This post is about giving you options for when you are on the street and you do not wish to speak with a creeper who is trying to close distance to talk with you:

Creeper: /krēpər/ : a person who makes you uncomfortable whether by a “gut feeling” you get by seeing this person, their appearance, or other factors that make you feel uncomfortable.  Ladies, this could be the unwanted male attention as well.

Many criminals use a ruse or distraction to get what they want; they ask you a question “do you have the time,” “Have any change?” then follow with an attack when you are distracted.  Part of this process is referred to as the interview stage in the self-defense world.

So, how can I avoid talking to this person yet not come off in a rude, abrasive manner that might set-off that person that has bad intentions or that gives me that creeper vibe?

Keep in mind there a few things that you generally do not immediately know about someone that approaches you on the street:  You don’t know this person’s intentions, if this person is legitimately crazy, or if he/she is just panhandling and asking for money.

A solution:

The 3- E’s of Being Elusive

Empathy

Excuse

Exit

Empathy- Show empathy.  I say, “Sorry man.”  Shoulders shrug, my hand’s go up in a non-threatening, open manner to show this gesture with body language.  Note that in this situation I am not being aggressive by saying; “back off,” or “get lost ya creep” unless I feel it is necessary and appropriate for the situation.

Excuse- Make an excuse.  Some good, generic words that happen to work for me are, “I don't have any" or "I can't." For me it does not matter what the question is, when I'm on the street in an area where I feel the need to be more alert I am not allowing myself to be approachable to engage in small talk, most importantly with people that make me uneasy.  “Sorry man, I don’t have any” and "Sorry man, I can't" seem to work for most situations because I'm not open to taking the conversation any further.

Exit- this is self-explanatory.  Leave the area.

I recall one time I had this happen to me in DC right after finishing teaching a seminar when I was putting my equipment back in my car. A guy that I identified as a Creeper was closing distance and attempted to approach me when my car door was open and I was not yet in the driver seat:

He said: “Yo man you  …” (I couldn’t understand the rest… it was incoherently mumbled) as he tried to walk closer to my car to draw me in.

My response was, “Sorry man, it’s gettin’ late, I gotta go.”

When saying this I gestured to my non-existent watch with my index finger, and then looked and pointed up emphatically to a parking sign behind the man, as if it were important.  It wasn't late, it was about 2:00pm, but the gesture was important enough to get him to turn around and look at the sign, which was enough time for me to close the car door, start the engine, and get moving.

I do not know his intent, but I knew that I had nothing to gain from letting him get closer and draw me into a conversation.  Remember, you’re not going to meet your next significant other or best friend in a parking lot or on the streets.  The good ones don’t hang out in parking lots, it’s just creepy.  So if you get that bad vibe from someone you don’t have to talk to them!  It’s ok to be rude and this is an easy way to shut down an undesired communication attempt before it begins.

Train smart & stay safe,


Evan D.
Owner/Lead Coach
NOVA Self Defense
www.novaselfdefense.com

We just recently completed our third month of PDR/SPEAR  self-defense classes at CrossFit South Arlington. Every month we are offering one men’s class and one women’s class.  The goal of these courses is to learn and practice simple combative skills, and get around to some of the stuff that we don’t have time to cover in our introductory seminars.

The ladies had their first taste of a Ballistic Micro-Fight, where they each had an opportunity to experience and respond to a replicated attack, a front choke, with me suited up in the protective gear.  

The men's class worked on multiple attacker encroachment, where two (or three) attackers close the distance to you with one person designated to take a swing at you.  The objective was to weather the punch from the first attacker, and get the hell out of dodge before the other one or two could close the distance! 

Both classes are welcome to newcomers and progressive in nature for experienced participants. In the upcoming months we will be working on effective targeting, blitz attacks with repeated punches, chaining drills together, and defending from grounded positions.

Train hard & stay safe,

Evan D.
Owner/Lead Coach
NOVA Self Defense

Have you ever practiced escaping/running away quickly in a real environment?

There are scenarios in the personal defense realm where running away might be a viable option.  I say that it might be viable because what it comes down to is the scenario and your personal ability, and where these circles intersect.  

I recently had a private lesson client ask, “When should I run away?” Rather than delving into our whole discussion in this post, in short, what I basically said was, let’s try it and see what happens.  The great part was that we were training in the underground multilevel parking garage that she parks in for work!

I had a weapon scenario that I put her through, where I made her run to safety.  In this case relative safety was through the exit doors and up the stairs.  What she wanted to know was if she got that bad, gut feeling about someone from a distance and decided she was going to make a run for it, at what distance would think she could get away without having to fight.

