the time bomb will lash out at anyone who happens to get in his way.

By understanding predatory selection and attack methods, you are able to recognize and avoid them.  This involves learning to detect and recognize behaviour cues that identify a potential assailant before the selection process is complete.               

Pillar #5 Response Option Theory

It is dangerous and negligent to imply that there is a single solution to ALL threatening situations.  There is, in fact, a range of responses available to you.  The situation and circumstances will dictate which of them is most appropriate. 

When learning a response system, you must also consider the legal consequences of your actions.  WE all have the legal right to defend ourselves.  However, at what point does an effort to defend yourself become excessive?  How do we know how much force to use to defend ourselves?  Any self-defense or martial arts program should discuss your legal right to defend yourself, how to respond appropriately and how to justify your actions. 

There are 5 categories (FINGERS) of self-defense response options relevant to confrontational situations.  They are:

·          Compliance

·          De-escalation

·          Assertiveness

·          Escape

·          Fight Back

Which one is the most appropriate depends on the circumstances and nature of the confrontation. You should possess skills in each response category as well as the knowledge about when each is applicable.

Pillar #6 Prevention Tips

Prevention tips are simple, precautionary steps you can take to reduce the likelihood that you will become the victim of a crime.  However, these lists of “do’s and don’ts” could number in the hundreds.

It is unlikely that you will remember them all.  You don’t need to.  By understanding the operative principles behind prevention tips, you can improvise safety tactics “on the fly”.  Armed with this knowledge and your own common sense, you can incorporate those tips with which you feel comfortable and which are conducive to your lifestyle.

Pillar #7 Training Methods

Competence is the result of your physical conditioning, skill and attitude.  Effective self-defense skills are the result of gradually and consistently incorporating safety habits into your life.  Those who do take the time to enroll in a self-defense or martial arts class realize that without review and practice , 70% you learned will be forgotten. 

There are many benefits to adopting the study and practice self-defense into your regimen. It can be used to improve fitness, to manage stress and to create safer habits that can reduce the potential of being

accosted or attacked.

The most frequent questions I am asked from my web-articles are: What can I do to feel more confident

and build on my skills? What can I do to follow-up the training I received?

Conclusion

Future safety articles will provide more in-depth information within each of the seven Pillars’. I will include

articles, recommend good books, and highlight resources to improve your self-defense knowledge and skills.

If you have any feedback, suggestions or questions, please send me an email. I'd like to hear from you.

In the meantime, be "response-able" and stay safe!

Mr. Doyle is a 30 year veteran of the martial arts. He has been teaching and educating men, women and children of Mississauga since 1986.  He is married and he and his wife, Lesa (also a black belt) , and have two children, Charles (13) and Alexsandra (9).