Controlling Personal Space
Encroachment into your personal space by an unknown contact should always be considered a potential threat.
A standard operating procedure (SOP) is step-by-step instructions to follow for a specific circumstance.
Consider the following SOP to cease encroachment and control the space around you:
1) Utilize verbal challenge
❗️Ask them to stop.
❗️Tell them to stop.
❗️Act (see #4 below).
2) Set a physical barrier by putting hands up (simultaneously with verbal challenge)
❗️Hands high to protect your head if necessary.
❗️Arms bent, palms facing contact, to take action effectively, if necessary.
3) Use any available physical barriers
❗️Put a table, vehicle, or structural barrier between you, if possible.
4) Prepare to take action
❗️Leave or run if you can do so without being harmed.
❗️De-escalate with verbal skills.
❗️Utilize a defensive or offensive tactic.
Each step assists in controlling personal space when faced with an unknown contact or someone you don’t want to get close to you.
Distance=Time=Options=Higher Probability of Success & Safety
For consideration in this video:
I don’t have a backstory but note the pursuant encroachments.
The subject in the blue shirt is setting a barrier, albeit somewhat weak, with his eft arm. He even tries at a feeble strike. When he tries to leave by turning his back, the pursuer pushes forward aggressively and attempts to grab, and the blue shirt takes effective action.
Fighting, in many forms, is about movement and who controls the space effectively.
Control YOUR space, or someone else might.
How many pre-assault cues do you see? Do you know what a pre-assault cue is and how to identify when you may be in trouble?
See also: Personal Security Hacks
