I want to share a true story with you that one of my senior students shared with me today. Upon arriving to class, he informed me that he had dealt with an altercation at work in which two of his clients were fighting. When he verbally intervened and instructed them to leave, one of the clients turned and began to slowly approach my student. While trying to talk the client down, my student was also observing the client’s hands, posture, and demeanor in order to determine what their intentions were and anticipate what might come next. When the client had eventually gotten to within about two feet away, my student said that he observed the client turning his right shoulder away with his right hand down by his side and his weight shifting.
My student picked up on these cues and recognized that there was a good chance that the client was about to swing at him, considering that the client had also thrown multiple punches at the other client earlier. While continuing to talk the client down, my student swiftly seized the client’s right arm before he could punch and applied a shoulder lock. He was then able to restrain the client until the police arrived and took the client into custody.
While he was happy that the tactic had worked, which we had just practiced earlier this week, he was even more pleased that he had been able to anticipate what the client was about to do and preemptively take control without ever having to throw a punch. Neither my student, nor the client was injured. This was something that we had also worked on in class when I told him that “awareness is key”. While his technical and tactical skills certainly came in handy, being able to diagnose the situation and choose the correct response proved to be even more valuable.
Having the technical and tactical skills to defend your self is great. However, knowing when to use those skills and which tactics to employ is a whole different story. Being aware of what is happening and knowing how to diagnose a situation is even more important when it comes to knowing which techniques, tactics, and strategies to use. After all, awareness is key.