H.I.T. Self Defense

Let’s take a moment and focus on some basic preventative techniques for the kids (boys and girls, alike). This usually starts with parents and open communication. F.Y.I. - the purpose of this post is not to tell you how to ‘parent’. Rather, I want to give some very basic and general practices that might help keep your children safe.

First and foremost, we need to define a ’stranger’ to our child. A ’stranger’ in the guise of “Stranger Danger” will never reveal that he or she is a stranger. They will use a whole assortment of tactics to gain the child’s trust (become their friend) or frighten the child into compliance. These tactics range from deception; “help me find my puppy, I’ve lost my puppy” to flat out intimidation; “you’re mommy has been in an accident, I need to take you to the hospital… you need to get in the car, NOW!” This seems a bit rhetorical, but a stranger is anyone unknown to your child.

Also, it’s important that we teach our kids to say NO! This is often overlooked: It’s o.k. to say NO to an adult that you don’t know. This is a bit foreign to children because they are taught to respect adults. However, we need to reinforce that it’s alright to say ‘no’ to a stranger.

Another good technique is to have a secret word that only you and your child know. That way, if someone tries to pick your child up with the approach; “I’m a friend of your mommy and daddy, they wanted me to pick you up from school.” If they don’t have the secret word, they’re not a friend of mommy and daddy. You can make this secret word fun, a friend used to use the word: bug juice.

Kids are great at escape and evasion. Let’s be honest, even on a good day, it’s hard to keep up with them. Utilize this natural instinct to teach them how to evade a predator. The most fundamental idea is creating space (8-10 ft., minimum) and trying to find obstacles that they can put between themselves and the predator. Make sure to reinforce that if the predator doesn’t know the secret word - no matter what your child does, they’re not in trouble. Yell, scream; “he’s not my daddy!”- anything to get attention. These are all consequences that a predator does not want - these are things that tend to draw unwanted attention.

Finally, if the predator does try to get a hold of your child, teach them to drop to the ground. Start kicking and start screaming/yelling (practice yelling with them - what could be more fun for your child? Mommy and daddy actually want me to yell/scream). In a real life situation, this can be enough to stop an attempted abduction.

As a training technique - I used this clip in a previous blog for adults - but this works just the same for kids. You can play this same game of tag with you child and practice evading a potential predator.

This is a very serious topic to discuss with your child. However, you can still make this fun to learn (yelling/screaming practice, a fun secret word, or a friendly game of tag).

Visit the Site/Get the DVD: www.hitselfdefense.com