# Awareness Drills!



## Christian Soldier (Jul 9, 2012)

So, one of the main conclusions in the recent knife defence thread was the importance of awareness. I figured I'd share a few of my drills and tips and if you guys have any that would be greatly appreciated.

Texting: Can kill awareness more than most things, espicially if you text while you walk.

Exit drills: When you walk into a room try to locate the exits, estimate their distances, and consider which would be best used in various scenearios.

Distance estimating drills: This is genearlly more of a shooting thing but goes hand in hand with the exit drills.

Suspicious person drills: Lot's of ways to do this one, Try not to do it at wal mart cause you'll probably be overwhelmed but you can practice in the MA school in a 'gauntlet' and you can usually tell if someone is going to attack you based on body language.


If you have any tips or drills please share them!


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## Cyriacus (Jul 9, 2012)

Be aware of: All nearby exits, every person in the area and their general activity, the scale of the area, and the type of ground You are on.
Awareness in general is greater than drills for awareness. Awareness can be drilled in as a part of any other drill.


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## WingChunIan (Jul 9, 2012)

1) Try the wet paint drill. Imagine everyone you meet / see (except your wife/husband etc) is covered in wet paint and behave accordingly. Allowing agressors to enter personal space lets them get close enough for ambush attacks.
2) try the memory game. Get students in a strange environment then get them to close their eyes and recall where exits / entrances where, concealed locations, other students etc
3) test your powers of observation. Without looking back is the person in the car behind male or female, how many are in the car, what colour is the car?

There are loads of drills / games you can play.


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## Supra Vijai (Jul 11, 2012)

An awareness drill I was exposed to a while back - everyone closes their eyes; the instructors walk around and hand half the people a knife but they don't know who else has one and who doesn't; everyone moves around the room whilst maintaining awareness of everyone else in the room; if someone gets close enough without you turning to face them or signalling your recognition in some manner, you get stabbed; sticking to the walls is cheating and earns you push ups and a run through a gauntlet as described above. Each time you got stabbed/tagged meant push ups increasing by 10 or 15 reps each time. After a couple of rounds, suddenly no one thinks of it as a game and failure is not taken lightly


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## Instructor (Jul 11, 2012)

Reduce mental clutter.  Try to minimize the daydreaming and stream of thoughts flowing through your head.  Don't dwell on the future or the past, live in the moment.


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## geezer (Jul 12, 2012)

Scanning for possible _improvised weapons_ when you are in a potentially dangerous environment. Along with practicing awareness of exits, suspicious or aggressive persons, other environmental hazards, etc. you can practice scanning for accessible objects in your immediate surroundings that could be used in case of an attack. Have students freeze and identify appropriate objects immediately at hand, and have them actually _practice using them against various kinds of attacks_. 

For example, right now I'm sitting at my desk and it looks like a veritable arsenal to me ...I could go on and on, like a kid's game of _"I Spy", _listing all the things I could grab. I mean, Jeez! right in front of me there's a dagger-shaped letter opener, pens, pencils, some hard, heavy thick-walled ceramic bowls made by my kids, the metal-framed picture of my wife and family, a large stapler, my brief case, the stool I'm sitting on (the kids made off with my chair), a large calculator... The kitchen is even more full of nasty stuff. What about a typical restaurant? Imagine the damage you could do with just a bottle of tabasco sauce or the that little closed-top pitcher of hot syrup at IHOP? Try the same game in all kinds of locations ...bars, city sidewalks, parks and back-alleys, and of course, in your car. 

PS don't play this game in front of non martial-artists. They tend to think you are a paranoid psycho.  :erg:


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## Bill Mattocks (Jul 12, 2012)

Hire a butler and tell him to attack you at random times.






[video=youtube_share;cI3S9K0SpSQ]http://youtu.be/cI3S9K0SpSQ[/video]


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## Supra Vijai (Jul 13, 2012)

Bill Mattocks said:


> Hire a butler and tell him to attack you at random times.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I think this Kato might be more of a threat


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