whereas in spontaneous
situations, the aggressor
doesn’t always know what
they want from the situation;
they perhaps just can’t see an
alternative option to violence,
due to their heightened
emotional state.
Because there is no
predefined outcome or goal in
a spontaneous situation, you
may have an opportunity to
try and de-escalate it, reducing
the emotion of the incident
and helping your aggressor
find alternative solutions to
violence. In a premeditated
incident, your choices are to
acquiesce to your aggressor’s
demands, or to fight (which
would see you enter the
conflict phase). There are
situations where doing what
your aggressor wants may be
your best survival option —
for example, if a mugger with
a knife demands your wallet,
it is usually best to give it to
them (in the mugger’s mind,
they are going to leave with
the wallet, the only variable
is whether they need to use
their weapon). However, if
they are looking to harm you
rather than just take your
wallet or other resources — if
it is a rape or sexual assault,
for example — your better
option may be to fight. You
may have to fight with a
mugger, if after you’ve handed
over your possessions, they
remain rather than leaving; the
mugger’s script says that after
taking your wallet, phone,
etcetera, they should leave
you — if they don’t, they’re not
behaving like a mugger, and it
would be naïve to treat them
as one, as there is obviously
a secondary motive they are
working to.
Once the conflict phase
ends, you enter the post-
conflict stage of the incident,
which could see you having
to exit the location, seek
medical attention, deal with
the police, etc. Some of these
things are best planned for
before the event — do you
have an attorney/lawyer you
can contact before you speak
to law enforcement officers?
Do you know where the
hospitals and police stations
are in the locations that you
commonly frequent? Good
situational awareness isn’t
just about spotting warning
signals, it’s about having a
complete understanding of
your environment. There is a
tendency in reality-based self-
defence circles to neglect the
importance and relevance of
this phase and excuse it away
with statements such as, ‘better
to be tried by 12 than carried
by six’, as if these were the
only two outcomes to a violent
FODPVOUFS$POTJEFSJOHXIBUmay occur in the post-conflict
phase of violence should
influence the solutions and
strategies that you will train to
use in the conflict stage.
When we look at violence
holistically, we can see that it
is much more involved than
the initial punch/strike/attack.
There are phases that precede
the physical encounter, that
we may be able to identify,
and that can alert us to
danger; and there are events
that may occur afterwards,
which we should prepare for.
Planning and preparedness
are a large part of real-life
self-defence, and we shouldn’t
neglect this. With good
situational awareness, and an
understanding of how violent
situations develop, in most
instances we will be able to
step off the timeline before a
physical assault occurs.Gershon Ben Keren is the
author of Krav Maga – Real
World Solutions to Real
World Violence (Tuttle Press
2015) and blogs weekly at
http://www.kravmagablog.com. A
5th Degree Black-belt in krav
maga, he has more than 20
years of experience training in
Europe and Israel and currently
runs Krav Maga Yashir in
Boston, USA. He also has
several schools in London, UK,
where he resided until 2008.Feel like someone is
following you? There’s
no harm in erring on the
side of caution, rather
than ignoring signs that
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