Toughen Up Self-Defense Training Tips

“Reasonalby Perceived Vulnerability”

Component #5 of my self-defense system, involves “Self-Defense Response Options”.  This aspect of the program addresses the fact that there is a range of response options available to you in a volatile situation.

The key is to be clear on your moral and legal rights to defend yourself and, after assessing the situation, selecting the response strategy that is most likely to produce the results you want.

Part of the “Situational Assessment” process is assessing your “Reasonably Perceived Vulnerability.” (R.P.V)

Contrary to what many self-defense instructors might tell you, ALL self-defense situations are not created equal.  Some might backfire and make matters worse.  Other’s might later be considered excessive and bail you out of the sitaution but into hot water with the authorities.  Not all encounters are life-and-death situations that you have to gouge, stomp or slash your way out of.

Some encounters are minor in nature and not particularly threatening (especially if you are confident and well-trained).  Others are serious “no win” situations where your best chance of survival is to comply and do exactly what you are told.  The vast majority of them are somewhere in the middle.

The RPV is an assessment process that allows you to assess the situation you are in, and point you in the right direction of the most effective response strategies with the highest probability of producing a favorable outcome.

First a quick definition of the terminology I’m using:

REASONABLY PERCEIVED VULNERABILITY

Reasonably:  The ultimate standard of justifying a forceful response to protect yourself or someone else is whether your actions were “reasonable.”  A reasonable act is one that is consistent with what someone else, with the same experience and abilities as you, would do if presented with the same situation that you are in.

If your actions are not “reasonable” then you will have a hard time justifying them after the fact.  You’ll also be more likely to over react or under react in a self-defense situation.

Perceived:  The reason I use the term “perceived” is because you can only base your response strategies on what you perceive to be the case at the time of your decision.  I should add that those perceptions need to be “reasonable.”

If an assailant jams a plastic gun in your ribs and you respond under the perception that its real, it doesn’t matter in the justification of your actions that it turns out to be a toy.

If your assailant is “bluffing” by telling you that he is more dangerous and skillful than he is, and you believe him, it doesn’t matter that he was bullshitting when you pound the living crap out of him. You respond based on your perceptions at the time of the encounter.  What you find out AFTER the fact, is irrelevant in justifying your decision.

Vulnerability: refers to how much danger you you consider yourself to be in at the time of your response decision.  The encounter could be an unfortunate misunderstanding unlikely to result in anything more than a bit of belly bumping and shoving.  Or the encounter might be extremely intense, dangerous or life threatening.

You need to use the RPV process to get your head around the dynamics of the situation you’re in and select the most appropriate of the five response strategies available to you.

Your Reasonable Perceive Vulnerability will be affected by three categories of “Impact Factors.” Impact factors can make you either MORE or LESS vulnerable based on the totality of your situation.

1.  Differences between you and your assailant (s)

Differences compare your physical attributes against those of your adversary and how they will affect your ability to respond, control or escape from a situation. These differences include but are not limited to:

• Age - is the assailant younger or older than you are? 
• Gender - is your attacker a male or female?
• Size and strength - is your attacker bigger and stronger than  you?
• Numbers - are you outnumbered by your assailants, or is it a “lone wolf” confronting you and some friends?
• Fighting Skills (although you’ll know yours but probably not your assailant’s)

2.  Special Circumstances

Special circumstances are aspects about the encounter that affect your situation and the probability of success of various response strategies.  Once again, this is not an exhaustive list but should be enough to get you thinking. They include:

• isolation - are you alone or with friends or witnesses? 
• environment (escape routes, footing, lighting)
• access to weapons - does the assailant have a weapon?  Do you?
• physical position - maybe you’ve been knocked to the ground or grabbed from behind 
• someone in need of protection - are you in the company of someone that needs to be protected? 
• history or previous knowledge about the assailant?  Do you know this person to be violent? Do you suspect that he is willing and able to carry out his threats or is he bluffing?
• clothing - are you wearing a tight skirt, high heels or some other form of restrictive attire?

3.  Reaction or Assessment Time

A situation that is sudden and unexpected is perceivably more dangerous than something that you see unfolding or deteriorates over time.  As such, you will be less deliberate about spontaneous assaults than confrontations that escalate over time.

For example, you will probably consider being sucker punched or jumped from behind more threatening that being approached and confronted by a bully or accosted for some spare change by a panhandler.

I could provide you with a gazillion scenarios to drive home the importance of the RPV process. However, all you need to know for now is that this assessment process is a method of evaluating how much risk, threat or potential for harm you consider yourself to be in at the time of an encounter.

The bottom line is that how vulnerable you feel in a given scenario must be taken into consideration when assessing your responses options.

Chew on that for a while and we’ll expand on it in future posts.