I was attacked last night, and didn't know what to do!

Originally posted by bigcountry08
Last night I had my mind shaken to the core. As I was taking my nightly walk after my run, just minding my business enjoying a podcast of "Stuff You Should Know", some stupid half drunk thug kid ran up behind me and stomped as hard as he could. Startled me a little and ticked me off a lot, so I turned around sneered at him and walked away, while his buddies whooped and hollered for a minute or two at me.

As I walked away I realized something, I never heard a thing until he was right there behind me. So he could basically have done anything to me and I would have been helpless. I like to think of myself as a prepared survivalist. I know most of the methods of creating fire, I know how to find/ gather water, I know basic trap making, and how to make basic tools and weapons out in the bush. I know basically everything I would ever need to survive in the wilderness except how to fight.

Sure I'm athletic, I run 20 miles a week, weight train 4 days a week, and do yoga 3 days. But I don't really know the first thing about fighting someone, I have only ever been in one fight in my life and that was in second grade so I don't really count it. I know a lot about pressure points, and the limitations of human joints, but I don't really know how to utilize it in combat.

So I was sitting on the couch last night after the incident trying to make it seem like the whole thing didn't bother me. Trying to think of what I would have done, and I came to the conclusion that I didn't know. I had no clue what I would have done if that guy had come up behind me and tripped me to the ground or just flat out kidney punched me. So I now realize that I need to do something about this. I need to know what to do in order to take down another human being.

edit on 31-8-2012 by bigcountry08 because: (no reason given)

I never walk around phased out with # in my ears. There's your first mistake. Most of society now does that. It's unsafe for you and a disservice to society. No one wants to be engaged any more.

Nobody is totally prepared. Everyone has a weakness. Keep in mind that nothing happened in this case and remember if TSHTF does happen, don't be going out for a walk alone for no reason.

It's good that you didn't get all mad and try to beat the kid, his friends most likely would have stomped ur head a few times after they got you to the floor.

Next time, run with headphone in your ear

The best way to scare off people looking for trouble is to give them the craziest looking smile, eyes wide open, teeth showing, the whole nine yards. If you're buff and they think you're crazy, 9/10 times they will haul ass thinking you are going to kill them.

reply to post by bigcountry08


Dont run at night!! Stay Safe!! NC

#1 Congratulations! You are awake to real life now. You've been attacked and you have gotten through it. Life in its most basic form is a struggle, every second of every minute of every hour, etc., etc. The world is full of animals, most walk on four legs. As you have discovered some animals have two legs.

#2 Time to make a decision. Are you going to curl up in a ball and let the turds of the world have their way with you? They will if given half a chance. Many people in the westernized countries try to see life in an idealistic manner of do no harm or everyone is good deep inside. That isn't real though. There are people out there who will kill you for the stuff in your pockets. The sooner you realize and understand that, the faster you will move to step 3.

#3 Now that you understand #2 and have made the decision to move on, time to do some head work. This is simple but takes some time. Self defense is mostly in your head. Knowing fancy moves (many of which come naturally) is not enough. You have to begin to mentally run through scenarios in your head to start to acclimate your mind to fighting. Trained fighters know how to turn on their aggression and turn it off again. Boxers do it, UFC fighters do it, the Army's DELTA and Green Berets do it and the NAVY SEALS do it. How? They have trained their minds to do so through mental war-gaming. That is.. mentally presenting to yourself different scenarios of conflict and then deciding what you would do about it. This needs to be done in everyday situations, everyday. Decide how to make yourself safe and what you are willing to do to make it so. Do this enough and after a while, you'll be doing it without thinking about it. I know this seems very simplistic, but it really does work. It's the same thing as "mental imagery" you hear the pro athletes talk about.

#4 Learn some techniques. Here are some great videos from the cross-fit website. www.crossfit.com... Go down to the COMBATIVES section and start going through those videos. Tony Blauer and John Hackleman (the instructors) are some of the best out there. They teach you how to not just fight but how to get yourself out of bad situations without fighting. Find yourself a friend to practice this with. You'll be surprised how fast you start picking this stuff up. It sounds like you are in better shape than about 60% of most Americans so you have that going for you.

#5 BE POSITIVE! Positive that you are going to kick the s&!% out of anyone who tries to harm you or someone you care about. Remember, the police aren't going to protect you. They usually aren't around when you need them and just end up filling out the paperwork after the crime has been committed. Also, money isn't worth dying for. Don't get me wrong, I like money just as much as the next guy. However, if I have $5 in my pocket and a knife wielding meth-monkey wants it, I'm throwing it down and running like crazy.

I hope that never happens to you again. But, you HAVE to PREPARE yourself in case it does. Prepare yourself mentally and physically. Good Luck!

