Disclaimer: I’ve never been mugged, and only noticed a few possible attempted muggings. All this comes from a few years of martial arts training roughly halfway between RBSD and TMA.
If you can’t avoid walking past someone who makes you feel uncomfortable, walk quickly and over-emphasize the motion of walking: Swinging your arms shoulder-high automatically defends against many attacks.
The “interview” phase of an attack takes different forms. Between young males in a bar, it’ll be an escalation through verbal, postural, and physical aggression. In a profit-driven crime, it will be subtler:
If someone’s on an intercept course for you, move perpendicular to their path and see if they track you. If they’re getting within 20 feet, direct them to one side or the other by pointing, or put up a hand in the “stop” gesture. Depending on the circumstances, either tracking or ignoring your “stay away” gesture, alone, provides a strong enough likelihood ratio to justify fighting or fleeing. Don’t turn your body away or close your eyes; that may turn away the wrath of an alpha, but it’ll get you eaten by a predator.
another edit:
Anytime anybody has a Monday or Wednesday evening free in Tampa Bay, get in touch. My instructor’s a kinesthetic genius and loves working defense in the liminal space between the intention to attack and the first punch.
In the case of finding yourself within a few paces and under threat of a predator:
I have one personal experience with a man with malicious sexual intentions following, talking, making body contact, shying away, being told to fuck off, and continuing to follow me while unbuckling his belt (I am a male).
The solution (while I could have ran, I was not content with the chance of being caught off balance or seeing where I live or anything like that) came in holding my ground, raising a clenched fist and very present-mindedly yet firmly agressive, stating “I will fucking hurt you”.
It seems likely that making that kind of explicit statement triggers a cost-benefit analysis in a predatory mind who is looking for pleasure (maybe both sexual and sadistic) without physically engaging them: verbally letting them know that you are ready, capable, and that any attempt will involve YOU hurting THEM.
Disclaimer: I’ve never been mugged, and only noticed a few possible attempted muggings. All this comes from a few years of martial arts training roughly halfway between RBSD and TMA.
If you can’t avoid walking past someone who makes you feel uncomfortable, walk quickly and over-emphasize the motion of walking: Swinging your arms shoulder-high automatically defends against many attacks.
The “interview” phase of an attack takes different forms. Between young males in a bar, it’ll be an escalation through verbal, postural, and physical aggression. In a profit-driven crime, it will be subtler:
If someone’s on an intercept course for you, move perpendicular to their path and see if they track you. If they’re getting within 20 feet, direct them to one side or the other by pointing, or put up a hand in the “stop” gesture. Depending on the circumstances, either tracking or ignoring your “stay away” gesture, alone, provides a strong enough likelihood ratio to justify fighting or fleeing. Don’t turn your body away or close your eyes; that may turn away the wrath of an alpha, but it’ll get you eaten by a predator.
another edit:
Anytime anybody has a Monday or Wednesday evening free in Tampa Bay, get in touch. My instructor’s a kinesthetic genius and loves working defense in the liminal space between the intention to attack and the first punch.
In the case of finding yourself within a few paces and under threat of a predator:
I have one personal experience with a man with malicious sexual intentions following, talking, making body contact, shying away, being told to fuck off, and continuing to follow me while unbuckling his belt (I am a male).
The solution (while I could have ran, I was not content with the chance of being caught off balance or seeing where I live or anything like that) came in holding my ground, raising a clenched fist and very present-mindedly yet firmly agressive, stating “I will fucking hurt you”.
It seems likely that making that kind of explicit statement triggers a cost-benefit analysis in a predatory mind who is looking for pleasure (maybe both sexual and sadistic) without physically engaging them: verbally letting them know that you are ready, capable, and that any attempt will involve YOU hurting THEM.