In a hostile situation, you have to make a lot of decisions very quickly. In this excerpt from Taekwondo Self-defense: Taekwondo Hoshinsool, Sang H. Kim summarizes the key stages of a self-defense situation and the important decisions you'll need to make in each stage.
1. ASSESS:
• Trust your gut feeling, stay cool.
• Size up the situation:
1. Hostility intensity: deadly threat, mild conflict, casual unpleasantness.
2. Environmental factors: indoor, outdoor, sloping ground, exits, available environmental weapons.
3. Weapons: attacker has a gun, knife, pipe, or bat.
4. People factors: numbers, size, athleticism, position.
• What are your options? If possible, escape as fast as you can. If you can’t escape, breathe deeply, stay cool and control the distance.