It’s an important issue as a recent Independent Police Complaints Commission report identified 333 deaths in police custody between 1998 and 2009. The specifics of these cases I’m not going to get into here but I do want to highlight that, once again, the importance of appropriate management of any situation of potential conflict is so very important. Nobody in these situations wants to get hurt and the police, or any other enforcing authority, must be ever more vigilant in ensuring that they use the correct physical restraint technniques and use appropriate self-defence techniques when needed.

At the risk of sounding like a real bore on the subject it’s all down to practice….practice…practice. The police have some excellent training available to them and I am sure that officers are skilled in restraint techniques and self-defence but unless it is something that is practiced then they are at risk of either getting themselves hurt or hurting others. Getting back into the class room to practice skills on a regular basis should be essential ‘maintence training’ and this applies to anyone who works in industry sectors that deal with the public and are at risk of being in conflict situations.

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…a chef attacked one of his staff in a rage after renowned food critic AA Gill reported that his meal was ‘disgusting’ (which later turned out to be a joke).

…disgraced labour MP Elliot Morley was beaten up in prison as fellow inmates stole his £3,000 Rolex watch

…Wayne Rooney prostitute Helen Wood was beaten up in a pub after taught from other drinkers who recognised her from the scandal.

All of these attacks have one thing in common of course…the victims just didn’t see it coming. Obviously that is the advantage any assailant has on his/her victim which is why we should always consider our personal safety as a matter of routine…it should be as normal a thought as remembering to brush your teeth every morning. Now, don’t get me wrong…I’m not saying live your life in fear or always look over your shoulder it’s just about safety…you check your car don’t you? The tyres? The oil? That you’ve put the handbrake on? That it’s not in gear before you start the engine? So apply the same principles….

….what do I have on my person (watch, money etc) do I need it all with me where I am going? Why, I have to ask did MP Elliot Morley have a £3,000 Rolex with him in prison?

….if you a well known figure in an area where you might attract unwanted attention, have you considered how you will get home? Prostitute Helen Wood would have been better placed to apply the ‘flight’ aspect of her adrenalin rush when other drinkers got abusive rather than ‘fight’. Choosing to confront a situation of conflict is not the safest option. If you have an escape route for goodness sake use it. Run.

For the poor employee who got pushed down the stairs by his irate chef I have two tips and this stands for any situation of conflict that you may find yourself in. First of all my assumption would be that the poor employee who was pushed down the stairs must have turned his back on his boss. So his boss had the advantage of surprise and impact – your two worst enemies….so tip number one….

1. Never turn your back on someone who is being aggressive towards you.

Our natural reaction when someone goes to attack us is to flinch away. My advice is to use this natural response to your advantage and convert your flinch into a forward movement and ideally a pivot to move out of the way. This is what I teach on my personal defence readiness courses and it does take some practice to apply. So tip number two is…

2. Convert your flinch into a forward pivot movement to get you out of the way.

Both these techniques work really well in situations when you find yourself in a conflict situation and keep you ready to protect yourself. But don’t be a hero, when the opportunity arises and it’s safe to do so, get the hell out of there.

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Earlier this year the Justice Secretary pledged that an Act of Parliament would be used to clarify the legal situation around the use of reasonable force against intruders. This is on the back of recent high profile cases such as Minr Hussain who chased and beat a man who had held his family at knife point in his home. I’ll be watching developments on this closely over the forth coming months and posting my thoughts in my blog.

All of this prompts me to give my own home security a bit of a review. I spend so much of my time and energy focusing on my first passion of personal safety and conflict management that I forget that protecting my home is another aspect of that. So here’s my top tips for reviewing your home safety:

1. Install or get your alarm serviced/upgraded. Depending on the level of security (or your budget) you want or need you can get get everything from basic alarms fitted to cctv systems installed.Home security systems actively monitor the doors and windows of a house. Once the system is engaged, any tampering with external exits will trigger the alarm. These devices can be configured to multiple external systems including lights and sirens.
2. Install security doors and deadbolt locks. These are relatively are simple to install and provide good home protection. Most criminals look for homes without locks as these homes are typically easier to enter. A house that includes a strong steal door with deadbolts deters most criminals. These homes require additional time to invade, which adds unnecessary risk for the thief.
3. Get a dog. Not to everyone’s liking but they can act as effective deterrents.
4. You could consider a home evacuation plan. This plan can be executed by family members during a home invasion. Home invasion is a scary ordeal but proper escape planning can help. This protection tactic is best used in hostage situations. These techniques are typically used by families of people such as diplomats, senior executives, and celebrities. That all said, even the most humble of us could do with familiarising ourselves with potential escape routes in the event of a fire, for example.

