Body Language

[Hawke]

Greetings All,

We sort of touched on this subject when we talked about when to act.

This time the question is how do you know if the person next to you is trouble?

Some of the things I look for are:

eyes that follow me when I move
shoulders that track me when I move
my gut feeling (yes I know very illogical, but I'm still alive so I it works for me)
a "buddy" that suddenly appears next to me when confronting another person

What are the signs you looks for in another person? What makes your Spider-Sense tingle?

 

[Deaf Smith]

I've picked the ones below over the years. I don't claim to have 'discovered' them, but they all are quite vaild.

Head attitudes:
Head neutral = Neutral and open attitude
Tilted back = Superior attitude
Tilted down = Negative and Judgmental attitude.
Tilted to one side = Interest

Body Postures:
Leaning back and closed = Lack of interest.
Leaning back and open = Contemplation and cautious interest.
Leaning forward and closed = Potential aggressive behavior .
Leaning forward and open = Interest and agreement .

Gestures:
Hands on hips (confrontational gesture).
Rolling shirt sleeves up (A rather obvious sign of high stress and anxiety.. Getting ready to fight).
Looking away (Ignoring you. He is done with whatever you have to say. Possibly looking for witnesses, escape routes, preparing to fight or run).
Walking away (This is read as a sign of contempt for you, a sign the subject is done listening to you).

 

[Deaf Smith]

Things to look for:
Head angle indicates fight or flight.
1) A dropped chin means fight.
2) A raised chin means flight.

Confirming gesture of flight:
- a fixed stare.
- brushing hair back.
- rubbing chin or face.

 

[Deaf Smith]

If flight, look for darting eyes.
Watch area around neck for possible attack (upper body muscles.)

“Happy feet” could be a strong indicator of flight.

When you see a threat potential, call attention to it. May get him to reconsider threatening action.

Short, choppy gestures/verbal communication, the threat is real.

Hands inward/anger inward; hands outward/anger outward.
Palms in - mad at himself.
Palms out - mad at you.

Watch deadly hands; drying of hands, hands stroking to get dry for attack.

Knuckle-popping, loosening of fingers, flexing of fingers. Then watch setting of hands.

Multiple gestures and deadly gaze mean likely trouble.

 

[Deaf Smith]

The face can be a barometer of a subject’s intentions.

-Flared nostrils, setting of jaw indication of nervousness, anger.
-Eyes wider during periods of intense emotion.
-Mouth breathing indication of nervousness, anger.
-Mouth tense, lips down at corners.
-Raised eyebrows.
-Red face.
-Underneath eyes opposite rest of skin surface.
-Fixed, dilated stare.

Assault not immiinent but possible if you see this below:

-Face is red, twitching, jerking.
-Head, neck, shoulders go back (person making themselves look bigger).
-Lips pushed forward bearing teeth (you’ve seen the same thing in dogs before they attack).
-Breathing is fast and shallow.
-Beads of sweat appear about the face/neck.
-Thousand mile glare.
-Exaggerated movements.
-Finger pointing
-Head pecking (you see this alot with drug users.)

 

[Deaf Smith]

Assault is imminent:

-Directs anger towards other inanimate items such as tables, chairs, walls.
-Face goes from red to white ( during a physical confrontation the blood will leave the surface of the body and pool to the big muscles and internal organs of the body needed for survival), The person is either going to fight or run.
-Lips tighten over teeth.
-Breathing is fast and deep.
-Change of stance, their body blades and shoulder drops.
-Hands closed into fist (not uncommon to see whites of knuckles due to hands being so tight.)
-Bobbing up and down or rocking back and forth on feet (this is the bodies way to hide/ mask the initial movement of a first strike.)
-Target glace (here you will see your opponent look to where he is going to hit, or where he is going to run/escape.)

 

[Jade Tigress]

First, thanks for all the great additions Deaf Smith. :asian:

Next, I want to brieftly comment on the bolded statement below.

Greetings All,

We sort of touched on this subject when we talked about when to act.

This time the question is how do you know if the person next to you is trouble?

Some of the things I look for are:

eyes that follow me when I move
shoulders that track me when I move
my gut feeling (yes I know very illogical, but I'm still alive so I it works for me)
a "buddy" that suddenly appears next to me when confronting another person

What are the signs you looks for in another person? What makes your Spider-Sense tingle?

Gut feelings. I don't think paying attention to gut feelings is illogical. It's smart and we shouldn't ignore them. I believe your gut feelings come from subtle body language cues you pick up but can't identify. So, you try to override your uneasiness by telling yourself everything *looks* fine, you shouldn't be uneasy. But you really are picking up on important cues.

