Situational Awareness is Not the Answer to Self Defense 

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Growing up and working in NYC I can tell you that "crossing the street" can keep you safe. You are walking up a block and you can see that on the corner there is a group of young men just hanging out. As you get closer you see the 40's in paper bags. You look at the corner across the street and it's empty. This is a great time to cross the street and continue to mind your own business. Might not be a fancy word like "situational awareness" but it is very effective

Situational Awareness is the 1st step in avoiding a bad scene. You're right, it's not the be all end all, but a fight avoided is a fight won in my book.

I WAS 'that guy' shortly after getting back from Afghanistan. Until I was out with a friend, and she said something to me that made me start to change. She reminded me that I was living in a world that didn't exist and ignoring the one that did. There's a difference between situational awareness and straight up paranoia

Just here for the elevator BJJ. The bikes are pretty dope too though.

Awareness buys you time, and times gives you options. Of course that means nothing if you don't have the strength, skill and tools to protect yourself.

I loved this line "If you brought a gun, but you don't know how to wrestle, congratulations you just brought a gun for the other guy"

The situational awareness of a 19 year old private at 3am is the reason I'm here watching your video and not splattered across the dirt in a dark street in Gahzni Afghanistan. Dude in a Suicide vest was walking through the woods behind us and this private just so happened to be watching him until he saw the guy take a picture of the convoy and throw the phone behind him and start running towards us. Dude waxed him with the .50cal and woke everyone up before the Suicide bomber gave us a way worse way to wake up.

Situational awareness has helped me alot over the years knowing when the danger is coming is the best way to avoid life and death situations without resorting to violence

Lmao. The end where Seth was like "I was wondering why we needed safety glasses, these are foam. I'm an idiot" was priceless 😂

Mike: "Most people have enough situational awareness." Mike has never met my wife, her sister and their friends.

I have talked to my daughter quite a bit about 'situational awareness'. Meaning, don't be buried in your phone while walking through a parking lot. Just being aware of your surroundings so if something weird is going on, it catches your attention. For example, a few weeks ago, I was walking through a Walmart parking lot and a couple of Walmart employees were just standing, looking at something. This caught my attention as unusual so I started looking around. A couple more employees several yards away were acting similar. Then i noticed more employees doing the same. When I tracked down what they were all focused on. A couple employees were involved in a verbal confrontation with a man and the other employees were watching incase things got physical. Most people didn't even notice something was going on. To me, 'situational awareness' simply means having a sixth sense of your surroundings.

I really appreciate this. I may never stand by the elevator buttons again. I also love the assertion that you're in the fight before there is physical engagement. To that end, I've had a few occasions when I've used movement to determine if I was in a fight WAY before the assailant was in range. I've observed someone walking parallel to me, even across the street, matching my pace, and stopped or slowed down, then sped up again, to see what they would do. If they echoed those changes, I've either turned and stood and stared at them or, if they were closer, shouted at them, demanding to know what they wanted. In each instance, they knew they had lost the element of surprise and disengaged. As with many of the things mentioned, I don't have a name for that, but it's part of what I have called "situational awareness" in the past.

Situational awareness has been key to my survival as a pilot and driver and rider of cars and ebikes. Self-defense, I don't know, but it has kept me from finding out in sketchy places.

Seth looks so betrayed, but I feel like any of these guys that hang out with you on a regular basis shouldn't be surprised by bicycle drive bys.

During the elevator part all I could think was: Ok, I would be creating a reactionary gap for my self, but if the other person also has situational awareness I would be raising a big red alert to him. In a crazy scenario two people would start a fight purely out of paranoia lol

You always bring more to the conversation. I’ve heard so many “self-Defense Masters” bring up this very point. What they don’t take into account is that sometimes we’re just tired mentally and physically. Imagine pulling a double at work, and then having to go right after to go pay bills or run errands. “Situational awareness” will go out the window just because of fatigue. I really admire your ability to give and teach a message in a fun, clear, and concise way. Keep doing what you do!!!!

I’m a military veteran and one of the first things they teach is situational awareness and it’s more about spotting anomalies in your field of vision, so you can process that information categorically. This was crucial for seeing ambushes coming, or seeing a certain individual who is acting strangely , like a suicide bomber, or a car bomb speeding toward your Gaurd post before they come within blast radius distance.

Yeah Mike, but you don't know how situationally aware I am, bro. We don't even live in the same time zone and I know you've got a gun, two knives, a bike chain, a buckler, and bear spray on you right now. Ain't nobody sneaking up on me, homie. Now i don't know what I'm gonna do when I'm attacked by a guy like that, but I'll see it coming from a mile away.

Solid. I've generally held to the belief that most fights are won by the first person to realize they're in a fight.

Guy just gave me a situational awareness game.

Yo no lie, this is one of the best videos you’ve ever put out in my opinion. The elevator part in particular was inspired. I love the concrete examples of non-distance based reactionary gaps. It’s something I’ve thought about in other terms but never really crystallized in my head as another form of reactionary gap.

"Condition Yellow is not a personality." 🤣 Nailed it lol.

