Four Stages of an Attack

Did you know that there are four stages that an attacker will go through before he attacks?

I wanted to tell you what they are so that you'll be more alert and prepared to defend yourself.

1. Thought:

First the attacker will decide who he wants to attack.

To help him make his decision he will look for someone who is carrying valuables or is nicely dressed and alone and not alert or walking confidently.

He might look down to see if you have nice watch or cell phone.

This stage could blend with stage two because the bad guy often sizes up his victim at the same time he gets into position to attack.

Another warning sign to notice is that he may look around to see if anyone else is watching.
Remember how kids do this when they're about to do something that they aren't supposed to do, like take a cookie out of the cookie jar without permission.

Often the bad guys will do this tell-tale sign without realizing how noticeable it can be.

2. Positioning:

The attacker will position himself in one of the following two ways:

Ambush: Sometimes the attacker will try to use the element of surprise, possibly hiding behind a vehicle, in some bushes or around a corner to ambush his victim.

An ambush attacks occurs very suddenly and leaves little, if any, time to defend yourself.

At this point the only option to survive might be for you to explosively attack the attacker in an attempt to stay alive.

Distraction:

Another tactic that bad guys use is that they will approach you and try to distract you by asking a question.

This is a classic scenario where his accomplice will then approach to attack you from behind.
Their goal will be to disable you and rob you before you have a chance to respond.

If you get a bad feeling about someone who is approaching, you should react by moving away from the person or at least just try to get past him.

This will make it harder for them to spring their trap on you and force them to consider that maybe they should pick someone else.

Also, you should start developing your action plan, "If this guy attacks me, I will..."
Failure to take any action sends the message; "I am an easy target."

3. Pre-Attack Movement:

In the third stage the attacker will tighten his muscles just before he strikes.

Often this will include one or more of the following actions: a clenched fist, stiff legs, tightened facial expression and possibly one hand held behind his back to conceal his fist or even a weapon.

Also if you see one of his shoulders start to dip down slightly, watch out because he's probably just about to punch you.

At this stage you are in imminent danger. Failure to immediately defend or to move away could cost your life.

Please note: If the bad guy attacks you by surprise, you won’t see this stage at all.

4. Delivery:

Stage four is the actual delivery of the attack that is intended to harm or kill you.

Hopefully by this stage you will have already moved away to safety, because it's very difficult to defend against a surprise attack, which is the most common type of attack.

Almost everyone responds to a surprise attack by closing their eyes and raising their shoulders. (This reaction is called flinching)

Obviously it is very difficult to defend yourself when your eyes are closed, so flinching is considered a weakness.

Therefore most of the experts say there's no way to defend against a surprise attack because our normal response is to flinch.

However there is a way to turn your flinch from a weakness into a strength.

There is a certain kind of reflex training that makes this possible; however we will review that another day.

Today I just wanted to let you know about the warning signs of these stages so you'll be more aware and ready to respond and survive.

Be strong,

Kubler Al

P.S. Hey, , have you seen our multimedia page recently? Go here http://www.hikuta.com/Multimedia.html to get more information.

Kubler Al
Director of Training,
Cutting Edge Combat
Kuta: Self-defense for the real world!
Since 1998.P.O. Box 404Lakewood, CA. 90714 USA
1-TOO-ARMED-50 (866-276-3350)
http://www.hikuta.com
Copyright (c) 1998-2008, Cutting Edge Combat. All rights reserved.
International copyright secured by Cutting Edge Combat.