Exercises to improve awareness?

[morph4me]

Putting yourself in the predators shoes gives you a different perspective, if you know why you would pick someone as a victim, you know what you should be looking out for. It's a lot easier to protect yourself if you know what your protecting yourself from.

 

[prokarateshop]

This was a great post, A lot of good content. I think another key is to work on just observing your surroundings. Nevermind MA, but to help with life in general..

 

[still learning]

Unless I missed it... I didn't see anyone reccomend:
Surviving Armed Assaults: A Martial Artists Guide to Weapons, Street Violence, and Countervailing Force by Lawrence A. Kane
It has a good sized section on awareness as well as things like de-escalation, aftermath of violence (how to talk to cops =D), etc...

As it implies in the title, it's written with martial artists in mind. It's the best $25 I ever spent on a book. REALLY good.

You can find it here:
http://www.ymaa.com/publishing/books/external/surviving_armed_assaults

Great tips from everyone!

Oh, and if you ever remember the name of that movie: send me a message I might want to see it, lol.

Also... just for comic relief... since dogwalking puts you in potential confrontations... Maybe you need a bigger, meaner, and uglier dog? :uhyeah:

Hello, Thank-you for recommending this book! ...We just order one from Amazon....can't wait to start reading it...

Want to share this one too...want a happier life? ...."Handbook to Higher Consciousness by Ken Keyes Jr. (living in the here and now!)

Aloha,

 

[Haze]

It's just me?

I'm the only one who finds the 'be a predator and think about how you could take her purse' game a little odd? Why would you even want that in you?

Without knowing the criminal mind and how it picks victims you will never know what to do so you do not present yourself as an easy target.

By figuring out how you would attack someone you can figure out what would also circumvent that attack.

As humans we moved to the top of the food chain because we are predators. When in an altercation if we turn that predator in to our prey, we ,,,,,,,,,,,survive.

 

[still learning]

Hello, To catch a thief? ...is to think like one...I guess the same for everything else..

In martial arts...to learn to block...one must learn what the attacker will do first...(punches, kicks,...etc..)..to think like an attacker...

children like to act as adults....yet too many adults act like children..NO matter the ages...

Aloha, ...wheres my toys....aaarh

 

[Draven]

I'm not a big fan of the color code system of awareness, its one thing to look at a situation and say you should X-color/level of awareness in hind sight of situation-Y to get result Z. Instead I always tell people to use Educated Awareness. The Educated part is the most important, since few people have not clue as to what they need to aware of.

That said your first training form of awareness is/should be education on the most likely weapons, approachs and tactics of aggressors. Since your 3 times more likely to be attacked by a friend, aquantance or family member that should be somewhat easier to pick up thier body language. Body language is pretty general in human nature so...

Beyond that meditation is a good building block and so is scenario training were a training partner simulates the body language aspects under simulated combat conditions. You can also sparr blindfolded, use what my school calls the Circle of Death and the Circle of Lights.

Basicly the circle of death is 10 students lined up in circle and are given numbers with one student in the center. The circle is allowed to yell and scream and make a commotion as whatever but no physical contact. The Instructor walks around the circle and calls a number, that number enters the circle and both are give 2 minutes to defeat their opponent; tap out, knock out or discontinue the fight. After 2 minutes a new student steps in. If the center student is beaten his opponent takes his place.

The same can be used for the Circle of Lights which uses strobe lights flashing in a persons face, as well as loud music to cause sensory over load (too much stemuli to the brain) & forces a person to concentrate and isolate attention to certain stemuli. Works similar to the circle of death exercise.

You can also have someone set green & tan army men in a room, and go in with a air soft gun and shoot the army. You can only shoot at one color & have to count the other color as well. Since allot of awareness is multi-tasking your awareness of a task and your awareness of your environment.

Going back to the Educated Awareness Principle of mine; all criminals use the OIA Triangle (Opportunity, Inent & Ability) whether they know it or not. When you are looking at being the victim, put yourself in the criminal's shoes and always assume there is an intent to victimize you, next look to see if others have the ability to victimize you and watch yourself to see if they have the opportunity.

Also consider that a criminal will approach you in 5 stages;
Intent (again); watch body language and eyes for intent to approach you or to take action. This is why "mad dogging" or staring at a person can start a fight; they feel you are projecting intent towards them.
Interview; there are several types of intviews from tojan horse of asking what time it is or if you have a cigarette, to silent observation while moving into the next stage (positioning) to verbal abuse & escalate harassment.
Positioning; is where they set themselves up to attack you.
The Attack; is the actual confrontation.
Reaction; The reaction is the after attack criminal response. This is where emotion &/or mental illness cause them commit a new form of attack. Its also based on your reaction to the attack. Generally if you move t counter to positioning, or fail the interview you are less likely to be considered at target.