THE COLOR CODES OF SURVIVAL

THE WHITE STATE OF MIND. The white state of mind is a condition where the person is totally unaware of his or her surroundings and has zero tactical thoughts about his or her safety. This is an acceptable state to be in while at home, maybe watching television, maybe studying. We cannot be in an alert state of mind at all times. However, this particular state of mind is a condition where the person is totally unaware.

THE YELLOW STATE OF MIND. In this mental state the person develops and maintains a 360-degree state of awareness. He or she is aware, therefore, of those around him/her, the general environment, and is a general state of awareness. He or she is aware of subtle changes in the environment, subtle and other changes in the body language and verbal content of others. This state of mind might be considered the initial, necessary stage of the Survival Psyche.

THE ORANGE STATE OF MIND. In this stage the person, who had maintained the Yellow Mental State, recognized a sign or two that things might not be copasetic with his or her personal safety interests. In this state of mind, the mentally conditioned student, teacher, administrator, or security officer automatically says to her or himself that “what I see concerns me, so I’d better start thinking about what I will do if the worst case scenario goes down.” If the person already has a Survival Plan for a scenario like the one he or she anticipates, it will be a matter of just committing to that plan. If, however, his or her observations provides a potential scenario he or she had not previously anticipated, the person now has to come up with a plan that better matches the threat.

THE RED STATE OF MIND. The Survival Psyche requires that you or I go through the yellow and orange state of mind in order to effectively respond to a threat in this state of mind. In Red, whatever we observed in Orange that could have posed a threat has gone wrong! The proverbial sh*t has smashed hard into the proverbial fan! However, you and I are Spinal Tuned for Action by going through this simple process. By Spinal Tuned I mean that our minds and our bodies are connected &, in this state, once we think of our plan we can immediately take Action (4 A’s: Aware/Assess/Anticipate/Action). I am not certain at which stage we should present ourselves with the proper survival attitude or thought, but whenever it happens the prevailing belief is: “This might be a dangerous situation, but I am ready for it!”

THE BLACK STATE OF MIND, however, is what I call the Catastrophe State of Mind! How does the Catstrophe State of Mind happen? Simple, Dudes and Dudettes. Our student, parent, teacher, security officer, or administrator remains locked into The White State of Mind, even though the tactical reality has changed. Therefore, he or she never notices changes in the surroundings, changes in the situation. Well, this sucks because what happens is when the person is suddenly surprised by the lethal threat, he or she must endeavor to place him or herself in the Red State of Mind, which is crucial for him to be able to do everything he or she must do to escape and evade the threat. Problem is, no mind, no brain can do this without freaking out! But try it must, so our brain tries to get to Red and leaps over Yellow and Orange and even Red and lands somewhere smack in the middle of nowhere, which we call Black.
And why do we call this Nowhere State of Mind Black? Because, in the end, the effect of the unaware brain trying to leap to Red is that for several seconds the brain “blacks out.”

Like other people here have said, it's best not to leave yourself open by walking around with headphones on. Any kind of self-defense classes is better than none, even if you just go to the local YMCA. I felt safer at night after taking Tae Kwon Do, but I switched to Shaolin Kung Fu after that. The more you learn the better it is. Short range grappling is important to know because once someone gets into your space you have to react.
Shifu always said, if someone pulls a gun, run away as fast as you can, don't try to do fancy schmancy stuff like kicking the gun out of his hand. Shifu said no one has any business coming up to you on the street and be asking you the time of day or anything.
Always keep your gate closed, that is don't allow your internal organs to be exposed. That can mean if someone is standing in front of you, you turn so your side is toward him. (use your discretion of course as generally no one is going to attack at a wedding or something like that, but you never know, just gauge how creepy someone is)Cover your stomach heart lungs etc with your hands and arms. Be aware of who is around you always.
Raking the eyes, head butts, eye gouges with the fingers are all close range fighting methods recommended by Jeet Kune Do.
Ground fighting-if you find yourself on the ground, you can do a leg sweep at the other guys ankle and knock him down if he's standing over you.
Study martial arts movies, study the moves.
Use common sense. One night I was leaving a Walgreens at night and my car was parked on the side where it was darker and no good lighting. Some guy on the sidewalk started walking towards me and said something to me, and I turned and said no thank you and he got mad. He followed me toward the car. I got unnerved by then and started to think what I would do if he came at me. I thought he was a panhandler as there had been some at the store across the street. He said some profanities at me and then yelled that he only wanted to tell me my tires were low and so on. Well if he was so concerned for my welfare why was he suddenly saying profane things to me?
I have never regretted that I didn't give him the time of day. He could have been a kidnapper or a murderer or just a mugger or a panhandler but I guess I will never know.

reply to post by bigcountry08


First and foremost, do not listen to any one who tells you to fight back. Your pride and ' Techniques ' will get you killed. The only time you fight back is if you believe death is imminent.

