When should I fight back if I’m being attacked?

We know that most criminals who target the elderly are usually after an easy payday and nothing else.

So, should you ever fight back? If so, when?

When we look at statistics, we learn that, approximately 90 per cent of the time, if an elderly man or women follows the instructions of their attacker and gives them what they want, the attacker will take the goods and leave you alone. It is scary – you will be shook up – but you’ve survived. 

Money, cars and physical objects can be replaced – your life can’t. Our top tip is to always give an attacker what he wants at the time, then call police after and let them do their work. 

We also know that, in that 10 per cent group where the attacker is there to hurt their elderly victim or the situation changed and they started to hurt their victim, the victims who fought back are usually a lot better off for it.

Let’s be very clear, if your attacker is going to hurt you, you MUST fight back. Fight dirty, fight loudly and refuse to be his or her victim. In most cases your attacker will flee – they want to escape from the attention you are drawing to them.

In the Krav Maga and self-defence world, we call it ‘flicking the switch’ – turning from victim to aggressor. Your size won’t matter. You’re unleashing your internal beast and nothing or no-one is going to stop you. That is the mentality you need to believe and what you need them to believe too.

Don’t worry about fighting technique or even landing your strikes. Just go crazy!

When should you “flick the switch” and fight for your life?

You need to be alert in an attack, you need to breathe deeply to override the adrenaline dump that might distract you from your focus and you need quickly analyse what is going on. There is no-one else there to tell you when to fight back – you are the judge and jury.

Ask yourself the following:

Does he or she simply want physical items or are they here to hurt me?

If it’s a ‘yes’ to hurting me straight away, then – BOOM! Bring out your internal beast. If not, follow their instructions but stay prepared.

Violent situations are very dynamic. At first it may just be a robbery and it could escalate and change very quickly. You need to be aware and alert for those changes to respond at anytime.

So, if at any point it changes to them deliberately wanting to hurt you. Flick. That. Switch.

Did these tips help you?