04/06/2022
The most critical skill in self defense is awareness. This includes both preparation and alertness in the moment. Part of our 8 week Self Defense course homework is to understand your Risk Zones. We don’t really want to live our entire lives looking over our shoulder for an attack. That kind of long-term anxiety hurts you whether you ever get attacked or not! Instead we want to analyze your personal and public Risk Zones and enter a state of heightened alertness when you are in one.
A Risk Zone is any place, person, or situation that makes you more vulnerable. When you go into an empty stairwell when leaving work late, that’s a Risk Zone. When your spouse’s cousin that you don’t know very well wants to come in while you’re alone, that’s a Risk Zone. When the parking lot is full and you have to park in the back, that’s a Risk Zone. Any time a person or circumstance would create a situation where you’re isolated, you’ve entered a Risk Zone. It doesn’t mean you’re getting attacked. It means that you’re at increased vulnerability, and you need to be extra alert, and look for a way to avoid it if possible.
Ideally, you’d analyze these ahead of time, identify places you’re at risk and then modify your schedule to avoid them. If you like to run at 5:30 a.m. and there’s a trail through a park near your house that’s perfect, you may determine that it’s not the best place to run at that time because it isolates you and provides hiding places for an attacker. You could look for other times to run there when there are more people, or consider a better lit area where there are few hiding places and help is near. If you determine that the park at 5:30 is your only option, then you just want to be on alert, know where it’s most isolated, and don’t wear anything that restricts your hearing or vision.
If you haven’t planned ahead or go somewhere new, you’ll just need to scan for risk zones and avoid them or increase your alertness. If you go into the grocery store at dusk and when you come out you see that it is now dark and a large vehicle has blocked the visibility of your car, recognize that the once safe parking spot is now in a Risk Zone! It’s fine to ask the security guard to come with you and have a look, or to wait until another shopper is walking down that row as well.
Remember that the goal isn’t to be scared all the time! We want to prepare ourselves with awareness and practice so that we know what we will do in a crisis, and can relax. As long as we stay aware of Risk Zones before we enter them, and keep our eyes and ears open, we can avoid most self-defense situations before they start and preserve our adrenaline instead of being anxious all the time.