Part 3
By George Demetriou and Lisa Demetriou

This is the "hands on" portion of the lesson. It is important to remember what was mentioned previously in this article; Bad guys want to avoid capture therefore they want to avoid noise, time consumption and injury. As a chosen target you always have one thing going for you; the bad guy thinks he has you beat already. A target is chosen based on the assailant's perception that he(they)think they can get away with the crime with relative ease. If criminals enjoyed challenges they would probably have legitimate careers! A criminal may expect token resistance, but they will not expect a sudden, vicious onslaught by the intended "prey". Especially when you appear to be going along with the script that they mentally rehearse. There is a saying from where the authors train-"If I control your body I'll beat you half the time, but If I control your mind for even a split second I'll beat you every time. I will have taken too much of an edge." You can control an assailant's mind for at least a split second by cooperating then going on the offensive just when the assailant seems to think things are going according to his plan.

If you have no self-defense experience you will want to find someone who can specifically help with this particular topic. Being a martial artist is not good enough. You want to seek out a person who trains for the reality of a dynamic, violent confrontation not the instructor who has the most tournament trophies in the window of his school. This should be well researched. Protecting your family and yourself has nothing to do with protocol, ranking, belts, rituals or sport. Parents are to their children what the secret service is to various dignitaries with one major exception-YOU ARE NOT EXPENDABLE! You have to survive in order to protect your loved ones. The following should be included when training specifically to protect yourself and your children at the same time:

1) Where to position the children should I have to fight.
2) Tactics if one or both hands are occupied.
3) Tactics if my hands are occupied by a child.
4) What can I show my kids to help themselves not get taken away by a bad guy?
5) Tactics if the assailant is in the car with me.
6) What if there is multiple assailants?
7) What if a person is demanding my car and my children are already inside it?
8) What if I'm grabbed as I'm walking into my house or getting into my car?
9) What if the assailant has a weapon?
10) What can I do if I'm grabbed from behind while I'm holding my infant child?
11) Should the children run for help?
12) What should the function of both parents or 2 adults be during an assault while in the company of children?
13) What to do if an assailant reaches into the car while the car is parked?
14) Discussing bad guys with the children.
15) Tactics while walking with a baby carriage, shopping cart or stroller.


Gaining insight and increasing awareness regarding child protection can be done in a few hours. Training for a real situation will take time and practice. The training should include confrontational simulations (instructors with full protective gear "attacking" trainees in various scenarios) and a realistic environment (a bus, train, car, an elevator, a
narrow hallway). Remember the actual incidents from the beginning of this article. Those women used their fear and anger for action. They kept their cool and employed the greatest weapon of all - the mind.

The chances of being attacked while with your children is slim. If it is something that concerns you then it's worth looking into. Just questioning yourself about what you would do if?.......is a good start. Increasing overall awareness as well as trusting your intuition and getting proper training is the winning formula. The goal is to have options should the bad man and your family cross paths.