The 5 W's of Personal Defense - When?

Who, what, when. When do we think about this happening, or do we not think about the when? I think that the notion of when is often kind of cartoony. In a dark place, you know, the middle of the night. There was a tragic story of a young woman, went shopping at a mall in a major urban center.

Bought a very expensive tennis bracelet. Followed out to her car. Shot and killed as she opened her car door. Stuffed in her car, her goods were taken, she was gone. Now a gunshot in a concrete parking structure must've sounded like the atomic bomb going off, but nobody noticed anything at two o'clock in the afternoon.

And so our notions of, you know, when are we at risk? I think they're more leftover from childhood fears. Fears of the dark, I can't see what's over there. It's more about our awareness of the world, than any particular time being more dangerous than the other. But again, there's sort of a floating scale.

Times that are appealing to a violent criminal actor, are exactly the opposite of the times that they're expecting us to be defending. And is that also then really becoming a factor of when you're around other people, or when other people may see you as a victim? It's more along the lines of, how appealing is the opportunity? You know, the violent criminal actor decision process is so stripped down that it's very modular. That it isn't bound to time and place, it's bound to situation.

If the perfect situation arises at a novel time or an unusual place. And they make a very quick judgment about yield, and the likelihood of success, and they go, or they no go. So time isn't really anywhere near as much of a factor as we think of. So when we say when, it's not when on a clock, or when on a calendar; it's when situationally, is much more important. Sure, and now the calendar does come into play.

I mean, especially at times around the holiday season. Much more expensive purchases, people are going to be out spending money, right? Those sorts of things, you know, are obvious here. The time when you're walking to your car from the store carrying $5,000 worth of electronics, you've crossed into a much different risk threshold, so that is a dangerous when. But one thing we can rest assured is that a time chosen by a violent criminal actor is chosen because it benefits him or her, and disadvantages, or operates to our harm.

Now I'm a big proponent of what I refer to as the Counter Ambush Training approach. Sure. That if you think you're gonna be on guard, if you think you're gonna see it coming, your training model is setting you up for failure. And I think you're hitting on some of that. That you can make a list of the times when you're at the most risk, and by definition, if you then go into them prepared, you're not at the most risk.

It's that other time when you thought the bad guy wouldn't be around. Exactly. Minimum and maximum advantage, those those invert the times. And you know the old joke, "When you least expect it, expect it.", but there's a certain amount of validity to that. And you know the old statement from the traditional Japanese martial arts, was that make your everyday stance your fighting stance, and your fighting stance, your everyday stance.

Now it's hard to do that physically, but it's not hard to do it mentally. And that being sort of prepared to be caught off guard, how do you deal with that? How do you convey that to people that are listening to what you're saying? We talk quite a bit about Cooper's color code, and I'm sure it's been covered in depth in any of your audience. But the threshold for living in condition yellow is actually much lower, and much more realizable than most people think.

Condition yellow, unquote. The simplest definition of it, I think is, core acceptance that the world is not as it ought to be, and that there are certain risks than I engender just by being alive and being out and about in this world. And if you really believe that, if you really believe that at any time... No opt outs, no timeouts, no I'll be careful in a minute. But if you truly live that way, recognizing that the world is not as it ought to be, that's pretty easily achievable On a mental basis Absolutely.

as opposed to maybe some of the physical things that people think of. A mentally unprepared person with a pistol, is much less likely to succeed than a mentally prepared man with a sharp stick. And what I see is, I think some people who go through the physical rituals of, "I'm gonna put this on. I'm gonna carry this thing. I'm gonna go to this place.

I'm gonna sit in this position. I'm gonna perform these three tasks.", but then they're staring at the menu, they're looking at their cell phone, they're talking to their friends. They're not exuding those physical characteristics 24/7. But we can't, I don't believe we can. But would you agree then, as long as mentally your brain is ready to switch back into that mode, that's what we're talking about?

Yeah. I made the joke once, "You can't order a latte in Sul.". You know, that you cannot assume that sort of posture and live a normal daily life. But can you recognize, you know, when you enter a restaurant, not fight with the fellows for who gets to sit with their back to the wall, but instead think about, "If I had to leave right now, where would I go?". So you can actually spend some time doing those those physical actions, but then accept that it's not a constant thing.

It's really very much a variable scale of alertness or awareness. Absolutely. But not even alertness. I mean alertness is great, awareness of our surroundings is great. I mean, it was once said that, "If I could know two things I'd be perfectly safe.

Who is around me, and what are they doing?". That would be great. But our awareness is divided constantly. In conversation we're less aware of the people around us. But if you've reached a decision point prior to that, knowing that the world is not as it ought to be, and something untoward might happen, what would I do then?

The simplest quickest measure. How would I leave this room? And if you can make that decision, it's a lot more important than some of the more showy aspects I think. So the when isn't necessarily an important time on the clock face during your day, it's really the fact that it could be any time. And it's going to be up to the perspective of the bad guy to decide when to act.

And we always need to be ready.