Self-defense techniques and moves are certainly effective in a hostile situation, but if you can avoid the conflict altogether, you’d be able to divert the potential injury – both physical and mental – that such an experience would leave you with. This week’s lesson is important because it will enable you to diffuse a self-defense situation before it even begins.

The 8 Steps of Conflict Avoidance were created by Sensei Britton for ease of memory retention by using the letters A through H to denote the first letter of each step. Remember that this advise is to be followed in alphabetical order. For instance, you wouldn’t need to yell “Fire!” if you had Avoided the danger to begin with.

Review of the 8 steps + notes and tips:

A: Avoid and be aware of potential conflicts and dangers. This is the most important step.
B: Breathe to help you maintain mental alertness.
C: Communicate with confidence. While it’s in the verbal stage, you should be prepared to talk confidently (not to be mistaken with confrontationally).
D: Don’t make the situation worse. While you can still talk your way out of it, you should be trying to do just that. Don’t show off to your friends or the people that are around. Walk away from it whenever you can.
E: Environment and exits. In terms of suggestions for the scenario in our video, it would be advantageous if you can park closer to where you know other people are going to be parking, closer to where a security guard might be stationed, or close to an exit. Of course, always try and park in a well-lit area and if you can, avoid going back to your car by yourself.
F: Fire is a powerful word, but it’s not exclusive. Anything that brings attention to yourself would be helpful. In addition to yelling Fire!, you can also try to break a window or set off a car alarm…all of these things are going to attract attention to the situation and bring if not help, at least an audience, which is going to be a deterrent for the attacker.
G: Get away. Pretty self-explanatory
H: Hit hard, hit fast, hit first. Only to be applied if you’ve forgotten or haven’t been able to apply any of the previous steps. For this letter, Sensei Britton references an earlier segment so for a review of Vital Point Striking, click here.

Please note that these 8 crucial steps can also work backwards from H to A. Once you’ve applied H, it’s time to start G, followed by yelling Fire to get people to notice the situation that you are in. Be aware of your Environment and the exits so that you can escape. Don’t make the situation worse – if you punched that person in the nose and they fell down, you don’t need to think “Hey, I’m going to turn around and start kicking them. I’m gonna show them what’s what!” Don’t make it worse. Communicate with confidence – If you are able to find a law enforcement officer, a security officer, or if you can find a good Samaritan who can help you out, you need to be able to explain the situation to them. Breathe – bring yourself to an alpha state of mind where you have control of yourself and finally, Avoid any further danger…go home!

IMPORTANT: Please use extreme caution when practicing the moves shown in this video. Remember that with the right amount of force, you can severely hurt somebody. The techniques are to be used for self-defense purposes only. All self-defense moves and tips are to be used at the risk of the user.

For more self-defense tips with Sensei Britton, click here.