Self-defense covers a lot more territory than just defending yourself against physical attacks by bad guys.
Consider your home. You may live in an apartment, flat, condo, townhouse, duplex, or a standard single-family house. Constructed of any number of possible materials, situated anywhere in the world, in any type of neighborhood, there are still some things to be considered about where you live in terms of self-defense. One of the primary things to consider is how to get out of it safely.
Threats come in all sorts of ways. Intruders, fire starting from inside the home, fire from outside, wind, water, and natural disasters of all types. One of the things few people consider, let alone practice, it how to get out of their own home safely.
After all, home is where we go to be safe, right? Why would we want to leave? And if we did for some reason have to leave, well, we've got plenty of experience going right out the front door, eh? Sure, if you can do that. But can you?
When one considers how many people die in house fire, the saddest fact of all is that most people don't die of being burned; they die of smoke inhalation. That is, they breathe in deadly smoke until they pass out, and that's where they are found. Quite often, they are found short distances from their front doors. Distressingly, many of those deaths could have been avoided.
There are many steps one can take to learn to exit one's home safely and quickly if need be. Most of them require planning, discussion with family members, and practice. It doesn't need to take a long time or require constant vigilance, but just thinking about it isn't enough.
Let's start with a few questions to point out some common issues. Let's say you wake up and your room is filled with smoke. You decide you need to get out of your house, right away.
You know that smoke rises, so you crawl low to avoid breathing the smoke in. But it's dark, the power is out, the smoke fills the hallway outside your bedroom.
How many crawling steps is it to your front door? How many turns? Which way? Any steps to go up or down? How many?
Perhaps you decide to go out your bedroom window instead of your front door. Which window? What's at the base of that window? Are there security bars on the windows? Do you have anything which will break the glass if you cannot open it up enough to get out?
What about other family members? Where are their rooms? How many steps, turns, up or down, what exits do they have available to them?
What about a family member that decides to round up the family pets instead of escaping immediately? What about a family member who decides to go try to find and fight the fire instead of escaping? What about a family member who decides to try to get the cars out of the attached garage?
Once out of the house, where will you all meet? Where will you go? Do you have any kind of plan for where you'll spend your first night after your house burns down?
The point is this: it is very difficult to plan for all possible contingencies, but it's easy to avoid planning at all. Somewhere between the two is a spot where you might feel more comfortable.
Step One: Have a plan.
Step Two: Practice the plan.
If you have never tried to get out of your house wearing a blindfold, I suggest you try it sometime. For more entertainment, I like the 'Dizzy Izzy' method. That is, blindfold the family member to be tested, and run them through escaping from the house whilst crawling a few times. Once they have more-or-less mastered this, spin them around several times whilst blindfolded so that they become dizzy. Turn up the radio and the TV set to random noise or shouting head presenters; Fox News and MSNBC are great for that. Drag them quickly into a random room of the house and have them try to escape.
The point, of course, is to try to simulate an environment of extreme stress, confusion, and fear. This is what we'll be experiencing in a real situation.
Go outside and look at your windows that you think you'd be escaping through. Look at the drop, look at what's below. One might reconsider if one is dropping 10+ feet onto a gas meter or a garden hose spigot or even into a monster rose bush; or consider making a landing spot outside one window that is more-or-less hospitable to a safe landing.
Talk with family members about what their jobs are in case of fire. Who gives the command to evacuate, or in case that person does not answer up, when does each family member make that decision themselves? The pets - they're on their own. Everyone must understand that. Fluffy is a wonderful friend and family member and we love her, but we are not going to die for her. Leave a door open, chances are high she'll escape on her own; and if she does not, let's not compound that tragedy by losing a child or spouse.
Parents; who goes to each child's room? If both parents independently try to visit each room, duplication of efforts halves the available time to escape. Divide and conquer, but know clearly who goes where.
Learn to communicate with shouts of one or two words. During a low-crawl exit crisis, dad yells "Davy!" and Davy yells "Here, Bedroom!" or "Here, front door!" That's all the communication that is needed, and saves breathing air and miscommunication from frantic screams back and forth at each other. Remember that you can be mere feet from each other and not be able to see each other, and air can be scarce; don't waste it falling into a panicked shouting match. When Dad yells "Davy," everyone else remains silent and waits for Davy to reply. If Davy does not reply, then have a plan to deal with that, but continue on down the line of identification and location.
Have at least one or two unannounced tests per year. In the middle of the night, yell "FIRE, GET OUT!" and go through the entire scenario; minus the setting the house on fire or calling the fire department of course. The neighbors might be startled, but who cares?
Feel free to comment, add to or take away from this what you wish. The point here is not that there is any one right way to get out of your house, but that it takes more than a vague concept that fire is bad and you might need to leave if it gets bad enough.
As a person interested in self-defense, this should frankly be as important to you as pursuing your martial arts training. This is self-defense at a very basic level.
Here are some resources. They all basically say the same thing, it's pretty much common sense. But they stress *practicing* your plan. That's the part most of us don't do, even if we do the rest. Imagine what you'd say if someone said they could learn to defend themselves by watching a DVD or reading a book on Martial Arts. Same thing. You don't have to devote a lot of time to practicing this, but the more you practice, the better for you and your family.
http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/citizens/home_fire_prev/escape/
http://www.firesafety.gov/citizens/escape/index.shtm
http://www.firesafetycouncil.com/english/pubsafet/plangrid.htm
Consider your home. You may live in an apartment, flat, condo, townhouse, duplex, or a standard single-family house. Constructed of any number of possible materials, situated anywhere in the world, in any type of neighborhood, there are still some things to be considered about where you live in terms of self-defense. One of the primary things to consider is how to get out of it safely.
