Introduction

There are three simple things you can do to foil an attacker. Be alert, remain sober, and wear the right pair of shoes.

Be alert

Stay alert. That is to say that you have to keep your eyes open. You have to be aware of your surrounding. What that means is that you have to take the ipod out of your ears. You have to look up from your cell phone. You have to look back from time to time to make sure that no one is following you. I recall reading an article in one of our local newspapers-I forget if it was the Chicago Tribune or the Sun-Times-anyway, it talked about how some cell phone users would be texting while walking down the street. In doing so, they would be so absorbed in what they were doing that they had become unmindful of the people around them. Because of that, they would often bump into other people accidentally. While they are focused on their cell phone or ipod, some shady characters are focused their purse, wallet, person. They are not alert so criminal elements see potential victim written all over them.

Stay sober

Another thing: When you are out in public, remain sober. I know of two incidents in which a couple of people were assaulted simply because they were inebriated. One incident involved a guy who had a black belt in both karate and judo. One day he had been drinking and walking down the street alone. A couple of guys seeing what state he was in decided that he would make a great candidate to rob. So that is just what they did and more. Not only did he have his wallet stolen, he also endured a beaten at their hands as well. Were he sober, my friend tells me, this would not have happened. The other incident involved a very strong guy who was out late at night walking down the street alone while intoxicated also. The same thing happened to him that happened to the other guy. He too was robbed, and suffered a severe physical assault at the hands of his attackers. The point is this: If you don't want to become someone's victim, make sure you're sober any time you are out in public.

Wear the right shoes

Last, if you don't want to become a victim of an assault, you must wear the right shoes. What are the right shoes? It can be any kind of shoes from running shoes to casual shoes to dress shoes or boots. However, they can't just be any kind of shoe. They must be steel-toe shoes that look like any other ordinary shoe. This is your trump card. This is your element of surprise when someone out of the blue decides to assault you. Not only will your unexpected counter shock them. It will also put them on the ground when you apply a forceful low snap kick to their groan, knee, shin, or ankle. Nothing fancy. Just simple and practical self-defense techniques. You will have turned the tables on your assailant by making them-and not you-the victim.

Summary

So there you have it in a nutshell: To keep from becoming someone's victim, you need to do three things: Stay alert, stay sober, and wear the right pair of shoes.