Your physical safety is at risk no matter where you are – your campus, your town/city and even your place of employment.  The following information is designed to give you a quick, but comprehensive guide to protecting yourself and improving your physical safety and well-being using specific tips and self-defense techniques and concepts.

General physical safety information:

• Defining your specific safety concerns is essential to personal safety – what concerns do you have at home, at work, at bars/clubs, when driving, etc.

• Being “armed with awareness” ™ can go along way toward preventing a problem when you are aware of the people, places and objects around you. Unlike objects designed to protect you, awareness is something that is always available to you and cannot be forgotten at home or taken away.

• Many objects can be used as weapons if you just think about how they can be used as such – pens, phones, chairs, keyboards, sprays, lotions, scissors, tweezers, staplers, rolled up newspapers or magazines, etc. Begin to look at things differently and you will be amazed at how creative you can get!

• When entering any building, note where the exits are. Many buildings have a back door for deliveries, so be aware because you may not see it.

• Establishing personal boundaries and knowing when “enough is enough” is vitally important to your safety- otherwise how will you know when someone goes too far in a questionable situation?

• Do not allow yourself to become complacent during your daily routines – just because today “should” be like yesterday and tomorrow “should” be like today, doesn’t mean that will always be the case. Do not allow your comfort zones to cause you to miss potential risks because you are not looking for them when you should be vigilant and always aware of what is going on around you.

Specific safety tips:

• When using your cell phone, look up constantly and from side to side to prevent being taken by surprise. If someone is watching you and sizing you up as a potential victim or target, looking up and around will not allow them to sneak up on you, and this reduces your allure as an easy target.

• At night, enable the “blue light filter” or “night mode” on your cell phone that will allow your eyes to adjust to the darkness better.

• Download a personal safety app to your smart phone that can be activated with the touch of a button or the screen. These apps can be pre-programmed to send out your location to a list of contacts, plus automatically turn on both cameras to record what is happening around you or to you.

• Get a personal safety alarm – these emit piercing sounds of 110-130db and can be used in a variety of ways – plus they are inexpensive with many under $20.

• When approaching your vehicle, if you notice another car or van with occupants inside next to yours, either turn around and come back later or with someone, or enter your vehicle from the other side of your car and drive off immediately. Do not sit in your car making lists, checking texts or emails, etc.

• At night always remain in well-lit areas and travel with multiple people if possible. Avoid areas where you cannot see around you such as near large bushes, alleyways or underpasses. This holds true as well when approaching an ATM machine; only use those in well-lit areas where you can see up and down the block. Do not use ATM machines on corners or those near areas that can hide someone who may be waiting to rob you once you leave the ATM.

• If someone approaches you while walking, cross the street or turn around and find another route to your destination. You can also head inside a public place such as a store or restaurant that has other people inside. If you are chased, do not yell “help” but rather “fire” since many people will not want to get involved if they hear a cry for help, but almost everyone wants to come out and see a fire!

Specific self-defense techniques and targets:

• Even with no training, you can incapacitate an attacker by striking highly sensitive areas or pressure points. These include most targets that follow the centerline of the body – eyes, nose, throat, solar plexus, groin and knees. These are all targets that do not require a lot of strength to effectively stop an attacker.

• If you are grabbed, you can pinch certain highly sensitive areas of the body on your attacker including the skin behind their tricep and the skin inside the thigh. These both may cause your attacker to let go, or at least loosen their grip on you enough so that you can pull away and escape. Remember to always pull towards the top of the thumb on your attacker’s hand since this is the weakest part of their hand.

• Your elbow is the strongest point on your body; when in close, use it to drive into your attacker’s stomach, into their chin/throat, into their groin, or head. Your knee is the 2nd hardest, so deliver a knee strike if you are able to any of these targets.

• A basic front snap kick delivered to the knee of your attacker can dislocate their knee, cause extreme pain and drop your attacker to the ground. It only takes between 30-50 pounds of pressure delivered directly into someone’s knee to dislocate it if the leg is extended. If the knee is bent, it may take more pressure to straighten and then dislocate it. Just kick it straight back as hard as possible! This will also cause damage to the tendons and ligaments and allow you time to escape.

• Blinding your attacker is a great way to escape – you can use bug spray, perfume/cologne, hand sanitizer, room spray, body spray, lotions, fire extinguishers, etc. Of course, if you have pepper spray use that! I highly recommend everyone keep pepper spray in their car, purse, desk drawer or nightstand. Anything you spray needs to be sprayed in a back and forth motion across the attacker’s eyes. If they are wearing glasses, spray it back and forth across their forehead so that it drips into their eyes.

• Many self-defense instructors tell you to gouge out the attacker’s eyes; while effective, most people will not be able to bring themselves to do it, even when fighting for their life. However, if you think about what you would do BEFORE the need arises, you will be more apt to perform under duress without hesitation because you have already thought about it.

There are 5 Steps To Survive An Attack:

1. Commit—make up your mind and GO!

2. Distract—noise & commotion; kick, scream, yell!

3. Escape / Defend—use your chosen technique and execute it!

4. Attack, Attack, Attack! Do NOT let up until the threat is neutralized! Fight for your life, not your property!

5. Run—away from the situation as fast as possible & call for help!

I hope these tips and techniques help you stay safe no matter where you are!