Fighting Options
Improvised Weapons

Fighting Options include imrpovised weapons ranging from prehistoric rocks and clubs to almost anything you can get your hands on.

Watching TV late one night, Doug never heard the intruder breaking in. It wasn’t until he went into his kitchen to toss out a half-full glass of warm soda that Doug came face-to-face with a glaring burglar gripping a knife and demanding, "Freeze – or I'll kill you!" ... In a flash Doug startled him for a crucial split-second by flinging the soda into his face, then palmed the bottom of the glass and slammed it into the intruder's face, gashing it. Next he grabbed the toaster and bashed his head again and again. ... Desperately struggling to fend him off, the burglar dropped the knife. Doug grabbed it instantly, started hacking at the burglar, then suddenly spun and ran outside, yelling for his neighbors to call the cops.

A man died after he was beaten with a blunt instrument – a high-heel shoe – during a violent brawl with his ex-lover. The former mistress was arrested at the scene, still straddling her former lover.
Excerpted from The New York Post – 08 June 2003

Two teenage boys were standing in pouring rain imploring an elderly woman to let them in her door to use her telephone. Suddenly they pushed-in through her opened door and wrestled her to the floor. But the truly great-grandmother, though 93 years old, blind in one eye, and needing a cane to walk, pummeled the two bandits with her cane until they fled. She bought a new, heavier cane.

A weapon is any object used to inflict harm. Beyond the obvious scissors, kitchen knives, screwdrivers, and hammers, your home is loaded with normally benign objects that can be used as makeshift weapons – anything you can pick up to throw at or use to club an attacker.

The hard edge of a book, a vase, or light furniture can be used to club him. A closed umbrella can jab like a pool cue-stick into his throat or eye.

Sand, dirt, powder, loose change, or a pillow can be thrown in his eyes to surprise him and precede other strikes. Or throw hot coffee, and then jam the cup’s rim in his face. Or throw hot food cooking in a pan into his face and club him with the pan. Or spray his face with a fire extinguisher then club him with it. The wasp-killer spray in your garage reaches a good distance and can cause permanent eye damage to an attacker.

Away from home as well, makeshift weapons are all around – almost anything at hand. Your pockets, too, may hold a key (held ready to insert into a lock – or an eye).

Middletown NY – A man sexually assaulted a woman alone inside a local church. As seen on the video, the suspect walks in and sits down in a pew. Then he suddenly leaps on the woman, holding her down and groping her. She had been making notes in a notepad and fought off the attacker by stabbing him in the neck repeatedly with her pen until he fled.
Excerpted from WCBSTV.com – 17 May 2007

A simple ballpoint stick pen (a shaft-like pen minus it's cap) serving as a handy and superb knife-like weapon when used to stab an eye, throat, or almost any body part. Better yet, two pens can be used with both hands. Perhaps hold one pen in the "ice-pick grip" (pointed end sticking out the little-finger side of your hand, with your thumb covering the butt- end) ready to repeatedly "overhead-hammer-swing." Hold the other pen in the "key-into-lock grip" (pointed end held between your thumb and index finger with the butt-end secured against your palm) ready to repeatedly jab. See Subway Encounter in Posturing.

Of course, it’s always possible for a weapon to be taken away from you and used against you. That largely depends upon your willingness to wield a weapon with absolute intent to do grievous harm.

Simply brandishing a weapon in a threatening posture might not dissuade an attacker. Would you be willing to instantly use the weapon if your attacker continued to approach you anyway? You must effectively attack or you’ll simply provide your attacker with your weapon. Never bluff. Use it or lose it. Attack him with the ferocity of a mad dog. Also, beware of him merely faking surrender only to launch a surprise attack after all. See Acting and Optimal Mindset.

See Pepper Spray, Devices, & Weapons.

Beyond all that, learn the following Fighting Options as a backup because your natural weapons (hands, knees, and so on) are always with you.

For convenience, learn self-defense ONLINE:

KRAV MAGA, a practical self-defense system used by many police forces worldwide, teaches you to defend yourself, enhances your survival instinct, and can be applied under extreme stress. It's not flashy, just very effective. I highly recommend it. The Krav Maga TV - Online Training videos are especially convenient to learn at home when your schedule allows or if you don't live near a training center.

Go to
• Fighting Options - Overview: escaping from a violent predator.
• Myths: debunking misconceptions of fighting options.
• When to Defend Yourself: acting instead of reacting.
• Sucker Punch: a surprise attack.
• Strategies for Fighting Options
• Improvised Weapons (YOU’RE NOW ON THIS PAGE)
• Choosing a Self-Defense Class
• Pepper Spray, Devices, & Weapons

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