Self-Protection (Personal Protection) versus Self-defence.

This is something that is very dear to my heart. My principal civilian course, in my adopted homeland of Spain, is called ‘como evitar ser victima’ which means how to avoid being a victim. The verb ‘SER’, translates as ‘to be’ in the permanent sense as opposed to ‘estar’ which is also ‘to be’ but in a passing sense, was chosen deliberately.

Quick Spanish lesson ser and estar both mean "to be" but they are used in different contexts. Ser is considered a more permanent version and estar is generally used to portray more temporary feelings or situations.

SER??= to be/ I am:?Soy Michael, Soy Británico, Soy hombre; I am Michael, I am British, I am a man.???????? Estoy = to be/I am: Estoy feliz, Estoy andando, Estoy cansado; I am happy, I am walking, I am tired. ?

I believe victims are victims in life, not just in crime, and therefore we need to learn how to be less ‘victim-like’ as members of society generally. So, my Spanish self-protection training aims to make people less of a victim generally in life, and specifically in crime and violence-related issues. I have always believed that the two things are very closely connected.

It could so easily have been called “How to avoid falling prey to predators” or maybe “How to avoid physical violence” but I believe they would be specific and misleading as we become victims to something on an almost daily basis in almost everything we do if we do not choose to change our mindset, and also examine the social education we have received throughout our lives. Yes, some people are victim material, but this is not a permanent state of being and with often minor lifestyle adjustments great differences can be achieved. The changes will be noticed by friends and potential enemies alike

So, getting back to the issue at hand.

Being a combatives, CQC, CQB firearms instructor, and ex-International Martial Arts full contact competitor, my professional life is divided equally between the protection of third parties with high-threat, risk assessments, and the teaching of ‘the use of physical violence’ to professional military and police units, I find that most civilians come to me seeking physical solutions to questions relating to their personal safety. What most refer to as Self Defence; that is to say they are already assuming they have fallen victim to a violent attacker and have to extract themselves from a physically violent situation. The term Self-defence, in this instance, may be defined as 'the use of physical techniques to ‘fight’ against your aggressor and secure your freedom' being correctly used.?

I say that because most believe they will be entering some sort of fight scenario based on the idea that 'antisocial behaviour' is violence, which of course it is not. It’s a pretty long path from “you spilled my drink” to dualling pistols at dawn, and much can be done to separate the two points even further, but not if the only emotion you have is anger and the only tool you have is escalation!??

“How do I get out of this stranglehold” (Krav Maga style) are the sort of questions asked by new students at the start of every new class. Only to find me replying to them by asking another question, “In what scenario are you imagining being put into that stranglehold”. That is to say “How did you get into that position in the first place”?

That is of course the principal keystone of Personal (self) Protection, avoiding the situation to start with.

Stop trying to get out of awkward situations and start trying to not get into these awkward situations in the first place, is always my advice.

I believe the English language or more specifically the inappropriate use of the English language can be blamed for many misconceptions and misunderstandings amongst our students or would-be students. There is much confusion sown in the world of 'Self-Defence', which most newcomers think they need to learn, and 'Self Protection' which is what the majority of new students would benefit from the most. Why? Because far too many Self-Defence Instructors, Masters, or Sifu have too little a grasp of the English language and even less of a grasp on reality!

For example, Social aggression is not violence in the world of the people who practice violence. To them what we refer to as Social Aggression is in fact banter! However, it appears to be used as a synonym when dealing with people who have never raised their voices in anger. “He intimidated me with his shouting and aggressive posturing” is something I hear often from a receptionist in a jewelry store or medical center but never from a doorman in a South London nightclub (read also, Bogota, Paris, Mexico City, Caracas, Hong Kong, Rabat, Marseille etc.) do you get my point?

Home Invasion is another term I take issue with. Recently the term has found inappropriate, if popular, use even amongst “Professionals” in the business of personal protection. I find this both distasteful and disrespectful to those who may have suffered genuine home invasions, where someone, with violent criminal intent, entered their property by smashing in their door, knowing full well they were at home, maybe in bed asleep, and searched for them to aid in the commission of their crime, or indeed to do harm to them directly. They entered with Violent intent; Their home was invaded: HOME INVASION.

Not to be confused with Robbery or Burglary, when one or more thieves enter your property, whilst you sleep, with the intention to steal items from your home and leave undetected. If they hear you moving about, they are more likely to leave than attack and, even if confronted by you they will try to run away, and violence occurs, although terrifying for the prepared and unprepared alike, was not a home invasion but a burglary/robbery gone wrong. Criminal intent. You were the victim of a Burglary and not the victim of a Home Invasion.