The whole point to this exercise was to show that there IS NO perfect answer to getting to safety.  What is more important having a plan and practicing things safely and realistically to see what happens and where Murphy’s Law comes into play.  In this scenario we identified some hang ups on turning corners, opening doors, and transitioning around obstacles (an extended hand rail) to get to the stairs. After we ran through the scenario a few times we patterned through slowly where the likely hang ups were and discussed fighting back from those positions.  The bottom line is to know that even if you do run, you still might have to fight, so be prepared to turn towards the threat if you’re pushing on that door that says “pull.”

Train smart & stay safe,

Evan Dzierzynski
NOVA Self Defense 
Owner/Lead Coach

Practice things differently! It’s easy to get caught up in the same routine with training, especially solo-training.  Practicing your strikes from a static position is better than nothing, but there should be variation in your training.  Remember to mix things up a bit!  Sometimes with private lessons I’ll have clients work palm strikes from unorthodox positions: for example, having them start from either a non-violent posture or starting with their hands down, I’ll shove them into a fence, have them experience being uncomfortable and off-balance, not able to generate as much force, and make them recover, orient on the striking pad and make the strike happen.  Another drill I’ll do is have clients completely disregard speed and impact on their strikes and isolate just following through the target with their full bodyweight. By placing emphasis on following through your target you achieve better results and less of what I would call, superficial surface strikes.  To facilitate generating power I implement resistance bands into warming up strikes.  With the added resistance you can’t as easily go through the full range of motion without moving your body as a unit, so after doing about 5 minutes of band-work, take away the band and people are instantly striking significantly harder and faster.

If you are a CrossFit athlete, the chances are that you experience some fear on a regular basis.  Looking at the whiteboard and seeing a grueling workout ahead of you that makes your stomach drop is a regular occurrence.

I’ve give you an example that happened to me recently.  Until a few weeks ago, I had never done a one-rep max in box jumps.  A one-rep max in box-jumps means you jump on a high platform and stand up.  If you succeed, you make the platform higher, and so on, and so on, until you ultimately fail or stop attempting the jumps.

On this max effort I started out doing pretty well: 30 inch box: got it, no problem.  I added a plate: 34 inches:  no problem, added another plate: no problem.  This kept going for a while…

As you can see in this picture, I got up to a pretty decent height, at least, for having never attempting a 1-rep max before.  Then… after I successfully stuck this landing, the fear started to set in.

If you’ve ever been to a Personal Defense Readiness/S.P.E.A.R. System seminar lead by Coach Tony Blauer, you have undoubtedly heard Coach talk about fear as an acronym, F.E.A.R. during his Cycle of Behavior discussion.

At this moment, as I’m mentally preparing for my next jump, I start experiencing psychological fear.   
False Evidence Appearing Real was what applied to me.  I noticed how high the platform was compared to my body, about chest high, and a negative thought crept in: That’s really high, it would really suck to get half-way and not make it.  

Why else was there fear? Fear existed because attempting this was outside of my comfort zone; it was something I had never experienced before.

At this point, I can give up or get challenged. This is me, stuck in the F.E.A.R. loop, depicted below, at the challenged or threatened door.  I remembered something Curtis, the CrossFit Adaptation coach said earlier about doing a high box jump, something along the lines of, “Just think of it as a really high tuck jump and stand up on the box.” That sounds really easy.  Simple. I can do that. Challenged, I give it another shot and stuck the landing at 43 inches! Then one of the other athletes in the class said, “Keep going. You cleared it by about 4 inches at the top!”

The good news:  I am familiar with the physiological effects of fear: adrenaline, shallow breathing, less cognitive control, and now I’m seriously feeling that! 

The bad news: understanding and acknowledging the fear does not necessarily alleviate the effects it can have.

Then the fear hits me again, this time much harder: Boom! False Expectations Appearing Real. This time I actually visualize myself attempting the jump, missing the top of the platform, one knee slams hard on the box as I lose my balance, falling inward, my teeth smash into the wooden box on the way down, then I crumple to the ground, bloodied with broken teeth and a busted knee.

This quote relates to one of the first boxes in the Cycle of Behavior, pictured below: 
“80% of your motivation is derived from your expectation.”  

Am I motivated?  No. I try to mentally prepare for it, but I can't seem to visualize success this time. I'm hesitating too long and the fear has set in even worse.  I go for the jump anyway.  The jump happens, only this time I’m psychologically defeated and can’t commit to the jump because of psychological fear of failure.  I can’t even force myself to jump half as high as I did just one minute ago.  Oh well, at least I understand enough about fear to know why this happened to me.  Next time, I’ll land it.

