Quote Originally Posted by onimity View Post
So I'd say that the first step is to notice patterns like that. These sorts of attackers often watch a potential victim in advance, maybe days, maybe hours, maybe minutes. But if you notice in return, and let the person know that by making eye contact, that's the biggest defense you have. You have to keep an eye open in all directions and notice suspicious behavior before it becomes a problem.

Off your bike, be aware of where people are around you. Pay attention to your peripheral vision; protect your personal space. If someone a lot larger and stronger than you gets a good hold on you, your chances of escaping are not great. You have the best chance of preventing something like that from happening to you by reacting before you are physically restrained.


The things that I found extremely valuable (and you can learn these from a good self-defense class) were:

1) a greater sense of awareness, an ability to 'see' what sort of attack is coming from the preparation.

2) the ability to yell. It seems like it will be easy when attacked, but many people panic and can't get a sound out. And I don't just mean a little 'eek!' either, I mean yelling like a crazed psycho that is going to tear someone's eyeballs out. You have to practice that, you have to get over the embarrassment of yelling. The point is partially to attract attention of course, but the other aspect is that it can surprise an attacker enough that they can become momentarily flustered. And that's your chance for escape.

3) learn responses to basic attacks until you know them cold. The point here is not to fight back but to escape. What do you do when someone grabs your neck from behind? If you think about that after someone has grabbed your neck from behind it is already too late; you may have only seconds of consciousness left. You have to have a plan that is physical, not intellectual, which your body instinctively responds with. You don't have time to ponder the e-mail you read which suggested sticking your key in someone's gut. For this reason I'd suggest taking a self-defense course that gives you the chance to practice over time, to get routines down cold and to practice them in front of people who can evaluate your effectiveness.

My two cents,
Anne
The eye contact is a very important one. Last year hubby and I were in town. He needed to get money out of the hole-in-the-wall. I'm always vigilant at these things - there's been too many muggings in our town at ATMs. While he was getting his money out, I clocked a rather unkempt youth standing about 15 yards away, watching my husband. I turned and glared at him. He slunk off and stopped about 30 yards away in the opposite direction. I glared at him again. He disappeared. We walked up round the corner of the street into the main shopping area and who do we see again (by this time I'd warned hubby), but the same youth. This time I glared at him again but said in a loud enough voice for him to hear "Oh, look. Here's the police". He took off.

When I trained in Karate, we were lucky enough to have extra lessons in Street Self Defence. Karate is very good for teaching you self-discipline etc. but that is in a Dojo where there is plenty of room to manouvre. Often situations arise in real life where you wouldn't have that luxury.

We were taught how to escape from someone who pounces on you from behind and puts their arm round your neck. Grab his little finger (the weakest finger) and break it. Yes break it. Don't be squeamish on that. He'll let go - you run like h*ll.

Grab his wrist and dig your thumb as hard as you can (nail preferably) into the soft part where the wrist meets the hand. There's a nerve in there. Try it on yourself and you'll see what I mean.

If you're wearing stilletto shoes, whack your heel right down his shin and embed the heel of the shoe in his foot. If you follow the shin down, you should embed the heel of the shoe in the right place. Ouch! That'll hurt him and give you time to make your escape.

If both your arms are free, elbow him in the gut. Use both arms. One to do the elbowing, the other to drive back the elbow doing the elbowing. Should knock the wind out of him.

If you can, grab him by the Family Jewels and twist HARD. He should go down. As he goes down, grab his head and drive your knee as hard as you can into his face. Then run.

Go for his eyes. Poke them hard. Again, don't be squeamish. Worry about that later. Even better if you have long nails. If he gets blinded that's HIS problem.

While doing any of the above, yell and scream like a banshee like Onimity says. Attackers don't like noise.

Above all, keep a cool and calculating head although that can be easier said than done.

There are other ways of disabling an attacker but these could kill (Onimity if she's a high enough grade in the Martial Arts will know what I mean).

With many attackers it is a power thing. Power over someone they perceive to be weaker than themselves.

That's what happened to me except I was a lot stronger than they perceived me to be and it turned the tables on them. They suddenly found out they'd bitten off far more than they could chew. I was lucky that night in that I knew how to defend myself, and I know how lucky I was. It could easily have had a different outcome.