Hopefully you’ll never need them, but it doesn’t hurt to be aware of these self-defence techniques
Within my group of girlfriends here in Playa, the subject of personal safety is one that occasionally arises. While we generally all feel very safe here, there have been times for every one of us, when walking home in the evening, or even during the day, that we could have benefited from some knowledge of self-defense.
We decided to meet up and take a short lesson in self-defense from an expert instructor with a background in the British military.
“You shouldn’t be here if you can’t handle getting hurt a little,” he joked before we got started. Wait! Weren’t we there to prevent that from happening? Of course, he just wanted to ensure that we created realistic situations to get out of. Perhaps we should also have been in sandals and shorts?
Our instructor taught us some valuable and relevant techniques, which I’ve outlined below:
- The main objective is to cause injury to your attacker as quickly as possible, in order to then escape from them.
- Moving into the conflict, rather than backing away, can help as you introduce the element of surprise and an attacker won’t expect this.
- Some sensitive points to aim for, to cause injury and/or immobilize your attacker, are the throat, the ears, behind the jawbone, above the collarbone, the groin and the shin.
- There are ways to escape from binds of different types that could potentially be used if you were overpowered and captured. Yes! We managed to free our wrists from a bind of duct tape in one swift, twisting motion. Try this, it’s empowering!
- If confronted with a knife or a gun, slight adjustments to the position of your body, moving it to the side, could prevent fatal injury.
- If you are anywhere near your car and your key fob has a panic button on it, you can press it to your head and it will connect and trigger the alarm at treble the regular distance. Test this out using the lock function rather than the alarm!
- Above all, try to be aware of your surroundings. Hold your head high, walk tall and smile at others; these alone can be powerful deterrents.
Stay safe!
Sara Jones
Spa, Wellness & Lifestyle Expert, Spa Consultant and Founder of Spa & Wellness MexiCaribe magazine