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My friend brought this to my attention not because he’s a health and safety fanatic and knows of my work and personal interest in this area but to ask advice. He too had been grabbed by the wrist by a patient (he’s a care-worker) and while there was nothing serious to report about it, the patient being very frail he wondered what was the best way to release a grip such as this and ensure no harm to either himself or the patient.

So this week I thought I’d share with you my top tips for releasing yourself safely from a grip such as this.

Single Handed Parallel Grip.

If the agressor grabs you with the thumb on the inside of the wrist. Thumb – Inside- Turn In. Pull your hand back towards your own body to break contact with their palm. Push your elbow forwards towards the aggressor’s forearm. Step back to re-create the personal safety buffer zone.

I can’t go without a least a comment on the health and safety side of things that this example highlights. Employers put themselves, their employees and their clients/patients at risk if they do not ensure appropriate and regular physical intervention, personal safety skills and conflict management training . When deciding on a course please ensure it covers the legal side of things such as Health and Safety legislation and that your supplier has the appropriate accreditation such as edexcel the UKs largest awarding body for qualifications and The Institute of conflict management.

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This thought struck me as I was sat in a parents meeting at school this week. The Head spoke at length about the dangers of the internet, reminded us about the legal age of Facebook (13 by the way) and shared with us the school rules on internet usage. All great stuff don’t get me wrong but what about the..dare I say it..old fashioned stuff…they used to call it ‘stanger danger’ but I call it protecting youself…in otherwords self-defence.

So your average 13 year old knows how to detect a suspicious Facebook friend request but can they defend themselves from a variety of grabs? Navigating their way around youtube, twitter and myspace is second nature but how quickly can they work out the quickest possible escape route if confronted?

Can you see my point? Here are my quick  personal safety tips that are equally applicable to children and adults.

1. Be aware. Particulary when you are close to home. Research suggests that we ‘let our guard down’ when we are in familiar territory.
2. Look for incongruencies. E.g someone asking for the time if they have a watch on. Someone asking directions but not looking at you when you tell them. Trust your instincts…if something doesn’t seem quite right walk away.
3. Look for escape routes. If a car is following you and you are on foot then turn around forcing it to do a difficult (and conspicious) u-turn.
4. Be careful of short-cuts. Are they obscured from view? Can someone easily hide along the route? Never go alone or better still take the longer route home.
5. Carry a personal alarm. Just pop one in your pocket. It’s worth spending a little extra to get one that’s at least 136db.

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Now drawing sporting analogies to business or work scenarios is, in my book, a dangerous thing. At best you end up sounding pompous and at worst you just end up dragging up a load of old clichés. Don’t get me wrong I’ve had the privilege of hearing several sportsmen and women talk about their profession and draw links to positive thinking in the everyday and business world around us. Done well you can see where they’re coming from and yes, draw relevant parallels to your own life. Done badly you’re left thinking well…is preparing for my next important client meeting really the same as the training programme for an Olympic athlete?

But back to Wimbledon and what prompted my thoughts….I’ve been focusing on Emotional State Control this week for a client this is how being in control of your emotions is essential to manage conflict situations effectively. So understanding your triggers for fear and/or loss of emotional control are part of the process of learning how to control them so that no matter what situation you are in, whether you feel threatened or angered yourself, you always retain control of your emotions. This then supports you in being a really good communicator (see my P.O.L.I.T.E model on my website for more information). So I was watching Novak Djokovic and waiting to see if he would lose his temper like he did in the semi’s against Baghdatis where he smashed his racket three times in a rage. I was thinking surely it must be obvious to see it coming…here he is centre stage, immense pressure, everything riding on the match….could I see it either coming or him trying to control it? There are clues….facial expressions, where the eyes focus, breathing techniques…but put yourself in an everyday situation without the benefits of a camera close up and an obviously extreme situation and can you read the clues as easily?

