Basic Self-Defense Moves Anyone Can Do and Everyone Should Know

Would you be able to defend yourself and your loved ones if someone were to physically attack you? It’s a question most of us don’t want to consider, but violence is, unfortunately, a fact of life. Thankfully, regardless of strength, size, or previous training, anyone can learn several effective self-defense techniques. Here’s how to prepare for and stay safe in common real-world violent situations.

Prevention Is the Best Self-Defense

First, remember that prevention is the best self-defense. Attackers, whatever their objectives, are looking for unsuspecting, vulnerable targets. So be sure to follow general safety tips like being aware of your surroundings, only walking and parking in well-lit areas, keeping your keys in hand as you approach your door or car, varying your route and times of travel, and other personal security precautions.

Apart from avoiding confrontation, if you can defuse a situation (talk someone down from physically assaulting you) or get away by handing over your wallet/purse or whatever they want, do that. Hand over your money rather than fight. Nothing you own is worth more than your life or health.

If violence is unavoidable, however, to really defend yourself, you’ll want to know ahead of time how to fight back effectively it’s possible even against someone bigger or stronger than you. Here are some basic self-defense techniques that can keep you safe

As soon as the attacker touches you or it’s clear that escape isn’t possible, shout loudly (“BACK OFF!”) and push back at him or her (for simplicity’s sake we’re going to use “him/her” for the rest of the article, although your opponent could be female). This does two things: it signals for help and it lets the attacker know you’re not an easy target.

The Most Effective Body Parts to Hit

When you’re in a confrontation, you only have a few seconds and a few moves to try before the fight may be decided.Before an attacker has gained full control of you, you must do everything you can conserving as much energy as possible to inflict injury so you can get away.(This is no time to be civil. In a physical confrontation that calls for self-defense, it’s hurt or be hurt.) So aim for the parts of the body where you can do the most damage easily: the eyes, nose, ears, neck, groin, knee, and legs.

Depending on the position of the attacker and how close he/She is will determine where you will strike and with what part of your body you will employ. Do not step in closer, say, to strike his/her nose with your hand, when you can reach his/her knee with a kick.

When striking a target on the upper half of the body you will use your hand. Effective strikes can be made with the outer edge of your hand in a knife hand position, a palm strike or knuckle blow for softer targets or a tightly curled fist.

Fundamental Five

Hit and Run
Blast
Crash
Grappling Defense
Clinch Entry

What Makes an Effective Technique
All techniques are not created equal. Many, if not most of those you'll find in martial art schools and movies are entirely ineffective, unrealistic, or downright dangerous. Take a simple punch to the face for example. It's more likely the person doing the punch will break their hand than it is that the person getting punched will be knocked unconscious. The way strikes are thrown is also extremely important, and all strikes are not created equal.

Effective self defense techniques and combinations need to work in reality, be safe for you to apply, have applications in a wide range of situations, limit the opponent's ability to counter, and do maximum physical damage.

1. It Works In the Real World

This should be unnecessary to mention, but unfortunately it's not. Many, many techniques taught in martial arts schools around the world will not work against a real human being attacking or threatening in a realistic manner. Because training partners are often taught to cooperate and respond in certain ways, techniques that are utterly useless seem to work, but only in training. Make sure you've tested your techniques against a fully resisting, completely uncooperative opponent.

2. It's Safe For You To Apply

Many techniques trained in martial arts schools either with low intensity or protective gear would injure you if you attempted to apply them with full power in a real environment. Punches to the head will likely leave you with a broken hand. High kicks may cause you to slip and fall when done on uneven/slippery surfaces. And many techniques expose you to serious damage. Consider how your techniques will work when done with full power, no protective gear, and in the real world.

3. It Can Be Applied In a Range of Situations

Techniques (particularly defenses against striking attacks) that must be matched to a specific attack are highly likely to fail. Real attacks are fast, chaotic, and generally unexpected. You won't know if your opponent is throwing a straight right or a left hook. If your defense requires you to guess right, good luck. Effective counters are such that they work regardless of the particular attack being used. You'll see this principle applied in our conditioned responses above, for example.

4. It Limits Your Opponent's Options

Your techniques need to limit your opponent's ability to simultaneously hit or counter attack. Attacking with a karate style punch with one hand on your hip and your face wide open is a recipe for disaster, as your opponent can punch you as you're punching him. Effective self defense techniques should combine footwork, blocking/parrying / controlling, and covering to limit your opponents options via distance and position, while maximizing yours

.5. It Does Maximum Physical Damage

There's no point in making a perfectly timed and covered counter or attack but using a technique that does nothing to stop your opponent, yet many techniques people teach and train do just that. A good self defense technique should cause maximum damage to targets that are effective on both big and small opponents. Pain isn't likely to be felt in the chaos of an attack. You need to do something that makes your opponent unable to continue. While punches (and palm strikes to hard targets) do have their place, they're probably the least effective technique you can use. Elbows, knees, hacks, breaks, and chokes, not to mention the use of weapons, are far, far more effective.

Other Techniques

Here are a few additional examples of techniques and combinations that follow the above principles:

Smack and Hack
Low Jab Intercept
Groin Slap
Pull & Attack

Techniques for Multiple Opponents

Generally, strategy should be the differentiating factor in self defense against one vs. multiple opponents. But some techniques are better than others when you're facing more than one attacker. Techniques that allow you to get and briefly maintain an outside position so you can't be nailed by multiple opponents at once are better than those that require you to attack straight from the front. Specific techniques designed to take out and get past an opponent, pivoting to face the rest, are also more valuable against two or more, as are techniques that allow you to hit and run. And of course, using weapons can make a tremendous difference.

Unarmed vs. Weapons

Attempting to fight an armed attacker without a weapon is a very bad idea. Prevention should always be your first choice, escape second, and using a weapon of your own third. However, it is a good idea to train unarmed vs. armed self defense techniques in case you ever find yourself facing an attacker with a weapon when you have none. Even if you do carry a weapon, unarmed self defense is often necessary in a surprise attack, serving to allow you to access your weapon if nothing else. Below are unarmed vs. armed techniques and training methods we've found to be effective:

Against Knife Attacks:

Empty Hand vs. Knife Drilling
The Jab & Stab Defense

Against Gun Threats:

Outside Pull

Using Weapons for Self Defense

Learning to use weapons in self defense is something every serious practitioner should do. They dramatically increase your chance of survival, teach you to better defend against them if they're used against you, and may be your only chance against armed, multiple, or bigger and stronger opponents. You'll learn much more about weapons here are a few examples of techniques and combinations using weapons for self defense.