In this article I discuss three ways of defending yourself. One way is defending yourself psychologically. Another way is defending yourself physically, and the third way is defending yourself using "concealed" yet public weapons.

Defending yourself psychologically, I believe, is the best way to protect yourself. All of the fighting takes place on the mental plane. You, as it is stated in the Art of War by Sun Tzu, fight without fighting. However, if you are to fight on this level, you have to be able to master your emotions. That is to say that you must learn to make yourself immune to insults, taunts, name-calling, ridicule and any other means used by those who would seek to get under your skin to try to bait and provoke you into fighting. So instead of being bothered by the taunts and insults, you put on a blank face, ignore them, and if you can, remove yourself from that environment. You put out the fire before it starts. The best defense is no defense. Don't fight. Run. Get out of harm's way!

Defending yourself physically is another way is, of course, of protecting yourself. Fight only if you have to. Fight only if there is no other choice. Otherwise I would suggest that you fight solely on the psychological level. Many years ago, I watched a movie on television called "The Fastest Gun Alive", and in that movie was the line: "There is always someone faster". We all need to heed those words: That no matter how good a fighter we are, there is probably someone out there that can beat us. However, if you do find yourself backed up into a corner and the only way you can defend yourself is through force, just what do you do in such a situation? You adapt your defense to the situation that you find yourself in. If the situation is not very serious, then your aim should be merely to stun your attacker. This can be done by simply tripping your assailant, jamming his attack, giving him a quick punch or jab to the stomach, solar plexus, or face, or even giving him a quick and hard kick to the shins. If the situation is grave in the sense that the attacker intends to cause you bodily harm, then you must aim to put your assailant out of service. You can do this by using an arm bar to break his arm, applying an elbow to his chin to knock him unconscious, performing a hard kick to the knee cap to break his knee and thus disable him, or applying a sharp kick to his groin to leave him on the pavement writhing in pain.

On the other hand, if your aggressor's goal is to remove you from the earth, then you just might have to turn the table on your assailant and -God forbid-remove him first. To do this, you might consider applying a chop or punch to his throat, an elbow strike to the base of his skull or a hard kick to his groin.

Defending yourself using "concealed" yet public weapons is still another way to protect yourself. Two weapons come to mind: Steel-toe shoes and sap gloves. Today steel-toe shoes can look like any other pair of running, walking, or dress shoes. The only difference is that they have steel inside of them. The same thing can be said about sap gloves. They look like any other pair of gloves except that they may have some form of brass or steel filling inside the knuckle of the glove. In both instances the weapon is public yet concealed. Imagine a young and petite woman wearing steel toe running shoes and classy sap gloves suddenly being attacked by a big and powerful assailant. He goes to attack her and having the element of surprise on her side, she pummels him with steel toe kicks and brass knuckles-filled gloves. Who is the victim now?

In conclusion, I talked about fighting on three different levels to defend yourself: Fighting on the psychological level. Fighting on the not-so-serious level. Fighting on the serious level, and last, fighting with concealed weapons.