INTRODUCTION

“It will never happen to me,” and “It can’t happen here” – these are common, but naive beliefs typically held by the public, especially by those who live in “safe” neighborhoods. The days when personal safety was not a high priority are long gone, no matter where you may live. To safely live in today’s society our behavior and thought patterns need to adjust. Each person needs to take responsibility for maintaining his or her own personal safety.

Before explaining why you should participate in personal safety and self-defense training, I want to define both “personal safety” training and “self-defense” training. Understanding the differences between these two terms will help you to accurately interpret and understand the information provided in this article.

WHAT IS PERSONAL SAFETY AND SELF-DEFENSE TRAINING?

Personal Safety training focuses on education – providing information that should help you make better decisions regarding potential or real conflict or violent situations. Personal Safety training provides information and strategies that should help you recognize & prevent, avoid, de-escalate, or exit from potential or real conflict or violent situations. It does NOT involve physical skills training.

Self-Defense Physical Skills Training provides the opportunity to learn, practice, and improve the physical skills necessary for combative situations. Physical self-defense training does not make you invincible – it is a “discovery” experience. You, through the training progressions, discover your current and potential abilities and capabilities for handling conflict and/or potentially violent situations. This newly discovered knowledge and awareness of your physical skill abilities and capabilities can help the decision-making process during a confrontation.

WHY INVEST YOUR TIME IN PERSONAL SAFETY TRAINING?

Personal safety training should provide in-depth education and information that enhances your knowledge, skills, and abilities to recognize & avoid, prevent, de-escalate, and/or exit from potentially violent situations.

Personal safety training can positively impact your wellness!

Psychologist Abraham Maslow developed (1943) the Hierarchy of Human Needs pyramid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs#Safety_needs) which consists of five levels.

  • The lowest, but most important level of the pyramid is associated with human physiological needs – food, water, and air. These “needs” form the base of the pyramid.
  • The next level up, ranking second in importance, is “Safety” – which is divided into different types (safety of the body, employment, resources, morality, family, health, and property).

According to Maslow, we need to feel safe in each type to enjoy a healthy, fulfilling life. Feeling insecure or unsafe causes an increase in negative stress levels. Physical and psychological effects of negative stress impact a person’s health and well-being. This is a great reason to proactively enhance personal safety!

Properly structured personal safety training offers many benefits that can elevate the quality of life. The following is a partial list of benefits this training teaches:

  • How to positively deal with conflict
  • Self-confidence, self-control, and respect for others
  • How to use Mental, Emotional, Environmental and Physical Awareness
  • How to recognize, handle and manage fear in all aspects of life
  • How to apply prevention and avoidance strategies
  • How to have grace under pressure, and
  • How to make new friends and have fun!

WHY INVEST YOUR TIME IN PHYSICAL SELF-DEFENSE SKILLS TRAINING?

After completing personal safety training, you will have the knowledge and skills necessary to recognize and prevent, avoid, de-escalate, and/or exit from a potentially violent situation, without the need for physical self-defense. But there is no guarantee that you will be successful 100% of the time. There may be a time when physical self-defense becomes necessary.

Don’t wait for something bad to happen. Proactively prepare for the potential of being involved in a physical confrontation. Your chances for a successful outcome from a physically violent encounter are greatly enhanced by having the physical skills learned from a comprehensive, quality training program. Hopefully you will never need to use the training. But it is better to have the skills and not need them, than it is to need the skills and not have them!

  • This statement emphasizes the importance of preparedness and having resources readily available, even if they aren’t immediately used. Here’s a breakdown of the meaning:
  • Proactive Preparation – be proactive and acquire skills or resources in anticipation of potential future needs, rather than waiting until a crisis arises.
  • The Value of Preparedness – having the necessary skills or resources can provide a significant advantage in times of need.
  • Avoiding a Crisis – it’s better to have the skills and resources to handle a situation, rather than being caught unprepared and facing a difficult outcome.

CONCLUSION

Personal safety and self-defense training is a wise investment of your time. Keep in mind that it is training that needs to be repeated to maximize and maintain its effectiveness.

  • Personal safety information and knowledge depend on memory retention to be effectively useful. If you do not review this information on a regular basis, it will be more difficult to recall if needed, or it may completely ‘leave’ your memory. The term “regular basis” will be different for each person. Training frequency recommendations are provided in another blog article titled, “Personal Safety & Self-Defense Training – What Should Be Included?”
  • To maintain the highest possible level of effective and efficient performance, physical skills must be repeatedly practiced. Use it or lose it!

Here is one final training recommendation – a training program should be enjoyable. Yes, this is a serious subject and should be presented as such. But, if a training activity is enjoyed, the information and skills will be retained better, and you won’t mind repeating the training!

Hopefully, you are now motivated to participate in a personal safety and physical self-defense skills training program. For information that will enable you to evaluate the quality of a potential training program, please read Part 2 of this article series, “Personal Safety & Self-Defense Training – What Should Be Included?” – https://empower-usa.com/personal-safety-self-defense-training-part-2-of-2-what-should-be-included/

Remember, “ONE BODY, ONE LIFE, ONE CHOICE!”