Awesome photo was taken by Keith Waters, of Kx Photography at CrossFit Adaptation, in Arlington, VA.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/surveillance-video-offers-glimpse-of-a-dc-restaurant-patio-robbery/2013/06/06/3e1bc190-ced8-11e2-8f6b-67f40e176f03_story.html?tid=pm_pop

The link above is for a recent armed robbery that happened in DC. Watch the video, notice how calm the robber and discreet the robber was.  The victims in this case were very calm and collected, and in this case, gave the robber what he wanted and did not get hurt.  When you look  at these kinds of videos it is important to analyze it as a scenario in general, but not from a "what did they do right, what did they do wrong," perspective.  

For one, even with a video and after incident interview, we the viewers, do not have the full picture of what happened.
Rather than judging someones actions in this type of scenario I find it more beneficial to think about what my options may have been, had I been there.

These are a few things to think about after watching any kind of crime video:

1. Prevention: would be possible to avoid this situation entirely?

Be realistic. I'll never sit down to eat at an outdoor restaurant ever again is not the solution.


2. Being in the situation: imagine that you ended up there, as is:  how do I get out of it safely?


(clicks heels three times while wearing tinfoil hat) "If he would have been more aware the whole thing wouldn't happen. You wouldn't catch me off guard like that." 


3. Variables: how might this situation severely changed?


Think of this set up with different behavior and the variables that may have made significant changes.

You: Just sat down to eat or can't believe I ate the whole thing after drinking 4 beers.


The bad guy:  For example, rather than being calm, lets say the robber came up to the two guys frantically shaking, cracked out on drugs, gun pointed at them, finger on the trigger.  How might the scenario change?

This blog isn't about answers, it's about enabling you to think through things for yourself to help.

Evan Dzierzynski 
NOVA Self Defense
Owner/Lead Coach

This is a clip from the end of one of our introductory Personal Defense Readiness seminars.  Excellent conversion of the flinch as the student gets back into the fight.

Many of you at one point or another may have heard someone say, "Just give them what they want and they won't hurt you" or "If you try to resist, you are just going to get hurt". This line of reasoning presumes by acting submissive and giving in to the predator, then you are more likely to survive the encounter unharmed. However, someone who threatens with violence to get what they want probably picked you because they assumed you would do just that.

Recently, while doing some research to prepare for a seminar, I came across a study from 2005 that provides some data indicating fighting back does not increase your chances of getting hurt. Furthermore, it does increase your chances of preventing the assault, specifically in the case of this study it was rape. The authors reviewed data from the National Crime Victimization Survey and determined that "self-protection actions", that is defending oneself, did not have a significant impact on the injury outcome of victims. The did detect a significant reduction in rape completion when self-protection actions were taken.

For the full article, click here: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/211201.pdf

Scott V.
Lead Coach

This was a fun session we did for MONA recently. The ladies of MONA came prepared with a lot of good questions and jumped at the opportunity to beat up on Gianni and Scott after learning how to defend the rear grab attack!

Self-training tip #1

So you've been to one (or ten) of our training seminars and are now looking for ways to practice on your own or with a friend.   Where should you start?  Over the next few months we will be rolling out some practicing tips on our blog, and posting them to Facebook.   Some tips will be physical in nature; others will be more related to mindset, thinking, and visualization exercises. 

Let’s start with one the non-violent postures, the one shown from the S.P.E.A.R. system as the “Negotiation Stance.” The scenario being a person is being verbally aggressive towards you, but is communicating and has not yet justified preemptively striking them to ensure your safety.

Body alignment: your body should be slightly bladed (meaning one side is slightly more forward than the other); your hands are up, palms facing the aggressor.   A good way to check this is to get into this stance and observe how you look in the mirror and ask yourself:

Do I look ridiculous?

If you look like a Kung-Fu ninja dragon trying to snatch a pine-cone from a tree you may want to make some adjustments.  Your non-violent posture must look both human and believable. It must portray the message of “hey, calm down, I don’t want to fight.”

Are my hands so wide or narrow that I am providing an opportunity for a strike down the middle or easily around my hands?

Slightly inside shoulder width is a good frame of reference; figure out what works for you.

What about my arms? How much extension? 

When we do scenarios with students we often see compression to the point where your elbows are touching your ribs (go ahead, try that right now) …that’s too close for comfort. Remember that this position is also a barrier to protect you. Extend your arms to a position where your elbows are at an angle of greater than 90 degrees yet not fully extended or locked out. If the sudden attack happens, it is advantageous to have both arms already at an outside 90 degree angle.


Next topic, working on the palm strikes!

