5 of the Most Important Self-Defense Techniques

Note: this article is for general informational purposes only and in no way constitutes legal advice. If you require legal advice, seek professional assistance from a licensed expert in your jurisdiction.

The unfortunate truth of our world is that it is not safe. You never know if or when you may need to defend yourself. If you do not know self-defense techniques, you can learn them. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu classes teach you the prerequisites for effective self-defense and some essential self-defense techniques.

Prerequisite: Situational Awareness

The first prerequisite of effective self-defense is situational awareness. Situational awareness means being aware of your surroundings. The habit of situational awareness gives you the tools you need to understand how you should react to what is happening around you. It is a state of mental readiness that allows you to recognize if you are safe or not and take action as needed. You do not have to anticipate an attack at all times (that is not practical or healthy), but you should be observant enough to notice a potential threat to create a plan and react in time. Always remember the Rule of Stupid: Do not go to stupid places and do stupid things at stupid times with stupid people. You can avoid many problems simply by following the Rule of Stupid.

Prerequisite: De-Escalation

Many violent encounters begin with a verbal altercation. If those altercations can be de-escalated, physical violence can be prevented, which is the optimal outcome. The recognized method for de-escalating verbal altercations is called Verbal Judo. Learning good verbal judo will go a long way toward making you safer.

Prerequisite: The Law of Self Defense

The other essential prerequisite to effectively using self-defense is understanding the legal and ethical boundaries of use-of-force laws. According to use-of-force law expert Andrew Branca, there are five elements needed for self-defense to be justifiable in the eyes of the law: immanence, innocence, proportionality, reasonableness, and (sometimes) avoidance. Only a few states require avoidance, but it is still vital for tactical, legal, and ethical reasons.

Importantly, all five elements of justified self-defense must be present for a legal claim of self-defense to succeed. If a prosecutor can demonstrate that you are missing any of the five elements, you will not enjoy the legal protection of self-defense. Let us explain each component of justified self-defense in turn.

Immanence

Immanence refers to the spatial and temporal proximity of the perceived threat at the moment you use force in self-defense. You can only take physical action to defend yourself against a reasonably perceived threat that endangers your safety at that time and in that place. You cannot use force preemptively or after the danger has passed.

Innocence

Whoever initiated the conflict cannot argue that their actions were in self-defense. You cannot claim self-defense if you were the one who started the fight. This sounds like an easy rule to follow—do not start the fight. But there are a few common "traps" in which well-meaning individuals can lose the element of innocence. For example, suppose the aggressor withdraws, and you pursue. In that case, you are effectively starting a second fight, wherein your further use of force no longer enjoys the protection of the element of innocence. A second "trap" involves escalating a non-lethal confrontation with lethal force, in which case you are considered the aggressor of the deadly confrontation.

You also may not claim self-defense if you were involved in a felony during the course of which the initial threat appeared. For example, if you are attempting to sell hard drugs and the buyer attacks you, and you respond with force, your claim of self-defense at trial will not protect you from the legal ramifications of your force response.

Proportionality

Proportionality means that the force with which you respond to the threat must be proportionate to the force with which you are threatened. You usually cannot meet non-deadly force with deadly force and expect to argue that you acted in self-defense successfully. 

Proportionality in non-deadly-force situations is complex and varies from state to state. Still, deadly-force threats are essentially binary: if you reasonably perceive a threat of death or serious bodily harm, you are legally permitted to respond with as much force as is necessary to end the threat, provided the other four elements of justified self-defense are also met.

Reasonableness

Reasonableness is a catch-all term for a test commonly used in legal proceedings: would any reasonable person in your situation perceive what you perceived and react the way you reacted?

Reasonableness compares your behavior and actions to those that a reasonable person under the same or similar circumstances with the same skills and knowledge would take. If your actions and perceptions in your use of force do not align with what the jury thinks a reasonable person would do, your lawful self-defense argument will likely fail. This element applies to all other aspects of self-defense law—was your belief that the threat was imminent reasonable? Was your belief in your innocence reasonable? Etc.

Avoidance

Some jurisdictions impose a "duty to retreat," which means that it is illegal to use force in self-defense unless all avenues of escape have been exhausted. 

An increasing number of states, including Utah, have implemented "stand your ground" laws which remove avoidance as a legal requirement for self-defense because it is easy for a prosecutor to argue that avenues of escape—unknown to the defendant at the time of the confrontation—were nevertheless available. Stand your ground is good law, as it prevents prosecutors from sending people to prison on a technicality.

