Training in Context: Recognizing an Attack
Rob PincusEveryone knows that recognizing an attack as early as possible is vital to survival during a fight. But, the earlier you recognize an attack in imminent, the less likely others around you, or even video cameras, are to pick up on why you took defensive action. Learning “pre-contact” cues to physical violence can not only keep you safer, they can also help you articulate why you knew you had to use force to defend yourself before someone actually threw a punch or got a knife out of their pocket.
Here's another important video from the Personal Defense Network. Let's talk about cognitive responses to fear and pre-contact cues. And as part of your awareness and your recognition of what to defend yourself against, you wanna think about what is a plausible attack posture. For instance, if you think of someone throwing a punch at somebody who's in this position as someone who is about to punch you as if they were in a boxing ring or in a martial arts practice area that's probably not the best way to think about recognizing an attack. In order for me to get into this position where I'm gonna throw a punch, I'm gonna have to turn my body, lower my center of gravity and before that big punches thrown with that big strong arm, that big lunging punch or someone trying to tackle you this shoulder is infinitely likely to move down.
And if we look at a bunch of surveillance camera videos or law enforcement dash camera video is about what real attacks look like. And we start looking frame by frame by frame, chances are right before that person throws that punch or tries to tackle that person, we're gonna see this shoulder go down so this would be an example of a great pre-contact cue. Learning pre-contact cues for typical attacks is incredibly important. If someone's standing and talking to you and they're gesturing and using their hands and then all of a sudden their hand goes to their pocket and you don't know why, it could very well be that they have a weapon in their pocket. And that that's the pre-contact cue to someone reaching into that pocket to draw that weapon, something like that is gonna save you much more readily than reacting to a knife attack.
A knife attack is way late in that reaction curve as opposed to being able to understand that someone reaching into their pocket might be a problem. And that's not to say you're going to attack and defend yourself from everyone who reaches into their pocket but you might raise your hands in preparation for defense. You might lower your center of gravity and bring the hands closer to your eye line, even if as if to say, sir, I'm a little afraid right now, could you just step back? That's very non-violent, this is not threatening but it's very close to something that you could lead into an attack with or a defense or even by some time with this arm while you go back to get your firearm out to defend yourself. Recognizing pre-contact cues, being aware of how natural attacks actually start and how people actually prepare to hurt you is an important part of awareness, important part of recognition, an important part of understanding the context of your self-defense.
Check out more videos just like this one at the Personal Defense Network.
Once again, a very good tip. My father called the dropping of the shoulder "telegraphing the punch". Professionals try to avoid that. If someone is approaching me and they put their hand in a pocket is liable to make me very nervous.