The time to rehearse for a self defense emergency is not when an event is happening for real. That’s why in the SEAL Teams we constantly train and rehearse for worst case scenarios.

This week I want to talk about the importance of mental visualization as I discussed in “Flow”.  A lot of times just acting and not being paralyzed is enough to thwart an attacker. Practicing specific scenarios will help prepare you mentally to deal with real situations.  I wish we didn’t have to worry about it but unfortunately threats to woman these days are pervasive in the world we live in.

There are two scenarios I want to talk about that put theory to practice:

1. Mugging-if someone is just after money or material items and it looks like they’ll take it and leave you alone then give it to them and get out alive.  I mean this, don’t try and be a hero and get shot or stabbed (it happens) over $100 or your favorite Hermes or Coach purse.  Live to fight another day.

Important Statistic From RAINN:

1 out of every 6 American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime (14.8% completed rape; 2.8% attempted rape).

2. Rape or Abduction-this is a scenario where you need to fight for your life because if you don’t you’ll likely never be the same again or worse, you’ll wind up dead.  Weirdos like easy targets and nothing makes a freak happier then having a woman who’s paralyzed with fear.  Yell and scream loud (buy a good self defense flash light–it blinds…make sure it’s 500 lumens or more), and get aggressive (e.g.punch, kick, eye gouge, nut kick, etc). The key is as we say in the SEAL Teams, Violence of Action=overwhelm your enemy with aggression and put them on the defense…..AND rehearsal.

Rehearsal: close your eyes before you go to bed at night or in a safe place and imagine yourself in a worse case scenario like above.  Then rehearse your actions, what you’ll do, how you’ll scream and how you will overcome your attacker. Rehearsing this will make you much more prepared for this event in the likely event it happens (see above stats) to you some day.

I hope this was helpful ladies. Look for more and please submit your input to anything else you’d like to see us talk about and make you more prepared out there. After all, not everyone can have a US SOCOM husband or b/f. 😉

-Brandon