The Devil's in the detail.

They have morphed into one for political reasons nothing more. Don’t be fooled by media, whether it be social or mainstream, they are not the same thing in life or law and an understanding of the English language and a refusal to buy into political policy will avoid such misunderstandings being passed on to your students and clients. An untruth repeated does not become true! Terminology is weaponized for ‘whoever’s’ political agender, it sows fear and mistrust, and ‘professionals’ fall victim to it as much as members of the public.

So, we have ‘antisocial behaviour’ and ‘antisocial violence’, not the same thing. We have ‘self-defense’ and ‘personal protection’, not the same thing. ?We have ‘situational awareness’ and situational control’, not the same thing. ?We have ‘escape’ and ‘evasion’ not the same thing, cover and concealment which are not the same thing and believe me when I say 'aggression' and 'violence' are definitely not the same thing.

The list goes on and on. I don’t know if the professionals who confuse these do so from a lack of understanding of the English language, a lack of understanding of what constitutes predatory violence, or the lack of understanding of the effectiveness of the content they have chosen to pass on to their students.

To understand violence you must study violence, not just study other instructors and mimic them, not just spend all day watching Youtube videos of King of the Ring, not reading ‘The Gift of Fear’, as good as it may be, and reciting your favourite lines, and not just going to the gym twice a week to hang with your buddy and practicing 200 times a technique, before recording your latest (immediate response) 'short' of social media wisdom.

Let me be clear on this, in my professional career I have avoided much social aggression with de-escalation and tactical conversation. I have avoided much social violence by using situational awareness to my advantage, I have used situational control to gain a more beneficial position and I have, both, evaded and escaped tricky situations BUT (and that’s a big but!) when ‘violent intent’ entered my life, as it has on numerous occasions, the only thing that led me to safety was the application of larger amounts of instinctive physical violence conducted by me, with an abundance of violent intent against my would-be assailant.

Personal Protection (self-protection) is not Crime Avoidance and neither of those is Self-Defence. Practicing one, relying on one, without the others will lead you into dangerous waters my friends.

Many skills can be intertwined to form what will become a Personal Security Strategy, for you as an individual, as a family unit, or as a workforce. It should, without doubt, include ‘the use of violence for our protection’, this needs to be taught, studied, learned, scenarios practiced, and applied until hesitation is non-existent. ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Situational Awareness is a must in its entirety, not just the sexy one-liner, the clickbait that gets people to comment on your videos! ?Be situationally aware!?

Situational Awareness is a lifestyle choice. It is not hard, it is not complicated to learn or practice and it definitely doesn’t include living in a constant state of fear; "code red". It is in fact one of our most basic, natural, and primal abilities. In recent history, it has been somewhat ignored but not forgotten by your brain functions. The simplest of tasks and techniques can get it functioning at 100% in no time at all.

Of course, for some, the most difficult part of the training will be the withdrawal symptoms suffered from having to put your smartphone down for an hour!

Escape and evasion come hand in hand: Beware, they are not just sexy Special Forces terminology for hardcore Operators, real or imaginary.

Avoidance should always be your first choice (evasion), escape your second, should you be unfortunate enough to be caught unaware.

Remember ‘ambush’ is a preferred tool for professional criminals and violent predators alike. Practicing bottleneck scenarios and counter-ambush drills could prove to be invaluable, whether that be in the trenches of Ukraine or the corridor leading to the toilets in a London nightclub. Never, ever believe an expert that says you can’t escape an ambush, you can, I have, many have, and for that reason, there exists the term “failed ambush”!

Evasion may be used again if you are pursued after escaping. Evasion is a game of cat and mouse. Only hide if no other option is available. Remember playing hide and seek as a kid? How many times did you spend the day on your own because no one found you? Not many I'll wager! Hiding should be temporary and playing hide and seek as adults is not as silly as some have claimed. When you learn how futile hiding can be, and how easily you can be found, you will spend more time practicing fitness to run and fitness to do violence to others.

Conflict management is not violence management. ?Conflict management skills like Verbal Judo (tactical conversation), empathy (not to be confused with sympathy), and ego management, ours and theirs, are important tools for social aggression, managing a verbal confrontation; Conflict Management.

Good doormen are excellent at this, and so are some long-serving receptionists and secretaries. However, be under no illusions, managing violence is not the same as managing aggression, although they may both fall into the category of conflict.

When violence is upon us, words are used only as distractions, ploys, smoke, and mirrors to evoke a favourable response from our attacker, to cause delay to his thought process, to interrupt his OODA loop, and to give you a temporary advantage that must be exploited immediately.

