Last night I attended a talk on information security given by a representative of a major endpoint security company. They make antivirus software for those who aren’t fluent in geek.

The presenter made an interesting point that I think is relevant to personal security and self defense. He showed an image of a house and talked about the three necessary components to preventing loss or mitigating risks for burglaries. The first component is prevention, this includes door locks, fences, and anything designed to keep a burglar out. The next component is detection and includes things like alarms which are designed to make us aware when a breach of our preventative measures has occurred. The final component is response and includes things like alarm monitoring that calls the police and owning a gun or a dog. Response is the ability to react when a breach has occurred and has been detected.

The presenter next asked which of the three components was most important. Most of us (including me) answered that prevention was most important. In surveys this is the consensus of 95% of people asked. The reality is that, according to insurance statistics, for mitigating loss to burglary – detection and response are far more important than prevention. While having good door locks and other preventative measures is  important, once they are bypassed – without detection and response a burglar is free to steal with impunity.

How can we relate this to self defense and personal protection?

1. Prevention: This is anything you do to keep yourself from being a target of criminals. This may include avoiding dangerous situations, locking your car and house doors, not flashing valuables or cash in public – etc. The issue is, that there is no such thing as 100% fail-proof prevention. You can do everything right, and even go overboard with security precautions and still become the target of crime.
2. Detection: Detection boils down to awareness. Clearly most people will be aware of an attack after it happens, but understanding pre-violence indicators and having situational and environmental awareness are keys to surviving violence. I sometimes tell students that I cannot teach them how to defend against a sniper rifle. If the attack isn’t perceived, there will be no response.
3. Response: What do you do when you detect a threat, or when attacked? This is where tools and training come in.

The truth of the matter is that all three layers of defense are incredibly important. Insurance companies are not going to tell you to forget about door locks and just get an alarm and a gun. Many schools of self defense focus solely on response, and this is fine. However, without awareness, response will be too late and infective.

I am a big fan of unconventional training and, since awareness is the greater part of self-defense, here’s an unconventional drill you can do during the day:

I once read that the first thing a professional burglar does after breaking into a building is to look for escape routes. This would be pretty important should someone come in unexpectedly to foil their theft. Getting caught is the last thing a criminal wants.

Self defense is all about awareness and escape. Unlike the movies, self defense isn’t usually a toe to toe stand up fight. Your best bet to avoid getting hurt or into legal trouble is to escape danger.

To tune up your awareness, do the following drill throughout the day. Any time you enter a building or a room, make a quick mental note of the exits (windows, doors etc). Do this as fast as you can. Even if you have been somewhere numerous times, like in your home, still do it. Note if there are obstructions that would have to be cleared to use an escape.

This is a simple exercise which will begin to train your survival awareness.

Here’s a second drill for the car:

When stopped at a red light, always leave enough room between your car and the car in front that you could pull out in an emergency (even if pulling out puts you into oncoming traffic). Do not stop inches away from the bumper in front of you.

Think about what you would do if an armed attacker rushed your car, and tried to gain access. If you have kids or friends in the car, how does that change what you might do?

Both of these drills can be done in seconds, yet they start to build your situational and environmental awareness and make you a safer person.