Scenario: Traffic Light
@Awen_Eldorath (107)
United States
July 26, 2010 2:44pm CST
The following is a scenario that has been posed in many of the current combative arts schools to begin conditioning students to always be aware of their situation, as well as conditioning students to think about possible issues/problems that may arise in their day to day interactions. Bruce Lee often spoke about visualizing various scenarios that one might encounter and creating responses in the mind to those scenarios. We know from research that muscles will respond the very same way they would in a given activity even if the activity is only visualized. This technique has been used not only by martial artists, but professional sports players for years, and is every effective. So, I'll be also providing various scenarios for us to discuss how we might respond. All are welcome to add their responses.
Traffic Light Scenario:
You find yourself at a red light with one car in front of you, and one car behind you. A man walks up to your car and places a knife against your neck through the open window. He wants you to get out of the car, but you have your two year old in the back seat. What do you do?
1 person likes this
1 response
@Anora_Eldorath (6028)
• United States
27 Jul 10
The first thing I would do prior to being caught in this situation is to make sure I always had enough room around my car to manuever my car out of the situation. A car's length is suggested for driving, I think it should follow when stopping at intersections as well or in any sort of traffic. I also tend to drive with my windows up and locked, so I'm not sure my window would be open. This is where I personally feel situational awareness is most necessary. Most of us use it when driving, to an extend, where we are checking our mirrors to make lane changes and so forth, but it seems that we become relaxed when stopped. I constantly scan my environment looking at what is around me. I do not feel this is out of "paranoia", but more out of knowing exactly what is around me at all times. In this scenario, my scanning would allow me to see this person approaching the car. If I had left enough room I could drive my car out of the lane, turn in the opposite direction, and be putting a call into 911 with a full description of the person who was doing said actions.
The last thing I want to do in this scenario is get out of the car. I personally don't feel a small joint lock would work if the person had gotten the blade into the car, simply because of the small space. I also am not sure pulling them against the car would be effective, because I'm a woman and have no upper body strength.
I look forward to reading more responses.
Namaste-Anora
