Conversations with friends, family, and co-workers have been quite interesting since I began to post personal safety and crime prevention articles. In those conversations, some have told me that they’re so fed up with violence that they would actually welcome a confrontation. One friend said, “None of these little street thugs would have a chance!” I find this point of view odd, especially since most of the instructors of martial arts and self-defense that I know believe greatly in avoidance over confrontation. They consider physical defense a last resort. Practicing prevention methods while having knowledge of self-defense tactics is my ideal. If you have a choice, you should choose prevention, and here are a few reasons why.

Don’t be late
Regardless of how efficient you are with your defensive tactics, they are still actions that, by definition, are dictated by someone else. Prevention methods, implemented properly prior to the confrontation, can help you avoid a situation in which you are forced to defend yourself. Self-defense is usually an act of tardiness or damage control. Look at it this way. You don’t want to be late to work, dinner, or an important meeting, do you? Not practicing violence prevention techniques is like being late when your safety — and maybe even your life — is at stake.

Disadvantages of Self Defense
You are at a great disadvantage when forced to fight an attacker. Here are some examples:

a. If you have to recover from the first assault, you are at a disadvantage.
Without prevention tactics, the attacker gets to strike first. You have to consider your ability to recover from the first phase of an attack and implement your tactics. Prevention methods can help you be aware prior to attack.

b. If an attacker has an agenda and you don’t, you are at a disadvantage.
An attacker may have a plan that makes his or her actions very deliberate. This makes those actions more focused and efficient than yours, unless your actions were prevention methods. Using prevention methods gives you your own deliberate agenda.

c. If an attacker is well experienced in using violence and you have never been in a “real” fight, you are at a disadvantage.
If attackers have their freedom — if they’ve never been caught or locked up — there is every chance that they are very good at what they do. If violence against unsuspecting victims is their livelihood or “craft,” and you have never been in a confrontation where your personal safety was at stake, you are likely to commit fear-generated behaviors that are nothing more than panic. Their actions, in contrast, are likely to be more conscious and therefore more effective. Even if the only prevention method you have used is to visualize an attack, it can make a huge difference.

Criminal tactics that are difficult to defeat with just self-defense.
Here are a few actions that pose significant problems if you haven’t exercised prevention methods.

a. The element of surprise
Even if you are the “Shogun Assassin”, you will commit involuntary flinching motions that can be used against you. Prevention methods that increase your situational awareness can solve this.

b. Nothing to lose
Some criminals have no regard for their own lives and risk everything in attacks. In any fight, the person willing to take the most risk usually has the advantage.

c. Addictions / Impaired mental states
An attacker can have an urge or mental impairment that overpowers your urge to protect yourself. In addition, they could have an altered state of reality because of substance abuse that causes “freakish” strength or ignorance of pain. The most well known substance that causes this is phencyclidine, also known as “PCP,” “Angel Dust,” or “Shurm.”

d. Deadly weapons
Self-defense tactics will be less successful when an attacker has a dangerous weapon.

e. Accomplices
After you successfully defend yourself against an attacker, one or more of his accomplices joins the fight. I mentioned this in my recent post about robberies.

These are all tactics used by violent criminals that self-defense alone cannot defeat. They are, however, easily defeated if you can avoid an attacker in the first place.

Know when fighting is necessary
Defending oneself physically does have its time and place. If you are unable to avoid a confrontation and attackers demand personal property… give it to them! No matter what it is, it can be replaced. If they want to take you somewhere, fighting is necessary. Wherever they want to take you, something horrible will likely happen there. Don’t fight for a wallet, but definitely fight to stay free.

Use what will work
If you are going to add some form of self-defense to your skill set of prevention methods, use something likely to work in a street fight. Next week I will list a few forms of self-defense and martial arts that work well if you’re ever attacked by a violent offender.

If possible, learn self-defense tactics. Here are five goals for establishing self-defense parameters and two techniques that I personally recommend. They can make a huge difference if you are ever the victim of a violent attack. Just remember to never allow them to create delusions of grandeur or make you less aware.

Other self-defense resource topics:
7 Methods for Surviving an Attack Some expert suggestions for fending off would-be attackers.

Self-defense: Tools of the trade: Personal safety weapons and their pros and cons.