The Best Skill to Practice for Self Defense: Situational Awareness Podcast 323

Situational Awareness is the one thing that was drilled into me in Law Enforcement and the Military. It is the one thing that directly overlaps from law enforcement, military, and self defense. Why? It is the one thing that will allow you to buy time in an emergency. And time is everything when someone is trying to take your life.

Two things to work on, improve, and practice situational awareness are to notice normal so you can see the abnormal, and ask why people are there at that point in time. What are they doing?

If you work on these two easy things you can move towards mastering your situational awareness and your self-defense.

Noticing normal lets you see when something else is missing or coming. Everywhere you go, there is a normal or baseline. Anything outside that rhythm should stand out to you if you are paying attention.

The one law enforcement always talks about is when it is 100 degrees out and someone walks in wearing a trench coat buttoned up. In the military, it was always looking at what the people are doing around you. If people are leaving quickly or don’t show up like normal they probably know something that you don’t in a foreign land.

A couple of Marines wrote an entire book about it called “Left of Bang”. If you want to know more about noticing normal and then noticing when something is out of place, it is a great book.

The second is to ask “why is this person here?” At first, you will suck at it, but as you do it a bunch you will be able to figure out the stories behind people at the local stop and rob you are at to get gas and a drink. If you do it for a while, you will find that one person that is there to victimize someone. Hopefully, you will figure it out before they victimize you.

Bad guys come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and genders. You have to figure out why that person is looking at you, why they are there, and what they are going to do. If you know this before that person acts, the encounter slows way down and you can buy the most valuable thing in a violent encounter, time.

When you answer that why question you get in front of the reaction curve and you can make that person react to you instead of you having to react to them.

Listen to the podcast to get more examples and motivation on how to be better at your situational awareness (SA).

Thanks for listening, don’t forget to check out the Shooter’s Club, and if you need ammo check out Lucky Gunner.

Stay Safe,

Ben

Situational Awareness is the one thing that was drilled into me in Law Enforcement and the Military. It is the one thing that directly overlaps from law enforcement, military, and self defense. Why? It is the one thing that will allow you to buy time in an emergency. And time is everything when someone is trying to take your life.

Two things to work on, improve, and practice situational awareness are to notice normal so you can see the abnormal, and ask why people are there at that point in time. What are they doing?

If you work on these two easy things you can move towards mastering your situational awareness and your self-defense.

Noticing normal lets you see when something else is missing or coming. Everywhere you go, there is a normal or baseline. Anything outside that rhythm should stand out to you if you are paying attention.

The one law enforcement always talks about is when it is 100 degrees out and someone walks in wearing a trench coat buttoned up. In the military, it was always looking at what the people are doing around you. If people are leaving quickly or don’t show up like normal they probably know something that you don’t in a foreign land.

A couple of Marines wrote an entire book about it called “Left of Bang”. If you want to know more about noticing normal and then noticing when something is out of place, it is a great book.

The second is to ask “why is this person here?” At first, you will suck at it, but as you do it a bunch you will be able to figure out the stories behind people at the local stop and rob you are at to get gas and a drink. If you do it for a while, you will find that one person that is there to victimize someone. Hopefully, you will figure it out before they victimize you.

Bad guys come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and genders. You have to figure out why that person is looking at you, why they are there, and what they are going to do. If you know this before that person acts, the encounter slows way down and you can buy the most valuable thing in a violent encounter, time.

When you answer that why question you get in front of the reaction curve and you can make that person react to you instead of you having to react to them.

Listen to the podcast to get more examples and motivation on how to be better at your situational awareness (SA).

Thanks for listening, don’t forget to check out the Shooter’s Club, and if you need ammo check out Lucky Gunner.

Stay Safe,

Ben