T.R.A.P. - Threat Response Action Plan
What is the single most important action you can take to stay safe?
Would you believe it has nothing to do with tools, weapons, or physical techniques and can be learned in mere seconds?
LOOK UP!
Looking up, being in the Present, and obeying your intuition will keep you safe more than any tool, tactic, or technique.
When a threat appears suddenly and safe escape is not an option, our Principle-Based systems will help you prepare, practice, and escape a threat to your safety.
S.A.F.E. | A.I.R.S | A.P.E. | Co.D.S.A.
S.A.F.E. - [Situation ~ Avoid ~ Finish ~ Escape] - The Principles for staying safe in your day to day life.
→ Staying Safe is rooted in avoiding problems. Contextual awareness, intuition, and common sense are integral components to staying safe. If forced to take action to escape an imminent threat, we provide you a framework for becoming Practiced in the Principles to escape safely.
A.I.R.S. - [Automatic ~ Ingrained ~ Response to ~ Stimulus] - The objective of training.
→ Practicing slow, perfect iterations of fundamental movements to subconscious mastery ensures they will be available (and you can execute them) under survival level stress.
A.P.E. - [Audibly ~ Physically ~ Exactly] - This is HOW you practice any skill, tactic, or concept you want "available" in your response to a survival situation.
→ Under survival stress, we will be most capable of performing actions we've physically performed, mentally visualized, and repeated through proper practice.
Co.D.S.A. - [Comply (feigned) ~ Distract ~ Surprise - Attack and Press] - Escaping a clear and present threat to your safety.
→ When presented with a threat, the Co.D.S.A. is a path to safe escape. Additionally, the proper mindset is crucial to your survival and should be established in advance. Are you OK delivering the overwhelming violence of action needed to safely escape a survival situation? You must be.
The Self-Protection Triad - The 3 Pillars of Staying Safe
⇒ Contextual Awareness - "situational awareness".
- The practice of avoiding situations and obeying your intuition/gut requires you to be Present-tense focused during transitions. The simple act of "LOOKING UP" will keep you out of many problems, before needing to take action to get out of one.
⇒ Exposures, Experiences, and Attentive, Deliberate Practice
- Your outcome when facing a real threat is largely a function of these three variables.
⇒ Offensive mindset (Violence of Action) while maintaining our Mental, Physical, and Emotional Balance.
There is a primal, violent, and aggressive component to the human animal most do not like to talk about. In a real life survival situation, that is the part that will be needed most.
Because most encounters involve bigger, stronger, and faster aggressors that bring friends and tools to do the heavy lifting for them, you will not be able to defend yourself to safety.
This requires a shift in our mind's eye from prey to Predator. We must become the most offensive, aggressive, "Predator" to safely escape a real-life threat.
What do we know about attackers (from incarcerated ones) that can be used to guide our responses and behavior:
- They select victims they think they can dominate
- They don't want to get caught.
- They do not want a "fight".
- They are wired physiologically like we are (not psychologically).
Takeaways:
The goal of training is to avoid, discourage or quickly change an attacker's mindset to "I misjudged my easy-target". Criminals rarely have a plan "B" and causing them to create one can end an attack before it starts.
Guarantees don't exist in self-protection.
One thing is certain:
"Your outcome during the most important 2-seconds of your life relies more on
HOW you practiced, then what, when, and where."
Becoming a competent protector is not sexy or flashy. It's fairly monotonous and boring.
Learning fancy techniques can boost the ego and are good fun.
The danger in technique and choreographed training is it can instill the illusion of being a competent protector (see Dunning-Kruger effect).
When the context is survival, forget fancy.