During several of my self defense seminars I’ve had students tell me that their first planned line of defense against violent crime was to summon the police by calling 911. One woman said that she would dial 911 on her cell phone and hold her finger over the send button while walking alone at night. Another said she would call home and talk to her husband while walking to her car because she felt reassured.

Let’s be clear – calling 911 during an emergency when possible is a great idea. The quicker you can summon help the better. However, when seconds count – the police are minutes away.

I don’t have statistics on police response time to 911 calls in Maine, but average EMS response time is 6-12 minutes. This figure varies significantly depending on location. In a violent attack or home invasion, it’s unlikely that an attacker is going to give you 6 minutes. In a report commissioned by the State of Maine to analyze the 911 system, it is stated that a delay of even 30 seconds in response time is life-threatening.

I used to mistakenly think that calling 911 automatically gave the police my location and, even if I was unable to speak, help would arrive.  Enhanced 911 has made this better for calls from home phones, but cell phones are another story. Call 911 from a cell phone and it’s likely you’ll need to be transferred. I experienced the first hand in Boston when I witnessed and accident and called 911 on my cell.  The State police answered the call and didn’t even know what city I was calling from. Then they transferred me and I got a busy signal.

Two women who worked for me were in a car accident in front of a State Police bunked in Massachusetts and called 911. It took 20 minutes for a trooper to walk out of the front door and help them. Larger cities like New York have had times when response was over 45 minutes.

The truth is that calling 911 should not be your primary line of defense. It’s too unreliable – you don’t know when help is going to arrive. If your house was burning down, you wouldn’t call 911 and then sit inside and wait for the fire department (I hope). You’d get out and then call 911.

You are the first line of defense for you and your loved ones. You need to be prepared. Get yourself some training.

All martial arts and systems of self defense will, in some way deal with range. Range, in this sense, means the proximity of your opponent, his ability to attack you, and your ability to attack him. Many systems have a ton of different ranges, kicking, grappling, striking, weapons etc. While there is nothing wrong with this, I prefer to simplify. Upon simplification, we can then internalize the principles and realize spontaneous appropriate response.

Let me make this abundantly clear: Until you internalize and intuitively understand range, memorizing a bunch of ranges will be no good in combat. Knowing that your striking range is 28 inches is no good, if you can’t instantly look at your opponent and understand whether or not you can strike without conscious thought. There is only one cure, simplification and practice.

I have simplified my range system into three basic ranges – long, medium, and short range. Why? Because at each of these ranges – choice of tactics changes. Breaking these ranges down any further makes no difference to the way we practice. Here are my definitions.

Long range: At long range, none of your body parts (or your opponent’s) are immediately available to attack without closing the distance. In other words, for your opponent to attack you, he will need to move towards you in some way.

Medium range: Medium range begins where, if you and your opponent were to outstretch your arms, your fingertips would touch. Since every part of the body can attack or be attacked, we are no longer in long range. The limit of medium range is reached when you are able to touch the torso of your opponent.

Short range: Once you are able to touch an opponents body or head area, you are in short range. Short range would include grappling and close combat distance in other systems.

Now, I can hear many people saying – “but that would mean that each range changes as different weapons are used.” You bet. Long range for a sword is different from a kick or a punch. Missile weapons, such as firearms, are really the only exceptions that don’t fit well into this system.

So the next criticism might be, “well then you have to memorize a bunch of ranges for different weapons.” Yes, and no, but mostly no. Remember, the idea is to have a little bit of knowledge and then internalize the principles. You need to intuitively know when you’re inside medium range of someone holding a stick, knife or broken bottle. There are no shortcuts here, you must practice with opponents empty handed and holding different weapons. And, by the way, you would be surprised at the number of sword and machete attacks in the U.S. every year, so don’t count out long blades even for reality-based training.

Your tactics at each of these ranges will depend on your style. If you want to learn ours, you need to come train with us.