Threats come in all sorts of ways. Intruders, fire starting from inside the home, fire from outside, wind, water, and natural disasters of all types. One of the things few people consider, let alone practice, it how to get out of their own home safely.
After all, home is where we go to be safe, right? Why would we want to leave? And if we did for some reason have to leave, well, we've got plenty of experience going right out the front door, eh? Sure, if you can do that. But can you?
When one considers how many people die in house fire, the saddest fact of all is that most people don't die of being burned; they die of smoke inhalation. That is, they breathe in deadly smoke until they pass out, and that's where they are found. Quite often, they are found short distances from their front doors. Distressingly, many of those deaths could have been avoided.
There are many steps one can take to learn to exit one's home safely and quickly if need be. Most of them require planning, discussion with family members, and practice. It doesn't need to take a long time or require constant vigilance, but just thinking about it isn't enough.
Let's start with a few questions to point out some common issues. Let's say you wake up and your room is filled with smoke. You decide you need to get out of your house, right away.
You know that smoke rises, so you crawl low to avoid breathing the smoke in. But it's dark, the power is out, the smoke fills the hallway outside your bedroom.
How many crawling steps is it to your front door? How many turns? Which way? Any steps to go up or down? How many?
Perhaps you decide to go out your bedroom window instead of your front door. Which window? What's at the base of that window? Are there security bars on the windows? Do you have anything which will break the glass if you cannot open it up enough to get out?
What about other family members? Where are their rooms? How many steps, turns, up or down, what exits do they have available to them?
What about a family member that decides to round up the family pets instead of escaping immediately? What about a family member who decides to go try to find and fight the fire instead of escaping? What about a family member who decides to try to get the cars out of the attached garage?
Once out of the house, where will you all meet? Where will you go? Do you have any kind of plan for where you'll spend your first night after your house burns down?
The point is this: it is very difficult to plan for all possible contingencies, but it's easy to avoid planning at all. Somewhere between the two is a spot where you might feel more comfortable.
Step One: Have a plan.
Step Two: Practice the plan.
If you have never tried to get out of your house wearing a blindfold, I suggest you try it sometime. For more entertainment, I like the 'Dizzy Izzy' method. That is, blindfold the family member to be tested, and run them through escaping from the house whilst crawling a few times. Once they have more-or-less mastered this, spin them around several times whilst blindfolded so that they become dizzy. Turn up the radio and the TV set to random noise or shouting head presenters; Fox News and MSNBC are great for that. Drag them quickly into a random room of the house and have them try to escape.
The point, of course, is to try to simulate an environment of extreme stress, confusion, and fear. This is what we'll be experiencing in a real situation.
Go outside and look at your windows that you think you'd be escaping through. Look at the drop, look at what's below. One might reconsider if one is dropping 10+ feet onto a gas meter or a garden hose spigot or even into a monster rose bush; or consider making a landing spot outside one window that is more-or-less hospitable to a safe landing.
Talk with family members about what their jobs are in case of fire. Who gives the command to evacuate, or in case that person does not answer up, when does each family member make that decision themselves? The pets - they're on their own. Everyone must understand that. Fluffy is a wonderful friend and family member and we love her, but we are not going to die for her. Leave a door open, chances are high she'll escape on her own; and if she does not, let's not compound that tragedy by losing a child or spouse.
Parents; who goes to each child's room? If both parents independently try to visit each room, duplication of efforts halves the available time to escape. Divide and conquer, but know clearly who goes where.
Learn to communicate with shouts of one or two words. During a low-crawl exit crisis, dad yells "Davy!" and Davy yells "Here, Bedroom!" or "Here, front door!" That's all the communication that is needed, and saves breathing air and miscommunication from frantic screams back and forth at each other. Remember that you can be mere feet from each other and not be able to see each other, and air can be scarce; don't waste it falling into a panicked shouting match. When Dad yells "Davy," everyone else remains silent and waits for Davy to reply. If Davy does not reply, then have a plan to deal with that, but continue on down the line of identification and location.
Have at least one or two unannounced tests per year. In the middle of the night, yell "FIRE, GET OUT!" and go through the entire scenario; minus the setting the house on fire or calling the fire department of course. The neighbors might be startled, but who cares?
Feel free to comment, add to or take away from this what you wish. The point here is not that there is any one right way to get out of your house, but that it takes more than a vague concept that fire is bad and you might need to leave if it gets bad enough.
As a person interested in self-defense, this should frankly be as important to you as pursuing your martial arts training. This is self-defense at a very basic level.
Here are some resources. They all basically say the same thing, it's pretty much common sense. But they stress *practicing* your plan. That's the part most of us don't do, even if we do the rest. Imagine what you'd say if someone said they could learn to defend themselves by watching a DVD or reading a book on Martial Arts. Same thing. You don't have to devote a lot of time to practicing this, but the more you practice, the better for you and your family.
http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/citizens/home_fire_prev/escape/
http://www.firesafety.gov/citizens/escape/index.shtm
http://www.firesafetycouncil.com/english/pubsafet/plangrid.htm
