Full Circle Martial Arts

ATTACKER/VICTIM PROFILES

Psychologists have known for years that human predators select their prey based on signals given off by their potential victims.  In a matter of seconds, a predator acquires a sense of who is and who isn’t a suitable target.  For every victim that is attacked, many more are passed over.

Predators are looking for an easy conquest.  The predator does not want the job to be more difficult or hazardous than it has to be.  Predators seek out those perceived as weak, submissive and unlikely to fight back.  They do not want resistance and certainly do not want to be injured themselves.  A sign of strength or defiance, whether blatant or implied, is often sufficient to cause the predator to abandon the process and look for a more cooperative victim.  Rapists, muggers, abusers and bullies look for someone they can dominate and control.

However, be aware that each situation must be judged individually and your response chosen accordingly.  What may dissuade one assailant may infuriate another.  Therefore you must have a total self-defense system that gives you a number of tools from which to choose the most appropriate response.

In 1984 researchers Betty Grayson and Morris Stein conducted a study to determine the selection criteria applied by predators when selecting their victims.  They showed a videotape of pedestrians to criminals incarcerated for violent offenses and asked them to identify people who would make easy or desirable victims.

Within seven seconds the victim selections were made.  At first the selection criteria were not readily apparent.  Some small women were passed over and some large men were selected.

Painstaking analysis of movement and body language revealed the following criteria:

STRIDE

People selected as victims had an exaggerated stride: either abnormally long or short.  They dragged, shuffled or lifted their feet unnaturally as they walked.

RATE

Potential victims tended to walk at a different rate than those not selected.  Usually they walked slower than the flow of pedestrian traffic.  Their movement lacked a sense of deliberateness or purpose.  However, an unnaturally rapid pace can project nervousness or fear.

FLUIDITY

Researchers noted awkwardness in a potential victim’s body movement: jerkiness, raising and lowering one’s center of gravity or wavering from side to side as they moved.

WHOLENESS

Potential victims lacked ‘wholeness’ in their body movement.  They swung their arms as if they were detached and independent from the rest of their body.

POSTURE

A slumped posture is indicative of weakness or submissiveness.

GAZE

A downward gaze implies pre-occupation and a general lack of awareness.

EYE CONTACT

Reluctance to establish eye contact can be perceived as submissive.

After seeing this information, some researchers suggested that people could be given ‘walking lessons’ to reduce the possibility of assault.  However, in the time it would take to teach someone to walk properly they could be taught to defend themselves and walk with actual self-confidence.  The idea was quickly and mercifully shelved.

To recap, an easy target is someone who lacks wholeness and purpose in their movement, is unsure and unaware.  The right information and a functional self-defense system can help build self-confidence.  Self-confidence that comes from knowledge and preparedness empowers a person.  An empowered person is not an easy conquest.

Eye contact and general situational awareness are important to personal protection.  Awareness; getting your head up and engaging your environment may be the single most important thing you can do to protect yourself.

ASSAULT PROFILES

In the overwhelming majority of cases victims and attackers are acquainted.  This does not mean they are friends.  The predator may be a friend of a friend, someone encountered regularly at the grocery store, health club or shop, or someone met at a party.  Generally speaking, attackers come in a couple of varieties; the ‘Bully’ and the ‘Professional’.

Bullies are pretty easy to see coming.  They are ego driven and tend to be boys or men 15 to 24 years old, between 5 feet 9 inches and 6 feet tall and 175 to 190 pounds.  The bully walks with an attitude; he owns the street.  His elbows are pushed out away from his body.  He is verbally aggressive and rude to people within close proximity.  Confrontations with bullies are usually triggered by eye contact.

The bully will often display ritualized combative signs like the splaying of arms to express exclamation, beckoning with their finger, nodding their head (sometimes in conjunction with finger beckoning), their eyes may bulge, they will acquire an innate fighting stance and close distance with you during the confrontation.

The professional predator is a different animal.  These people have a motive and can be described as serial muggers, serial rapists and serial killers.  They are harder to identify as they blend in well with society and prey on victims that have little or no situational awareness.  These predators rely on surprise as often as possible.  They do not want any kind of fight. Their goal is to completely overwhelm their victims.  The professional predator usually follows a seven-step target acquisition process.

First is victim selection.  They are looking for victims who are not paying attention.  Their attacks tend to occur in isolated locations.

Second, they begin to stalk their victim; sizing up their target.

Third, they utilize one of five positioning strategies to close with their target.

A)      Walk directly up to the victim to get as close as possible.  This is the most common tactic.

B)      They will cut the victim off from safe exits.

C)      They will surprise their potential victim.

D)      Two or more will utilize a pincer technique where one distracts while one circles the victim.

Or they may stand across from each other in a narrow space like a hallway, staircase or alley.

E)      One member of a pack or swarm will distract the victim while the others drift in.

Fourth, when surprise is not an option, several interview tactics may be employed.

A)      Reasonable Request.  The predator will ask for the time, a match, a cigarette, spare change, directions, etc.

B)      Distant Interview.  The attacker is assessing body language and awareness level.

The professional uses this method to identify targets of opportunity.

C)      Escalating Interview.  This usually takes place in a pack.  It starts small and builds quickly.  Weapons are usually involved.

D)      Bully Interview.  This usually starts with a glare followed by a bully question…”What are you looking at?”  This will be followed by an escalating interview.

Fifth, if steps one through four least to a positive assessment, then a surprise attack usually follow.  If there is a negative assessment, the attacker will usually abort and look for another, more suitable target.