I would post more, but i doubt it would be read because there is so much to already read. So ill just leave it at that.

I’d suggest training in a martial art, they’re becoming very popular since the UFC took off. Boxing, kick boxing, muay thai, BJJ - they’re all good and an incredible cardio workout. I’m no expert in any of it, but I think I would do pretty well in such a situation. When I walk on my own late at night, even with an iPod, I constantly look around and over my shoulder because you never know what thugs are out there and the things they’ll do. Always keep your wits, always be alert and aware of your surroundings. It’s not a hard thing to do, but at least you know what/who is around. I don’t really advocate carrying weapons around though, unless you’re a woman then that’s understandable.

The first thing you need to realize is that you can never prepare for every and all scenarios. You can prepare and train to fight some thug and end up getting attacked by some crazy dog or hit by a car.

Second, you need to learn to be more aware of your surroundings. Too many people walk around completely oblivious with their head in the clouds or with headphones on and the volume turned up full blast.

Third, protecting your self does not always mean fighting your attacker. You stated this person had friends with them. If you decided to fight them you probably would have ended up getting jumped by them all.

It sounds to me like you're not thinking rationally about this. Learning to fight and carrying weapons can end up getting you into more trouble than just a black eye and bruised ego.

Being prepared the best you can is a good start. But the best defense is to use your brain, be aware of your surroundings, think rationally, react accordingly.

Sometimes it's better to run and seek help from witnesses or law enforcement. Than it is to stand your ground and fight it out. Make a police report and complain to this guys landlord. Send these thugs a message that any harassment won't be tolerated.

Think about it. Before you end up in jail or the hospital.

Stay alert, stay alive is a pretty good motto to live by. Look into martial art schools in your area. Any school worth its salt will give you the tools to deal with situations like that and worse. Glad you weren't hurt and hope you get the knowledge you seek.

reply to post by milkyway12


i've read everyones comments here and appreciate all of them thankyou.

For those of you who say i wasent actually attacked, no I may not have been physically attacked, but mentally I was. its no diffrent than if someone ran at my child at the park acting like they were going to take/hit them and thenjust running away laughing i would take that as a full on attack on my child, and most parents here would also.

I did not relise how stupied it was for me to be running with both headphones in, I had actually seen the idiots in there back yard knocking some back before i went running and even commented to my wife. But then forgot about it when i left the house (very stupied of me I know), I use my running time as a meditaion time to clear lifes problems out of my head. but instread of focusing on my present safty I was more worried about past problems. something I will not do in the future.

thanks ats members.

hey, thats a fun idea!

wait till you see someone with buds in and sneak up and scare them!

those kids did you a favor by waking you up out of ignorance.

they did it because you were oblivious.

One thing I learned early on when walking during night time is makes use the light sources behind you and how they cast your shadow in front of you, especially if the light source is casting a longish shadow it gives you six feet or more of awareness of what is behind you or may be creeping up behind you.

Wolfie

reply to post by bigcountry08

You have to be extremely confident without fear & be constantly aware of our changing environment, while keeping a focus of your goals.

reply to post by bigcountry08


First things first, you kept your cool and walked away, good for you. Now I suggest you take a fighting class something simple and effective like boxing and grappling, these two work well enough together and are easy to learn. Next learn to use a knife, most countries allow you to carry a blade and trust me a knife in the right hands is devastating. Guns should only be used in the hands of a professional, to much collateral damage even for pro's. Good luck brother.

Just do MMA, people have suggested Muay Thai and Jiu Jitsu but MMA is the best all round combat sport and in street fights you have to be prepared for defending yourself standing and on the floor. Krav Maga would also be useful to learn.

Originally posted by bigcountry08
reply to post by Domo1

 

my neighborhood is fine, the trash just moved in about a month ago, my wife has seen the guy who rents the apartment (his friend is the one who did it)on his back porch which unfortunately faces ours with his hands down his pants while he's smoking. There real class acts. I have no problem with guns other than the cost, I own 2 already, but I don't have the funds for a handgun. I have read up on mace and pepper spray and to me there's to many variables that can turn the stuff against you and end up blinding yourself.

I'm not a tough guy and I don't try and act like one, I mean I'm not some sissy weenie either I just wasn't brought up to be a chest puffer, and swing at anything that comes at you.

He wasn't a tough guy either if he attacked you from behind. I would be careful going out at night, and just be aware of your surroundings. I think a handgun is a bad route anyway, it can end up getting used against you if two or more jump you. Martial arts are the best option IMHO.

I think many people here give robbers credit for being much nicer and less lethal people than they really are.

There is a major difference then a kid trying to make fun of an jogger and a robber.