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
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
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