To give you an example;
My car broke down and my cell was dead, my aunt lived maybe 2 miles from my loaction. So I walked to her house to call a wrecker and I cut onto a near by jogging/bike trail to take a short cut in getting there. Bear in mind I carry a handgun at most times. As I'm walking a young black male is approaching from about 75 yards away. Now I do advocate racial profiling but as a component of other factors, him being black or wearing sagging pants isn't enough for me but I was aware of him & the fact he is carrying a coffee from Starbucks. I'm also aware we have only one Starbucks in town and its behind me & he's infront of me (a slightly out of place element). As he gets to about 50 yards of me I notice he has now removed the lid of the very of the Starbucks Cup (an other strange element) & is now walking toward me with his shoulder hunched up, chewing on his lower lib and staring at me (a display of intent and his body language seems to be psychicing himself up). So I take a step to my left and moves to meet me, a take another step and again be moves infront of me, and on my third step he again moves to meet. Now 10 yards away I pull back my coat and expose my handgun holstered at my hip. The assailant takes 6 steps to the opposite side of the trail and continues to keep walking, I stopped and was very obvious about watching him go.

Prior existing information; the local news had recorded that several people had been robbed in the same area or near the area I was in. All robbed by a young black male or males with hot water or coffee thrown into their face & then stabbed or hit with a club. And their wallets and purses taken. I didn't need to fight him, I simply displayed that I have the ability to defend myself, an awareness of his actions & willingness to follow through. Pre-emptive action is an important to deter criminal and social violence at its root...

 

[Allen a.k.a. Destroyer]

I know it's been said several times and different ways, but... First off, just to beat a dead horse...
Thinking like a predator enables the prey to remove the opportunity. It may feel a little weird at first, but as long as you don't take such thoughts beyond surface level and start acting on those: "Hey, this looks like a good spot to attack somebody from!" thoughts, then you're gonna be ok. So don't worry about becoming a monster for thinking a little like one sometimes.

"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche (I love that they used this in Tekken 6 X)
:deadhorse
Mission accomplished. :uhyeah:

I'm not a big fan of the color code system of awareness, its one thing to look at a situation and say you should X-color/level of awareness in hind sight of situation-Y to get result Z. Instead I always tell people to use Educated Awareness. The Educated part is the most important, since few people have not clue as to what they need to aware of.

That said your first training form of awareness is/should be education on the most likely weapons, approachs and tactics of aggressors. Since your 3 times more likely to be attacked by a friend, aquantance or family member that should be somewhat easier to pick up thier body language. Body language is pretty general in human nature so...

Again, I can't reccomend this book enough.
http://www.ymaa.com/publishing/books...armed_assaults
Interesting side note: I just had this approved as a textbook for my self defense class (for credit) in the university. :wink1:

Some great drills there, Draven. One of my area instructors does one like a circle of death, but I like the circle of light scenario even better. Definitely gonna get some strobes and try that, thanks! lol And good job keeping a "yellow" awareness level in that walk you took! lol I don't think about the colors much either, I just know I should be aware of who and what's around whenever I'm out and about. Awareness leads to suspicion, suspicion to situation (or not... if such is the case). De-escalate or action from there.

I haven't come across a good book just on body language yet... Cops are trained to pick up on such (gonna ask the next one I see about that, maybe there's a book), but it just comes naturally for professional athletes and serious martial artists (more than the weekend warrior). But if you train constantly you should be able to pick up "vibes" from people more easily than "normal" people. You ever feel like someone was watching you, then turn to look directly at them as they were? Just listen to your instincts as was said before.

A lot of great stuff in this thread.

 

[Draven]

Actually, (all that I know of) most LEOs get crash courses in body language under the interogation training, its all little signs things we all know but don't consider. Like figiting is a sigh of nerviousness & avoiding eye contact is a sign of submission or intimidation.

I had to take a look at psychology, sociology & the US FM on interogation to get what learned...

 

[LuckyKBoxer]

Other then recommend a few books that I think were already mentioned...
Gift of Fear by Gavin De Becker and Meditations on Violence by Rory Miller, I am kind of unsure what to tell you.. I am constantly amazed at peoples inability to spot danger or dangerous situations..
I grew up in a rough atmosphere, and chose to follow a dangerous path for a while, so I think I learned out of necessity and experience.. I do not recommend that to anyone, but am unsure how exactly to inbed that into a person.... I think it is one of the most important aspects in martial arts that is overlooked as well.... sorry I can't be of any service on this one at the moment..