I just read an article in a magazine yesterday about a different method of rape. You have stranger rape, you have acquaintance/date rape. This article discussed serial rapists who choose their victims and use very covert tactics to get the women alone and rape them. They are very charming and gain a semblance of trust. In every case the women said they knew something wasn't right but just couldn't put their finger on it.

On the surface there was nothing to raise red flags about a person being dangerous, but they did in fact pick up on other unidentifiable cues which, unfortunately, they let their *logic* override.

Pay attention to gut instincts!

 

[Drac]

Great posts Deaf Smith...No one should EVER ignore the importance of body language...It's helped me more that once while on duty...

 

[Drac]

Pay attention to gut instincts!

Amen Jade...

 

[KenpoTex]

Good posts Deaf Smith, lots of great info there.

For some more, along with some photographic examples, go read this thread. (you have to register but it only takes a minute).

http://www.totalprotectioninteractive.com/forum/showthread.php?t=770

 

[Deaf Smith]

Not finished yet.... I teach this stuff. I'll post more after I get home from work in the PM.

Deaf

 

[Deaf Smith]

More on Assault is imminent:

-Putting head and shin down (body wants to protect airway, this action does so to a degree.)
-Eye brows brought forward into a frown (again the body wants to naturally protect the visual system, this action does so to a degree.)
-Stops all movements/ freezes in place.
-Dropping center or lowering of body (no different that a cat or dog getting ready to pounce.)
-One syllable replies (go from full sentences to one syllable replies….. reptilian brain is clicking in.)

 

[chinto]

my gut is a very very sensitive instrument that usually knows long before i see any thing...

that said, a group that is watching as a group, or individual that seems to be paying to much attention to myself or perhaps some one else that seems wrong.. too quiet, or to noisy and rowdy... and especially any sign or sight of a concealed weapon, especially a blade or cheep fire arm that is just stuck in a waist band or similar. any and all of them are ground for condition red kind of alertness and move away and get clear... if they reach for the weapon or i cant get clear its very very bad! condition black.

 

[thardey]

Thanks, Deaf, for all that stuff - it's very good.

As for our "instinct" or "gut feelings" I agree that they are valid. They're more like subconscious alarms of triggers that we don't realize we see.

I've grown up around horses, but am just now learning to ride. It always surprised me to see people new to horses, doing things that, to me, made no sense. But those people were never around horses, and never developed their "horse sense" which is really not much more than catching and interpreting the subtle cues that horses give. Now that I'm learning to ride, I'm training that "horse sense" aggressively, now, so I can pick up on things much quicker than before, and can "instinctively" react the right way.

But I do think that people get into trouble in thinking of it as a "gut feeling" or "instinct." (Not many on this board, but others I've seen, and maybe some lurkers here.) Because if you believe it's something in your DNA that makes you alert, you will never learn to sharpen those senses. What may start as an effort to know where the escape routes are eventually becomes a sub-conscious thought. What may be a decision to sit with your back to the wall or sit facing the door eventually just becomes a natural place of comfort.

So, listen to your guts, but constantly be training them, as well!

 

[Deaf Smith]

thardey,

I'm a horse rider and used to own a horse ranch.

Horses have their own social protocols. The alpha horse gets fed FIRST. If you feed them out of order you will see that horse have a hissy-fit and just might bite you. They have pecking orders.

They also have body language that will tell you what they are thinking and how they react to you (and how you should react to them!)

Humans are alot like that. You just got to know what to look for.

And now...

Signs Of Submission:

-Putting hands up in front of body with palms facing out. Universal sign for stop stay back.

-Face returns to normal skin tone and color.

-Shaking hand. Almost as if the person has Alzheimer’s disease. This shaking can be slight to extreme. Bodies natural way to burn out the adrenalin, nor-adrenalin, epinephrine that it dumped into the body for fight, flight, hyper vigilance but was not used.

-Turning of back with their hands covering their head (ensure you can see their hands if not create distance NOW as it might be a fake.)

-Backing off (that is they back off. Still, do watch the hands!)

-Bowing of head and lowering of eyes.

-Verbal tone, volume, rate, slows back to normal / full sentences once again.

Deaf

 

[qwksilver61]

Aura......a neutral,but confident relaxed state,you can pick up any vibe.

 

[Hawke]

WoW! Thanks for all the posts.

I'm hoping others can read this thread and get ideas they can take home.

Teaching techniques are important. We focus so much on learning technique that sometimes we might forget to mention the power of awareness and listening to the body.

The best place to be in a fight? Not be there.

Deaf has contributed a lot on this thread. Thank you Deaf.