[EXPLAINED] Best Self-Defense For Seniors

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If you feel like a victim or are afraid of even walking out of your front door, and it’s limiting your enjoyment of life as a senior well then this article is perfect for you.

The world we live in today isn’t what it use to be, it’s become more ruthless and dangerous.

93% of all burglary and theft crimes against people over age 65.

In this article, I will be discussing the best self-defense for seniors.

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Age doesn’t have to limit you from learning how to defend yourself from attackers.

If you have the basic knowledge of self-defense, then you’ll feel much more confident to go out or stay at home alone.

Doing martial arts as a senior/elderly person can boost your stamina, coordination, range of motion, and mental ability.

Improving your confidence will automatically show people you’re not vulnerable.

Self-defense is there to prepare you for the unexpected.

It will train your brain to be aware and open-minded.

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Table of Contents

Techniques To Defend Yourself

Here are a few techniques that will help you to defend yourself from attackers.

Situational awareness
Mannerism and body language
Distance control
Striking defense
Breaking grips

As a senior person, some of the techniques mentioned will be difficult but with practice, exercise and stretching, they will become easier to use.

These 4 techniques are very important to know and understand if you want to defend yourself.

Let’s look at the techniques in more detail.

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Situational Awareness

No matter your age, being aware of your surroundings is crucial.

As a senior person, awareness is a big factor because attackers are taking advantage of older citizens.

It will probably be difficult to always be aware and to always use your brain, but it’s unfortunately necessary in our world today.

You MUST train your brain to be aware of your surroundings.

Examples of when to be aware:

When a random person knocks on your door to ask for something
When you’re walking your dog or just walking to your car
When someone comes and asks you for the time (or something similar)

Those are some of the examples of when to be aware, but you should always be mindful of who’s around you and where you are.

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Mannerism and Body Language

Your body language and mannerisms are very important factors, they can give off signals to criminals that you’re an easy target.

Researchers recorded more than 60 people walking along a New York City street.

This video was shown to a group of prison inmates who had been convicted of assaulting strangers and they had to say who would be easy targets.

Surprisingly age, size, and gender were not the deciding factors of who’s better to assault.

It was their body language and mannerism. They appeared more vulnerable.

So always make sure you’re walking with a straight posture and your head up.

Be confident when walking and always pay attention to your surroundings.

Distance Control

Defending yourself is all about controlling the situation and keeping the distance between you and the attacker.

Keep your arms out so that you can push or bump the attacker away.
If you can keep an object between you and the attacker such as a chair, then do so. Always try and keep your attacker as far away from you as possible.
If you don’t have an object then keep them further than arm’s length away to reduce their striking power.
You should always stay in motion, never stand still

An attacker can’t attack unless he’s within the striking zone, so always keep moving.

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Striking Defense

Defending yourself from punches or kicks is difficult, but there are a few ways seniors can defend against strikes:

As previously mentioned, staying as far away as possible from your attacker is the most important thing. That will then make it difficult for the attacker to land any type of strike.
If the attacker is in striking distance and you can’t get away, then get as close to them as possible. That will make it difficult for the attacker to gather momentum for a punch or kick.
When you are basically against their body, you should attempt a trip to get him to the floor. That will give you chance to get away and look for help.

The biggest factor in any self-defense situation is to keep a distance between you and the attacker.

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Breaking Grips

The first common thing an attacker will do is to grab hold of you.

You should:

Keep fighting to break the grip. That means keep moving and don’t make it easy for the attacker to get a tight grip.
Anchoring your hands on your attacker makes it difficult for him to move or throw you around if with a grip.
If the attacker grips your clothes, then you grip the attacker’s clothes and pull him in closer to protect yourself from strikes and you can then trip the attacker to the ground.

Breaking grips are difficult, but here’s our system for dealing with them and other self-defense strategies.