We've had many requests for continuing training.  In the past, we haven't received enough registration to make these courses happen on a regular basis, but we're giving it a go in 2013!

Level 2 Self-Defense Courses are for those who have trained with us in the past.

• Two hour sessions
  
• Short verbal intro covering a few new concepts and reviewing some of the most important concepts
• Physical training would spend 20-30 minutes reviewing physical skills from the introductory course
• Remainder of time would be covering new skills: variations of attacks, defending yourself from the ground, knife/gun defense, scenario replication, multiple attackers, improving efficiency in your strikes, etc.

We need 8 registrations to make these courses happen!  If you have any suggestions on topics you want covered, comment here or on our Facebook page.

We just received notice that our [email protected] email address has been malfunctioning for quite some time now.  If you sent us an email to this address and did not receive a reply, we do apologize.  If you did, and you're reading this, please re-send, the email address is now working properly.  I promise we were not playing "hard to get."  Thank you for your continued support!

Evan Dzierzynski
NOVA Self Defense
Owner/Lead Coach/Not-so-much-a-tech-guru

Martial Myth: “Kick him in the Jimmy!”

At our seminars, people often ask, or better yet assert, “If I kick him in the balls he’ll go down, right?”  Well... that depends.  Yes, attacking the groin is a valid target that we do advocate, if and when it presents itself in the context of Closest Weapon Closest Target.  Meaning that if you are set up to easily make that strike happen with effective follow-through without telegraphing your intention, go for it! 

If kicking him there requires an equivalent setup to an NFL pro kicking a field-goal, it is probably not the best target at that point in the fight.

The important point is that kicking a man in the groin should NEVER be considered an end-all-be-all.  Unless you devastatingly destroy the person's anatomy with your kick (*cringe*), do not assume the fight is over. 

If anyone tells you that “this strike” or “that strike” is a guaranteed knock out, or guaranteed to end the fight, etc., they might as well be trying to sell you penny stocks.  Don’t walk away from their seminar, run.  There are guarantees in violence and self-defense.  You weather the ambush, find your indignation, and start destroying targets until your safety is assured.  If you do end up striking the groin, don’t wait for the reaction, instead, immediately follow it up with more devastating strikes in rapid succession.

This is a short clip from one of our in-house Kid-Safe private workshops.  Kid-Safe is a parent-child educational workshop where we facilitate communication between parents and their children about guidelines and rules for dealing with strangers.  Through our discussions, role-play of scenarios, and de-briefs, the kids and parents learn options for how to think and assess situations, and what to do if they need to escape.

This post comes from Brian Wilson, an attendee of the PDR Combatives Camp held in Las Vegas in 2011 by Blauer Tactical Systems, not an event run by NOVA Self Defense.

"Tonight I was out a bar with a few friends and after closing walked out onto the street. There were two men who approached and began to talk to us. They did not look like your typical out for a good time bar types. I saw one of them had a hand tucked behind towards his back, so kept looking at that hand, until he turned enough to reveal a large machete.

At this point rather than completely freaking out at this drunk guy with a blade as long as my forearm, eyeing us up as he talked to us, my training kicked in.

I remembered to watch his hands, I put myself in a nonviolent posture and remembered the three D's. I started to go through visualizations of what I would do if the man moved in anyway aggressively towards us and kept close enough to him that the range of the weapon wouldn't be significant.

More than anything I knew this didn't have to become physical but I was ready for it if it did. I kept calm, relaxed and do anything that would telegraph how ready I was to hurt one of them. The men talked crap about a police cruiser that drove by, told us their names, asked if we were down to party and eventually took off in a cab. Now I'm not sure if anything would have happened or if they were just looking for people to hang out with them. Either way I had confidence I could deal with it thanks to my training at the PDR Camp at Crossfit Sin City.

Thanks Tony Blauer, Omari Broussard, Evan Dzierzynski, Ryan Fredericks, and everyone else I trained with at the camp. You guys might have helped save my life tonight."

Great job Brian! Glad you were able to keep cool under stress and assess your situation.

Visualization is not a new concept in the martial arts or self-defense training world. Training without using visualization or training partners often becomes nothing more than simply exercise, rather than preparation for conflict.  

However, often times when we are told to visualize our opponent or visualize success, we don’t understand how to make it happen and benefit from it.

Let’s walk through a CrossFit weight-lifting example.  For me personally, I achieve my PR's (personal records) on lifts when I tie an emotional element to the lift, when I am dealing with really heavy weight.  

No longer am I thinking about where my feet are, how I am positioned, or hoping I lift the bar off the ground.  Instead, I visualize the scenario:
 
Someone I care about is trapped under a car or heavy object and I need to get it off of them.  Now!  