It’s difficult which is why being in control of your own emotional state is so important so that if you suddenly find yourself in a situation with conflict or violence you are in control of your emotions and are ready to react effectively. You can anchor an emotional state by using one of your visual, auditory or kinesthetic cues. This is line with the NLP way of thinking. For instance, playing a certain type of music that makes you feel a certain way is an example of an auditory anchor but. This may be more difficult if a situation unexpectedly confronts you, but with practice you can become quicker at gaining control. If you are clever you can stack anchors to make it a really powerful exercise. All you need to do is think about a time when you felt good, the emotional state you were in, the confidence, control and calmness you felt and then pull on that memory to anchor control of your emotions.
All easier said than done of course which is why practice makes perfect or as I like to think..practice makes permanent – if you practice something wrong you can get good at doing it wrong. Which is one unarguable lesson every business practice can learn from the sporting world.

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The Yorkshire Ripper caused terror in the 1970s across the Yorkshire region sadly attacking numerous women and killing several. Many of his attacks in Bradford occurred in the Lumb Lane area of the city and this was quickly associated with the killings in West Yorkshire.

The TV programme Band of Gold which was shown between 1995-7 highlighted this part of Bradford again, and showed it as a seedy red light district. The local residents from the area decided they had simply had enough of this bad reputation and they decided to make a stand. They teamed up by getting together and protested by joining hands and forcing the prostitutes and the pimps out of their neighbourhood. This pushed the red light district to the Thorton Road part of the city which is next to the University of Bradford and it has been there every since.

More recently the self-proclaimed “Crossbow Cannibal” Stephen Griffiths was a student at the University of Bradford and he had a house just off Thornton Road which means he has been walking these streets every single day for many years. One prostitute was reported as saying she saw him every single day. Why is this important I hear you ask? Because all of the victims of the latest murders in Bradford were likely to have known Mr Griffiths personally because they saw him every day. They knew him, or at the very least, they will of known of him.

A scary fact is more than half (60%) of women are attacked by men they already know – not a complete stranger.

In my opinion the guy that attacked these ladies probably lived amongst them.

Good personal safety is being aware of people you know as well as the complete strangers.

Attack Rituals

If we look at attack rituals, an attacker is almost always likely to have his blood full of adrenaline. The murderer, or attacker, attacks people for a reason and usually it’s because they get a buzz out of it.

So if you see someone you know and they are behaving just slightly differently this can often be a key clue because it’s not congruent. Now I am not saying that everyone who acts a little differently is going to attack you but it should ring some alarm bells in your head.

If someone is going to attack they are either going to use the ambush technique, or they are going to use the talking distance attack, because it has to take place at talking distance. The attacker needs to get close, so they can either run and ambush or they come and talk to you nicely but they won’t be acting like they normally do.

If I was to guess I would say that these terrible series of Bradford murders were probably talking distance attacks and the girls probably recognised their attacker and felt pretty comfortable in his company. In fact, one newspaper article I read said the accused, Stephen Griffiths, was acting in a very different way on the day of the final murder – in other words he looked a bit shifty!

There are three elements to look out for:

• Body language
• Tonality
• Words

If the other person seems excited or nervous, or both, there will be a incongruency between their body language, tone and words. In other words they may be saying one thing but their body language and tonality would be saying another because of this extra excitement.

Psychopaths like to kill people because there is a feeling of being important and more in control – they enjoy this kind of domination. They don’t understand empathy and often they simply do it to get a chemical reaction in their blood.

So if your proposed attacker wants to get close, he will try and talk to you and he will have increased levels of adrenaline. This is why some people appear “shifty” as there body language is saying something completely different to their words.

I know this advice may sound simple and it is but it could save your life. I would recommend you trust your instincts even with people you know.

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With this in mind I thought it would be a worthwhile exercise to go through a few ways not to restrain someone.

Restraint techniques have to be professionally taught in a certain way to help prevent death from positional asphyxia. A case which illustrated this was a clubber who sadly died in Bradford.

When any person, door supervisors, authority or organisation considers restraining someone they must be aware of the dangers of positional asphyxia as it’s a known killer. Wikipedia describes positional asphyxia as:

A form of asphyxia which occurs when someone’s position prevents them from breathing adequately. A small but significant number of people die suddenly and without apparent reason during restraint by police, prison officers and health care staff. Positional asphyxia may be a factor in some of these deaths.

It is mainly caused by someone’s lack of ability to breathe, which could be acerbated by the position they are put in when being restrained. For instance, if you restrain someone around the neck that can increase the risk, so can putting extra pressure on the chest as that can restrict the person’s breathing.

