Hiya Cloudy! Glad this is over and that you are a strong woman.
Since well I have been training alot of martial art in the more "extreme" self defence systems I can tell you all this.
1. Most important rule. Never be a victim. You have mentioned the look in the eye, good poise, never run, be calm, be in charge of your own emotions. This is the precautions before something happens.
2. Locations and awareness. Never walk close to a wall, always walk out abit before you round corners to be able to see what is behind it. If you walk to close you can be onned aginst it, or you can be jumped more easily. Stay away from dark streets, remote locations. And if walking at night, wear sneakers regardless of how nice dress you have. This is also important for guys, donīt try to run in fancy shoes, try to have sneakers to that tux!
3. When attacked. One of the most important things to remember if attakced is the psychological momentum, someone grabs you, kick hit scream and fast, stare the attacker in the eyes, show him you are not a victim, this might (I say might cause you never know) make the attacker hesitate and then place a kick Beckham would be envious of right between the leg, regardless sex on the attakcer, they wonīt be that happy to run after that. About the keys, this is a good/bad thing. If you can hold them as a "tubelike" object in your hand, thats great, add a hardness to your own knuckles, if you try to have it sticking out like a stabbing wepaon between fingers, be prepaired for the pain, too many have broken fingers hands so on, but that might be worth it..
Pepperspray, shockguns, high heels (if you are not going to run) are better options. Pepperspray is visciosly effective..
Try to hit the opponent towards the face, regardless wether you hit or not, most will be defensive, you break attacker to defender, and hands go high to defend face. Remember Beckham? *womp* absolutley the best means a woman has to defend herself against men.
4. This is when you are attacked and on the ground. Mostly I would like to be able to show this but, well the reminding thing to keep in mind here is that a man canīt do it with his pants on. If he has a weapon well, this situation is the one we in Krav usually calls the do or die. Of obvious reasons. If no weapon is present, wait for the unbuckling of pants, hit with fingers against soft tagets, throat, eyes, kidneys, use your hips to shake to one side and hit him so the momentum is to the same way of the complete attack, try and get legs free and kick hard often and furious. Usually you have nothing to loose.
5. Free again, run like hell, keep low profile, run towards service stores, offices, banks with alarms, set it off do whatever. A fine for breaking a window is just money..
6. After.
Not much to tell, psychologist are better at this than martial arts instructors but remember one thing. IT IS NEVER YOUR FAULT! NEVER BLOODY EVER!
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If someone wants to I can go find some litterature about both the psychology effects and tricks and techniques when attacked..
I hope that you can find some reason in my rumblings and if you are interested in anything, donīt hesitate to ask me.