Time and space are our friends both for escape and for attack.?When violence happens it will happen fast, the distance will be managed by us, it will be us doing the violence to others for our personal safety, the safety of others and to create the space needed to escape.

Escape always being our goal, when avoidance for whatever reason could not be attained.

Crime avoidance comes in the form of personal safety and security techniques. Securing your home, your car, and other valuables is crime avoidance. Journey planning and preparation is crime avoidance. Situational Awareness is a big part of crime avoidance and remember crime comes in all shapes and sizes, in all areas of your life from petty street criminals to elaborate Ponzi schemes, stealing the milk from your doorstep or your life’s savings.

Any crime committed against you will affect you, adding avoidable stress to already stressful lives, but violent crimes can cause horrifying unimaginable stress, physical and social disabilities, the loss of loved ones, your property, and maybe even prison sentences, taking the stress to a whole other level.

Crime avoidance is a necessity and another lifestyle choice. It is the way you think, constantly. A few pointers in the right direction and soon you will be inventing new ways to test yourself and the security measures you have already put in place, never resting on your laurels. ???????????????????????????????????????

The worst enemy of Personal Protection, being the combination of personal safety training and crime prevention, is ‘Denial’. It won’t happen to me because; I walk with confidence, because I do martial arts, because I live in a good area, or because the police will protect me. Wrong, wrong, wrong, and WRONG.

Admitting that you are a potential victim is not the same thing as assuming a victim mentality. In fact, admitting you are a potential victim is part of your ‘Personal Risk Assessment’. Nothing more and nothing less than preparing for all possibilities, and remember your risk assessment is not static, it is a constantly evolving entity that accompanies you throughout your life experiences and travels. Changing as the environment around you changes, changing as your family grows as your responsibilities change.

So, your ‘Self Protection’ is managed by the requirements identified in your Personal Risk Assessment.

That may include adding new security measures to your home, your car, or your office. It may include changing the procedures for leaving and collecting your children from school. It should include having “what If” conversations with your partners, children, and indeed co-workers. “What if” someone attacked us right now? Do we have a plan? Who would grab the children, who would fetch the car, where can we escape to, and at what stage would we attack? These are all questions you need to have answered before they are raised!

Crime Avoidance is what most people need when they ask for self-defence in my humble opinion. If we can first get over the scaremongering and hype that tells us constantly we are in danger.

I have commented before that we humans have never lived in a safer time during the whole history of mankind. DANGER; scaremongering tactics! | LinkedIn

You have a much higher chance of confronting antisocial behaviour, which can often be negotiated away, even if it is via appeasement than becoming a victim of a serious violent crime. Petty crime will always affect us all, to varying degrees, and as I said earlier, small lifestyle changes can negate much of that away. ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Predatorial violent crimes are rare and you are far more likely to suffer violence at the hands of a loved one or family member than at the hands of a stranger.

Situational awareness, trained with someone who has seen real-world violence and violent crime will hone your natural skills. In a very short time, you will find that things just don’t happen as often as they did before because you saw the signs, you interpreted the signs correctly and you moved away instinctively before anything happened. What's more, you probably won't even consciously know you did!

Your self-defence strategy should be based on the fact that defending never won a war. You will need to learn attack skills, counter-ambush skills, and the mental/emotional skills necessary to be able to apply huge amounts of violence to another human being and then be able to live with the fact, that YOU DID THAT to him, afterward. ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

These skills can only be honed by training and constant practice, physical and mental, in the shape of realistic scenario training that builds on the basic skills. Basic skills done well will get you out of many sticky situations. A quality instructor will then build on these skills, letting you master each one, adding more, but not too much more, as your abilities progress. Practicing these scenarios will help develop your neural pathways, (muscle memory) making your response times much shorter and your danger detector much sharper.

Here in Cádiz, Spain, we teach civilians, individuals, small groups, families or companies, as well as Police and Military units. We can provide online workshops, courses, and educational material specifically designed to guide you through the minefield which may be self-defence or personal protection. It is far from all physical, but our CQC, Combatives, courses are also extensive for those whose employment doesn't allow them to avoid physical violence.

Contact us at www.insafehands.net or [email protected] or feel free to drop me a DM.

If you would like to know more about the specifics of Situational Awareness, Self-defence, Personal Risk Assessments, Personal Protection, and Crime Avoidance please feel free to contact me at [email protected] or leave a comment below. Also, feel free to DM me.????????

If for geographical reasons I cannot help you with physical training we can do ZOOM or similar and I have a large network of qualified Instructors (friends) in all the subjects mentioned in this article who may be able to assist you.

Please consider leaving a comment or any questions below.