3 Types of Attacks you may encounter

Every day we read, see, or hear about some type of violent crime or attack happening.  The thought goes through our minds what if it happened to me?  Then we are reassured by the following thought, “it could never happen to me.”  This is what provides us with our daily sense of security, the idea that the probability of something happening to us is so low and miniscule that we should be fine.  This tends to be the pattern of thinking for many of us on a day to day basis.

This begs the question, what if something happened to us?  What if we were attacked or involved in some type of self-defense altercation or mugging?  Would we be prepared? How would we react?  These are all difficult questions to answer given we may have never encountered any violent situations.  Here at Fanatic Self Defense we like to keep you on your toes, we want you to be prepared for anything. 

We have filmed many successful self-defense DVD’s with many of the world’s leading self-defense experts.  We like to offer practical day to day defense systems that literally anybody can learn and adapt into their lifestyles.  We know not all people are athletic, skilled, young, or flexible; we like to use techniques and systems that will work for anyone if for some reason they were ever in danger.  Today we are going to discuss 3 attacks that very well could happen to anyone and share with you some defense videos.

The Headlock

The headlock is one of the most common positions that we see when any type of altercation turns physical.  Humans do not have any preconceived notion of how to grappler asides from head locking, although every human has the preconceived notion of how to punch and kick, when they are attacked their instincts may lead them to a head lock.  Imagine some drunken guy stumbles upon you while you are with your family or at a bar.  He starts being rude to you, your wife, or your kids.  He even starts to threaten them with physical violence.  Are you prepared to defend them? You step into the situation in an attempt to deescalate it and he head locks you.  What now?  Do you know how to defend the head lock? Let’s take a look at a video below with Jiu Jitsu black belt Todd Williams and self-defense expert on how to defend the head lock.  We will discuss it below.

So there you have it, this 3 minute video with self-defense expert could literally save your life.  He addressed two of the most common headlocks that anyone will encounter in a self-defense situation.  The head lock from standing and the head lock from the ground.  Both of these are extremely common and can occur on anyone. 

Let’s discuss the standing defense, if you noticed the first thing that he did was straiten has back while controlling the wrist in order to alleviate the pressure from his neck.  He is using his back muscles to do this, when he straitens up he is able to get out.  Once he gets out he continued to control the arm and get behind his assailant. Anytime you are in a self-defense situation it is wise to be behind your attacker.

As for the headlock on the ground, this may be even more important to know how to defend given your vulnerability when you are on the ground.  He shows you how to make a frame on your attacker and create some space making it uncomfortable.  Once the distance is established he shows you how to properly angle your body and get back on top of your attacker.  These techniques are tried and true, simple and effective.  If you would like to learn more from Todd Williams you can see his DVD below.  It is called runsafer and it designed to help you stay safe while running or walking in public.  Todd is not only a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt, he is also a two time Olympic Distance Runner.

Attacked From the Back Defense

Once again we are going to take a look at a video with Todd Williams.  He is the world’s leading self-defense expert on people who are jogging, working out, and walking alone.  These are all common places where you could be attacked.  He is going to show us three different situations where someone could be attacked from the back and how they could be attacked.  Let’s see the video below and then we will discuss it.

So as you can see above he showed us how to defend the bear hug, the choke hold, and if you are a female, if someone grabs your pony tail.  If you noticed that all of his tactics were ultimately leading you to be able to escape, create enough distraction and chaos to be able to run.

When you get bear hugged from the back you have to hook their leg so they cannot pick you up and slam you on the ground, which could potentially be catastrophic.  The leg hook may seem bizarre but try it with a friend and see how much heavier it makes you.

When someone grabs you and puts you into a chokehold you have to be able to alleviate the pressure on your neck.  This is the single most important thing to address.  If you don’t, you may faint, or worse, die.  So do whatever you have to do like Todd said to get the pressure off of your neck.  Once it is off of your neck, use tactics to allow you to be able to escape. 

Gun Disarm

This video is going to be with Aaron Jannetti which is one of the world’s leading self-defense experts. Aaron is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu instructor, Krav Maga instructor, striking expert, and professional MMA fighter so he is a real fighter.  He also created a program called the “active shooter defense” program.  This program is dedicated to showing you how to react in the tragic event of a mass shooting.  Let it be noted that the two best weapons against a gun are your mouth and your legs.  Meaning, if someone draws a gun, try and deescalate the situation by talking your way out, and if that does not work and you can, run, if all else fails, and for some reason you or your family are in imminent danger, maybe this video will save your life.

So as you can see in the video above, the main detail of dealing with a gun is GET OUT OF THE LINE OF FIRE.  You have to get out of the line of fire.  Immediately grab the barrel of the weapon with a safe grip and move it well out of your way.  Once you have safely removed the gun out of your way it is time to attack and try and disarm your opponent.  You want to use anything and everything in your arsenal, knees, head butts, elbows, whatever it takes. 

Aaron Jannetti has an excellent self-defense video on our site called “Beyond Krav Maga.”  This is a video dedicated to real life self-defense tactics, and they are practical for anyone and everyone to learn.  Check out the DVD below.