A guerrilla force is a small group of fighters that is agile, elusive, and carefully selective in how it engages a larger military opponent.  Guerrillas do not use a force of numbers or size of arms to overwhelm an opponent.  They use strategies and tactics that are indirect and misleading.  They use distractions to setup an attack.  They attack along lines that are less expected.  Guerrillas position themselves so that they can gain an advantage and limit the options of their enemy.  Guerrillas seek to demoralize their opponents in order to gain a psychological advantage.  Guerrillas use these tactics to be successful against a larger, more powerful opponent. You need to learn to fight like a guerrilla to defend yourself.  You cannot afford to stand...

Self-defense is a component of survival.  There are other skills you need in addition to self defense skills to help you survive a violent encounter.  You may be ready to fight off the bad guy, but what if you are injured in the process?  If you suffer a serious injury during an attack, you will benefit from knowing how to treat the injury afterwards. Improving your self-defense skills is about preparation.  You study to know more about the threat.  You train techniques and tactics to use for defense.  You arm yourself with a weapon and train when and how to use it.  You cultivate situational awareness skills, verbal deescalation skills, and learn to manage situations that are common to violent crime.  In addition to these skills that are directly re...

The stress created by a deadly threat in a survival situation, can suddenly cause your body to respond with physical and psychological (biochemical) changes to prepare you for survival. Your breathing and your heart rate will become faster, blood with fill your large muscle groups and your body will become warmer in an effort to boost physical performance. This physical arousal of your body readies you for action, and is mostly caused by the release of adrenaline in your body. It is commonly referred to as the "fight or flight" response. Whereas some physical arousal is good for effective performance, too much is a problem. If your heart rate and breathing become too fast, you will experience a degradation in your motor skills and difficulty with cognitive abilities. In other words, it wil...

Being armed is an essential part of self defense.  Not every scenario can be solved by talking, running or even by using your empty hands.  If you do decide to arm yourself, you need to make sure you choose the right weapon for you and that you learn to use it properly.  This process starts with your personally outlook on life. Is Carrying a Weapon Right for You? You need to start by asking yourself some very important questions.  Are you capable of violence?  Do you believe it is ok to hurt someone else in order to defend yourself?  Are you willing to take a life in order to protect your own?  How about your family members and other loved ones?  Your religion, personal philosophy, and values will be your primary guides here. If you are not willing t...

Regardless of your level of training, defending against a knife attack is very hard.  No amount of training can reduce the risk, but training for a knife attack will help you survive.   When defending against a knife attack, there are a few things you should avoid doing and there are some things you can do that will help you come out of it alive. In learning to successfully defend against a knife attack, we must understand as much as we can about the attacks themselves.  The more we know about them, the more we can tailor our training to fit reality.  We must understand the offense in order to plan a defense. We also have to consider the special dynamics of an attack with a knife.  The knife may be hard to detect, so we may not even know initially that a knife...