This is the first in a multi-article series on Components of Personal Defense.  This series will explore the different aspects of the interpersonal engagement.  We will not be discussing “preventative” topics such as lock your doors or change your passwords.  We will be focusing on useable strategy, tactics, and techniques to manage the pre-fight, fight, and post-fight events.  Notice I said “useable” because there is a lot of bogus information floating around, especially if you get your information from the various media outlets or Hollywood.  Everything that I will discuss has been acquired from multiple reputable sources and, when possible, personally tested to confirm validity.

However, before I get into our first topic, Situational Awareness, I want to clearly define the term engagement.  Throughout these articles, I will refer to the engagement, which, for our purposes, is defined as a “hostile interpersonal interaction”.  Please recognize that there is no restriction regarding type or level of hostility.  It may be verbal or physical.  It may be minimal or very intense.   It may be one person or multiple people.  Likewise, the appropriate self-defense response may entail running, verbal response, physical response, or deployment of a weapon. Thus, the topics and strategies presented are intended to cross multiple types and levels of interpersonal hostility. 

So, what is Situational Awareness and how do we develop it?  Situational Awareness is the ability to acquire information from your environment, identify potential events, and develop an accurate risk analysis of those future events.  It is the ability to perceive potential threats to oneself or others.  Notice that I have not said anything about responding with actions to those potential events.  Appropriate response to potential threats comes from training for that event or the experience of being in that event.

Let’s take a common example of driving a car.  You approach an intersection and notice another car approaching the same intersection to your right.  This is situational awareness.  You are aware of a potential threat; a car hitting your car.  The experience of approaching an intersection and assessing the risk of an accident allows you to make a decision of the level of threat from the approaching car and take appropriate action.

Now let’s change the example just slightly and pretend you are responding to a text message as you approach the intersection.  Because your focus is on your phone, you miss the approaching car and are unable to perform the required threat assessment.  This is lack of situational awareness, and this is how many people go through their daily lives.

So how do we develop Situational Awareness?  First, we must recognize that there are many different types of threats, from falling down a set of stairs, to walking out in front of a car, to encountering a mugger in a parking garage.  Second, we must take responsibility for our actions and decide to be situationally aware.  Simply being aware of our surroundings provides us the ability to recognize people and objects that are out of context.  I’m sure most of you that live in a subdivision are aware of the vehicles that routinely drive through the neighborhood.  If a white panel van suddenly showed up cruising the streets, most would recognize it as out of place and a potential threat.  In all cases, Situational Awareness provides us with the time to assess the risk and decide to act.  Again, the question of how to act is developed only through training and experience. 

I hope you stay with us as we discuss the Components of Personnel Defense.  In the next article we introduce the three stages of the fight, Pre-Fight, the Fight, and Post-Fight, and discuss some Pre-Fight Indicators.

Train Hard!  Stay Frosty!  Never Give Up!

John