That said, for tactical, ethical, and legal reasons, avoidance remains an essential element of self-defense even in a Stand Your Ground state like Utah. Tactically, retreating or otherwise avoiding violence whenever possible is much safer than engaging in force. Ethically, we have a duty to avoid violence whenever possible. Legally, even in most Stand Your Ground states, prosecutors can argue that a reasonable person would have retreated and that your failure to withdraw is evidence that you were not defending yourself but that you just wanted to hurt or kill someone. In this way, a failure to retreat can still cause your claim of self-defense to fall apart on innocence or reasonableness, even in a Stand Your Ground state.

These five self-defense elements guide the legal and ethical boundaries of the use of force. Learn them well so that you can make intelligent decisions that keep you safe from danger and the threat of prosecution!

Without further adieu, let us discuss five of the most essential techniques for self-defense.

Technique #1: Stand Up in Base

Standing up in base is a way of moving from a seated position on the ground to a standing position. When done correctly, this technique allows you to create space while maintaining a stable, defensive posture throughout your movement. This enables you to get back onto your feet safely, so you have a better chance of escaping or continuing to defend yourself if needed. This is a basic technique that all BJJ women should know so well that it's second nature to them.

Technique #2: Cross Choke from Guard

If you find yourself stuck on your back on the ground with your opponent over you, you can incapacitate them with a cross choke from guard, also known as a cross-collar choke. The cross choke is a blood choke and can be effective even if your opponent is bigger and heavier than you. Depending on their position, you should proactively put your opponent in guard. However, this position and technique is crucial because it is one of the positions rapists are likely to take. While you will probably practice this technique on classmates wearing a gi in your BJJ self-defense class, it can be done on people wearing jackets or even t-shirts that are bunched up behind the neck.

Technique #3: Escape from Bear Hug

A bear hug is a grappling technique where both of your opponent's arms are wrapped around you. They may have their arms over your arms in an attempt to trap you, or they may go under your arms instead. This is a common position during an abduction, as it is easier for your opponent to keep you off balance and avoid being hit by you. Knowing how to escape from a bear hug is an essential self-defense technique. It would be best if you never allowed yourself to be moved to another location by an abductor.

In the escape from bear hug technique, you lower and widen your base to give yourself greater stability. You can then maneuver to throw your opponent off their feet. You may also end up on the ground, depending on how you accomplish this. Still, you should have a better chance at maintaining control since you are manipulating their movement rather than the other way around.

Technique #4: Mount Escape

There is a high chance of finding yourself under an attacker's mount if you are in a fight. That is a bad place to be since it leaves you vulnerable to strikes. There are multiple ways to escape from mount. Most involve trapping your opponent's arms and legs and then rolling. When done effectively, you will escape from under their mount and be better positioned to defend or disengage. Practice the escape from mount techniques so much that you can do them fluidly and with ease. 

Technique #5: Two-Handed Forward Choke Escape

What image comes to mind if you picture someone choking another person? Most people imagine the basic two-handed choke with the attacker's thumbs placed across the windpipe. While there is no denying that it hurts, it is not very effective at making someone pass out (which is why you do not see it taught as a BJJ attack). Not everyone knows that, though, which is why untrained people are likely to use it. As such, you should know how to escape it. There are a few different ways to accomplish this, but the easiest way is to reach behind your head with both hands to where your attacker's fingers are digging into the back of your neck. Using your fingertips against their fingertips, peel one finger away and get a good grip on it with your whole hand. Bring the other hand back around to trap the wrist of the finger you grabbed against your body, and then bend the finger toward the back of your attacker's hand until it snaps. Alternatively, if you react fast enough, you may be able to roll your head out from between the attacker's hands before they get a good grip on your neck.

Understanding self-defense theory and techniques is good, but you will need more than that in a real-life situation. The only way to get the proficiency required to defend yourself effectively with any technique is to train often and train hard. 

BJJ women's self-defense classes are a great way to get the instruction and practice you need to know how to execute the techniques correctly. Once you know how to do them correctly, train until they are second nature to you. That is the best way to make sure you're prepared to use them in a real-life self-defense situation if you need to. If you want to get started, there is no better place to learn proper self-defense than at Combat Arts S&C.