Sixth, if a positive threat assessment has been made in step five, the attacker usually follows with verbal threats, sometimes aided by a weapon, accomplice or both.  The threats are very direct and extremely violent in nature using very coarse language.  The goal is to freeze the victim.  At this point attackers will often make a promise not to harm the victim if they comply in order to reduce the risk of detection.

Seventh, the attack begins.  Some attacks will be minor, intended to freeze the victim.  Most attackes will be severe and intended to completely disable the victim or worse.  The goal is to pre-empt any counter attack.

Attackers will often display combative signs that telegraph their intentions.  These signs are physical routines that attackers will, in most cases, go through just prior, during and after a physical confrontation (not unlike the animal kingdom).  These are good warning signs that let you know what your potential attacker may be contemplating.

An assault is possible when you see one or more of these combative signs.

• Head, neck and shoulders go back (looking bigger)

• Face gets red, twitches or jerks

• Teeth are bared

• Breathing is fast and shallow

• Beads of sweat appear around the face and neck

• Displays a thousand mile stare

• Movements are exaggerated

• Finger pointing and/or head pecking

• Appears to completely ignore potential victim

• Gives potential victim excessive attention during normal conversations such as direct, uninterrupted eye contact

• Goes from completely uncooperative to totally cooperative (people do not go from hot to cold, they de-escalate over time)

• Acts stoned or drunk

• Directs anger toward inanimate objects like tables, chairs and walls

If you find yourself confronted by a person displaying one or more of thse signs you will move into Condition Orange of the Awareness Color Spectrum, and will begin to feel the effects of adrenal stress response.  You should create distance. Your body language should be assertive but not threatening.  Don’t be afraid to let the person vent verbally.

An assault may be imminent when you see one or more of the following combative signs.

• Face goes from red to white (during physical confrontation blood leaves the surface of the body and moves to the muscles and internal organs)

• Lips tighten over teeth

• Breathing becomes fast and deep

• A change of stance

• Hands closed into fists (you may see the whites of their knuckles)

• Bobbing up and down or rocking back and forth on their feet (in order to mask the initial movement of their first strike)

• A targeting glance (the attacker may try to locate his first target)

• Dropping the head and chin (protecting the airway)

• Eyes narrow

• The aggressor freezes in place

• The aggressor lowers their center like a cat getting ready to pounce

• The aggressor sheds clothing (very common)

• The aggressor goes from full sentences to one syllable replies

When you see one or more of these, you may have only seconds to act before your attacker either launches an attack or runs away.  If leaving the danger zone is not an option and talking has not de-escalated the situation, then it may be reasonable to employ a preemptive first strike.  Remember that most attackers are ‘headhunters’.  They will try to disorient you with strikes to the head.  The average street assault is over in 5 to 15 seconds and is won with a blow to the head or neck.

This is a good time to review principles 6 and 8 of the 9 Principles of Self-Defense.  Principle 6 states… “Use of force is justified when a person reasonably believes that it is necessary for the defense of oneself or another against the immediate use of unlawful force.  However, a person must use no more force than appears reasonably necessary in the circumstance.”  Principle 8 states, in part… “Force is employed to create an opportunity to leave the danger zone.”

Attackers often have accomplices who will come to their aid.  If you engage an attacker and forget this fact, you will never see what will certainly hit you.  You must have an accurate mental map regarding street assault and you must understand what Adrenal Stress Response will do to your vision, hearing perception and motor skills.

The rush of adrenaline you get in the fight or flight response will make your palm sweat, your heart pound and will redirect physical resources to your large muscle groups, diminishing your fine motor skills.  You may feel the need to throw up or relieve yourself.

You will experience tunnel vision where your mind focuses on the threat to the exclusion of much of your ordinary peripheral vision.  It appears as if you are looking at the threat through a tunnel or tube and it requires conscious effort to see more than a few degrees to the right or left, up or down.  This can be a problem when dealing with multiple opponents or in seeing the police when they arrive.

Like tunnel vision, auditory exclusion also screens out everything extraneous to immediate survival.  You could also call this phenomenon ‘tunnel hearing’.  Once again, this is a problem when you are facing multiple opponents but it is particularly troublesome when the police arrive and are shouting instructions you can not hear.

Some people will experience tachypsychia which literally means ‘the speed of the mind’.  It is the distortion of perceived time.  In a live-or-death situation the mind kicks into overdrive, perceiving far more information than normal.  This causes the perception that things are happening in slow motion.  Tachypsychia can also work in the other direction.  We have all heard people say… “It all happened so fast!”

In some rare occasions with highly trained people a phenomenon called psychological splitting will occur.  When a person has trained to the point they can do something on autopilot – coupled with an event that triggers fight or flight – the body move so fast that the conscious mind can not keep up.  This can result in the perception of watching oneself in the third person.  Almost like watching yourself in a movie.

If you are successful in de-escalating the situation, look for these indicators that your opponent is no longer thinking about fighting.

• Putting hands up in front of body, palms out

• Face returns to normal color

• Shaking hands (can be slight or extreme…it is the bodies way of burning off the adrenaline, nor-adrenaline and epinephrine surging through the system in fight or flight mode)

• Turning their back to you with their hand covering their head (be sure you can see both hands, ifnot create distance immediately)

• Backing away

• Bowing of head and lowering of eyes

• Verbal tone, volume and rate slows back to normal and you hear a return to full sentences

• Falling to the ground in a fetal position

• Grooming gestures such as adjusting their clothing, playing with their hair or picking link off their clothing

Look for these signals in groups of two or more.  Keep in mind an experienced attacker might be able to mask some of these signs.  Also, if the voice and body are not in agreement, believe the body.  If your attacker is verbally claiming that he does not want to fight, but is showing ritualized combative signs, be ready.

5 Element Theory