Often there is more than one person involved in restraining someone, sometimes if can be by holding them to the floor and another person separately holding them around the neck.

There are a number of factors that can increase the chance of positional asphyxia and these include the following:

1. Someone being pinned down on the floor. Most people will move the person as quickly as possible and get them into the recovery position swiftly

2. Putting weight on a person’s back as this is going to restrict the person’s breathing.

3. Being held around the neck as this also heavily restricts breathing

4. Obesity – a person’s own body weight can restrict breathing

5. Alcohol and drug use

If all of these factors occur at the same time, the chance of positional asphyxia is heavily multiplied.

People suffering from this condition often can’t breathe and they are gasping for air, then they begin to panic and they need even more oxygen to compensate and it becomes a bit of a viscous circle. It’s a bit like a bower constrictor snake slowly strangulating them of oxygen.

There is a common misconception that if someone is talking, they must be breathing, but it has been proved that people can talk even if they can’t breathe. It is an indicator that they are OK but not necessarily true.

In our training at GoodSense we use wrist locks on arms because when the attacker pushes against you and your restraint they put their own pressure on their wrist. The worst that can happen is you can break their wrist but if you sit on them to restrain them you could actually kill them.

In other words as a training organisation we teach holds that reduce the risk of positional asphyxia. We are also designed to work within the manual handling regulations so the person doing the restraining is much less likely to injure themselves as well during the process.

I have enclosed a video which is a good example of the sort of wrist lock we would use but when we do it we would use two people locking each individual wrist. However, we would initially use an escort or holding position first but only if the subject was compliant. If they were non-compliant we would use a wrist lock as shown in the video. You wouldn’t use this type of hold on a child as you could easily break their wrist but you would do it on an adult.

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One female officer was stabbed in the back and two male colleagues suffered arm and face injuries in the attack at Frankland Prison, Co Durham, on Saturday.

The Category A prison has seen a number of assaults on staff in recent years and in 2008, HM Inspectorate of Prisons raised concerns over levels of violence.

The most recent attack took place just after 9am when the officers, who are all in their early thirties, opened the door to a cell.

One of the officers was thought to have been slashed in the face after rugby-tackling the inmate, while another was said to have suffered a potentially life-threatening arterial bleed.

The key information here is that the officer rugby tackled the inmate, as this shows that people still use this when fighting or restraining people. The best fighting system for dealing with rugby tackles is the Spear system. Both the Gracie and Spear systems have very similar defences against rugby tackles this called sprawling.

If the sprawl hasn’t worked you will be usually be dragged to the floor and you use a technique called The Gracie Guard, which is where you bear hug with your hands, and grab the attacker between your legs and pull them in them tight. If you use this technique you are not going to let the attacker get any power in their punches. When your body is under extreme pressure or stressed (when your heart beat goes above 220 bpm) you can’t use your minor motor skills because you are shaking and your fight or flight kicks in. However, the techniques I have just described work whether you are stressed or not because you are using your legs.

NHS staff that work in prisons are the responsibility of the NHS – which results in their training to be very mixed. The training for these brave team members has to be realistic and practical.

I believe that the people doing these types of jobs should be trained in the latest techniques including how to get out of tackles and locks etc. Although these officers do receive adequate training I personally feel that self defence training in our prisons could be vastly improved. If I was recommending training for them, I would suggest a six-week Gracie or Spear program at the very minimum – not just having a few short lectures on self defence because it’s simply not enough. These are people’s lives we are dealing with here.

I was at an event recently with experts in the UK and not one instructor mentioned the relevance of dealing with a Rugby Tackle but I have seen it happen in attacks.

I have included a video which shows a prison attacker getting attacked and it is pretty shocking. Training can save lives – watch the video and judge for yourself.

The enclosed video clearly shows me the significance of the Gracie system because in that they pull the attacker into the body which stops them having the leverage to punch you. The Gracie defence for this was clearly shown in the post that I did earlier in the year on police training.

Both this post and my previous one clearly demonstrate the importance of good quality training, it should never be a tick box exercise as it could save their lives.

In my opinion, this training needs to be something that is regular and intensive that shares the latest self defence techniques, fear psychology, anti-ambush methods and looking at how to analyse and deal with attack rituals.

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