Today I was mentally out of focus and told my training partner that I failed on a dead-lift attempt lift (of less than my previous PR) because I was not able to visualize my scenario and the success of making it happen. He helped me re-focus by drawing this chalk stick-man.  Thanks Steve!  I ended up successfully dead-lifting 425, a new 2-rep max for me!

Do you know someone in a relationship with a very possessive or jealous partner? Are they constantly afraid of what their significant other might think about their actions? Do they check in frequently or get numerous questions about their activities? Are they frequently having “accidents” or trying to hide injuries and bruises? These are all signs of an abusive relationship.

Whether it’s you or a friend in an abusive relationship, the most important thing you can do is seek help. Numerous resources exist for victims of abuse. I have listed a few below. However, none of these resources work if you do not choose to take action. If it’s a friend, make the effort to ask them if something is wrong and offer to help. If you find yourself in one of these situations, you need to make the decision to defend yourself. Not by physical action, rather by acknowledging that you need help and reaching out to family, friends, or one of the resources below.

http://www.thehotline.org/

http://www.helpguide.org/topics/abuse.htm

http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dsm/dviolence/rscorganizationsatoz.htm

http://www.dccadv.org/

Gavin de Becker in his book The Gift of Fear describes how victims of abuse can come to believe that they are not worth protecting. This false perception is similar to a problem in self-defense situations where certain people, particularly women, will do anything to protect others (e.g., children) but not themselves. Tony Blauer’s solution to overcome this mental obstacle is to identify something that is personal, passionate, and present, whether it is your son, daughter, favorite food, or something else entirely. Then you can use this to create a sense of indignation by realizing the attacker or abuser is trying to take that thing away from you. If you are no longer around, who is going to care for and protect your children?

No form of abuse can be justified. Regardless of if its spousal abuse, child abuse or date rape, it should not be tolerated. If you recognize the signs, offer to help. If you find yourself in one of these difficult situations, know that help is there for you.

Many of us live in a bubble.  We live in relatively safe neighborhoods, hang out with a good crowd, and have decent awareness skills, staying away from places that we think could cause us trouble during times when we shouldn't be there. However, despite our best efforts we will still end up in unfortunate circumstances from time to time.  So, what are the factors outside of your control that can put you in a bad situation, regardless of your intentions?

Something I saw the other day made me think about this.  On interstate 395, traffic was backed up with traffic leaving DC, go figure.  Once I actually passed where the jam-up was, from my rear view I saw that there was an immobilized car in the middle lane, with a woman in the drivers’ seat: no headlights on, no hazard lights, dead in the middle lane. Having cars whizzing by at 50-70 miles an hour, swerving out of your lane because they don’t want to be inconvenienced by you, can be seriously dangerous.  Now change a few factors.  Same scenario: your car dies, but it happens in a really bad neighborhood late at night.  You may have done nothing wrong and may not have been negligent in any manner, but the unpredictable happened.  “Some days you’re the bug, some days you’re the windshield.”  What are some takeaways from this hypothetical scenario that we should all consider?

-Keep your car maintained- you can have the best awareness and avoidance plans in the world, but if your car stops running in a bad neighborhood at night, or you run out of gas, it could be a situation that you didn’t think was relevant because of your normal habits, that may have been avoided by being more diligent with overall preparedness and preventative measures.  

-Know your emergency plan- does swearing and pounding the steering wheel expedite your goal of the problem at hand? No?  How about pulling your hair, yelling, even for ten minutes straight? Think constructively. Who can you call to pick you up? Do you leave the car or stay locked inside until a friend or family member arrives? 

If something does happen, do you have the tools, knowledge, and resources to get away safely? Even if the lady had road flares in her car, which would have at least helped other cars identify her, she would likely be stuck with the problem of getting into the trunk to get the flares out and place them.

In Personal Defense Readiness, the 3 Golden Rules are: ACT

·         Accept what is happening

·         Get Challenged

·         Keep Thinking

This is a great concept that can be a catalyst to getting into action during duress and that has application much broader than just personal defense.  If and when something happens.  ACCEPT IT, GET CHALLENGED, and KEEP THINKING. 

There is a line between preparedness and paranoia, and nobody wants to be the latter. (I can’t believe I took off my tinfoil hat to write this blog-entry).  That being said, a little bit of planning and thinking can go a long ways.  The purpose of this blog entry is not to give you the answers, it’s to get you to think and be introspective about the simple, everyday things regarding preparedness that can make you safer. 

Evan Dzierzynski
NOVA Self Defense
Owner/Lead Coach
www.novaselfdefense.com