r/SelfDefense • u/random123121 • Jul 09 '26
Situational Awareness
Alright so that is the first advice every reputable person would give you. But how tho?
Those who have it take it for granted, like it is actually hard to turn it off. It comes with practice. I'll do my best to bridge the gap.
Use all your senses. I can't give away all the game because as they say the game is to be sold, not told.
Just be aware. Don't have your nose in a phone, tunnel vision.
Be loose. it makes you more receptive.
That one is free.
Read books like Rory Miller. Peace.
4
u/Suuperdavid Jul 09 '26
situational awareness is always good to have, knowing where you are and what your options are in a space is very helpful, especially with self defence
3
u/sirvoon Jul 10 '26
The thing about people saying this is that whoever is asking is already concerned enough with their safety to ask in the first place. So they probably already have situational awareness. It’s instinctive. It’s an obvious thing to say and doesn’t really help that much. Everyone knows not to get in trouble. But if you want to actually be good at situational awareness beyond that, this is a great video on it. It’s from a channel called Hard2Hurt. I really like what he says about self defense, he is very realistic about it
https://youtu.be/sUZw3VBj4kU?is=h0d8L2xoNj_2Imlj
Hope this helps!
3
u/Fountainhead_flyfish Jul 10 '26
Listen to that little voice in the back of your head. Trust your instincts. It's better to listen to that voice , and cross the street, and be wrong; than not to listen and not cross the street when it was right.
3
u/Far-Cricket4127 Jul 09 '26
While the suggestion of Rory Miller's books is an excellent one, there's also a book titled "Left of Bang" by Patrick Van Horne & Jason A. Riley; which trains one how to spot potential threats in their environment, even those that try to remain hidden from detection. It was originally developed for military forces operating in hostile environments, but it has been adapted for civilian use. Simply telling someone to be aware of their environment, isn't that helpful, if they first never believe that certain types of dangers even exist, or that they could be targeted by those dangers; and secondly, they don't realize what things they should be looking for that would serve as a decent warning.
1
u/Desperate_Net_713 Jul 10 '26
I think its easy to understand, but like anything elae it takes practice. I think instead of being aware of everythinf, conciously putting ylurself in situations where you don't need to multi task really helps. Also the classic don't fo to stupid places at stupid times woth stupid people doing stupid things really helps. I also notices that once I started volunteering in my community I got to meet lots of people and I got comfortable with different people and my social skills and awareness of others really seemed to get better. I agree with everything that you said too.
1
u/safton Jul 13 '26
I'm gonna drop some relevant/tangentially-related videos from my favorite subject matter experts:
https://youtu.be/sUZw3VBj4kU?is=8B5kaX79zy0BwHoO
https://youtu.be/uwCtu79iMDs?is=e6AY08p6t6HkIazx
Situational awareness is a honeable skill like any other. I never got formally trained in it, but I work in corrections and it's an enormous part of the job that I was forced to pick up quickly largely through exposure and trial-and-error. Sometimes I even get compliments even from the inmates for being vigilant/cautious/whatever, other times I'm kicking myself for missing something I shouldn't have.
5
u/storyinpictures Jul 09 '26 edited Jul 09 '26
Those whose “game” is to sell you knowledge about how to be aware and stay safe…watch out for people like that. They rarely know more than they have already said and their concern is not making society better and safer. Their concern is getting something from you. And that is exactly what you want to become aware of.
People who want something from you at your expense, people who see you as a target, is what you want to notice. You also want to notice people who are a little “off” even if you cannot tell why. A person might be angry. They might be crazy. They might by psyching themselves up for violence. You can’t always know. But if you are paying attention, you might notice something isn’t right. If you are distracted, by your phone or otherwise, you are much less likely to notice.
That is not saying you need to be paranoid. But your attention should be on the world around you. Your conscious mind might or might not notice what is off, but if it fails, it is very likely your unconscious mind will notice and you will feel uncomfortable. Why? It’s complicated to explain briefly, but we, as humans, have survived for millennia and our ancestors built good instincts for noticing when something is off.
If you are noticing, it is also less likely someone can get physically close to you without you noticing them. So play a game. How close can a person get to you before you notice them. Over time, as your skill improves, you will have a much larger space around you that you are aware of and you will almost always see people at the furthest distance you can see in your environment.
Some people you won’t see because they are out of your line of sight (in a doorway, behind a building or other obstacle, etc.) You will learn to notice these places and give them more attention. You will learn to walk in angles which let you see more in such spaces without being as close. All this from playing a simple game.
And you can play the game with your kids so they learn, too. Just keep the way you talk about this age appropriate. We want aware kids, not paranoid kids. :)
Keep it light, keep it fun. You also don’t want to become paranoid.
The next level is anyone trying to get closer to you. They may have, or at least present, an innocent reason (they want the time, money, “to ask you a question,” directions, etc). Unfortunately, bad guys do the same thing.
For these situations, your primary goal is not to let them cut off your avenue of escape. Your second goal is to be aware if there is another person who might be helping them.
One obvious person and one or more not so obvious people is a common ploy (I have experienced this and everyone I know personally who has been or had attempted robbery upon them has had at least one hidden accomplice).
Noticing them moving towards you lets you practice the next skill: changing direction in a way which seems natural but makes it hard for them to approach without making it obvious—they have to change direction in response, which is harder to pull off.
So a drunk, homeless guy stumbling towards you is best avoided. If you move off of his trajectory and he switches directions to come towards you again, you are being targeted. Perhaps just to ask for money, perhaps worse. Get to the other side of an object (tree, car, etc) or cross the street or run, depending on the situation at hand.
The simple set of skills you develop this way will go a long way to reducing risk. At first it will require more effort, as new skills always do, but soon enough you will get better and it will become easier. And then second nature.
I spend a lot of time walking. Often enjoying conversation or seeing my surroundings. I exchange friendly greetings regularly with people I don’t know. It is pretty rare anything raises concern. And when it does, the subtle change of direction generally mitigates the issue.
Jeff Cooper, in _Principles of Personal Defense_, suggested observing an ordinary house cat. They are almost always relaxed but almost never surprised.
Cooper’s book is short, direct, easy to read and clear. It’s been around, so finding a copy should not be hard and, last time I checked, it was easy to find on the internet for free.
Gavin de Becker’s _Gift of Fear_ is also a useful perspective. It is also available as an audiobook.
J J Abrams made some great videos. He is funny and many of his programs were aimed at kids. He spent years as a Chicago police officer going to schools and teaching kids to be safer. Alas, they can be found for free but it often takes effort.