“React to your gut” is the best “situational awareness “ advice I’ve ever hear or given. Thanks and be safe.

"this is a sponsor video" that right there is great situational awareness!

The military makes a lot of my fellow veteran stop having fun and live the “situational awareness” aka hyper vigilante trauma induced lifestyle.

When I was taking Krav Maga, my instructor taught us _this_ and _called it_ situational awareness, along with just being aware of what's going on around you. There's a mantra in Krav Maga that goes "it's better to avoid than to de-escalate, it's better to de-escalate than to run, it's better to run than to fight, it's better to fight than to die." I can say that this hierarchy escalates quickly. Once you can't avoid, moving to de-escalation is right on you and typically not viable if you don't know how to negotiate or _there is no negotiating with this person,_ and running is almost certainly not an option in many cases and that's from accounts with the officers and Marines I trained with in class. Sh1t goes bad, quick. This "reactionary gap" is what I've always meant as a part of situational awareness. Get off the center line, move around if you can, but most importantly, know when it's about to be _fuhking on,_ and be more aggressive than the other guy. Don't kill the guy if you can manage it, but certainly make him wish he didn't try it. This is why you see a lot of these "techniques" done on the internet and think "this would never actually work, fights don't go like that" and you'd be right, but it is with this understanding of distance management; you _give_ yourself the ability to react with a "technique" (even if I do believe these "techniques" are largely bs). Krav Maga- self defense in general- is about managing that space, trying to stay in control of the situation (watching his hands, his breathing, his eye movements and where he fixes his gaze, how he's positioning his feet and his body), and when they finally do attack, you've already done the calculus on how you're going to respond. And it's not like you have 80 moves in your head like "if he does this, I'm going to go full Captain Krav and spinner whirlwind death kick him in the face" it's "this guy is going to try to grab me, most likely, I need to defuse that- try to strike him hard on one of the knock out buttons, but be ready to sprawl and fight on the ground." It's mental preparedness for the average non-violent, non-combative person that doesn't normally get into confrontations to persuade their mind to be _extremely_ violent. You start going through the flow chart of "what's happening right now" in your mind and it hypnotizes you to be aggressive when zero hour hits. And again, you have to *train these combatives* and *spar appropriately* in order for this to really sink in and work for you. Not least to mention, you need to be physically fit and capable of enacting this violence if you're serious about it working.

I'm that guy that sits with his back toward the door. I leaned that technique from Wild Bill Hickock who was killed by some drifter as he sat playing cards at a saloon table with his back TOWARD the door. Interesting factoid - The cards Wild Bill was holding at the time were a pair of black aces and a pair of black eights which became known as "the dead man's hand."

Always love your content, Icy Mike, but today as a TaijiQuan practicioner who actually takes himself "seriously" (or at least my training), I'm extra gratified to hear you saying the words- "being happier and less stressed out is probably the *most* realistic Self-Defense" because that's exactly what we teach. Oss as always, ☯️🙏☯️

Best sponsor ever I’ve been looking for a new bike

Best example of situational awareness is riding a bike. You have to be more alert in areas with higher volumes of traffic and depending on where you're riding the terrain could do damage to your tires.

Being an older woman, I really appreciated this video and another of his I watched. It made me realize I’ve been doing all the right things in listening to my gut and being aware of my surroundings, especially when I’m in a parking lot. The video where he talks about woods next to a Walmart parking lot?!… my town has one with that same scenario and I’m always on alert.

1. Elevator scenario: I'm imagining 2 people who have just watched this video getting onto the same elevator, turning and facing one another, each thinking the other has become a threat. :-) 2. The last few mins of your video, you've kinda given away the basic intro concept in The Gift of Fear, by Gavin de Becker.

“Condition yellow is not a personality” Oh man, me 5 years ago would have been fucking heated hearing that 😂

This was the most genius sponsored ad I've ever seen. You melded the ad perfectly into the video never felt like I needed to skip forward or close the video. Very impressive

Good, practical lesson. Thank you. The initial training of awareness (as you say, "condition yellow") is energy costly, but if you train yourself consistently, for short periods, and then build up, it is completely plausible. That is essentially what we did for ourselves when we learned to drive a car. We are basically at condition yellow anytime we are driving. When we first learned to drive, paying attention to everything was tiring, but over time we learn to do it without draining our energy. Our brain uses less and less glucose as it is trained. Most of us dissociate during driving, but can instantly respond to changing traffic conditions (provided we are not too checked out). This is what I teach in psychiatric hospitals. "Mind the gap" is a solid, usable chunk of advice.

Holy shit the elevator guard pulling in short shorts had me bout to bust.

There are alot of misconception about situational awareness. If you are aware of your surroundings it gives you time, time gives you options. But it is not a self defense tool it's a mindset that is part of self defense, but it will never replace punching somone, or a gun. Ultimately if you are aware of everything but have not idea what to do you will loss. I try to keep aware of my surroundings because I can, but it as self defense advice with out anything else is about as good as run, you hit the nail on the head.

I appreciate these focus on not trying to be novel with generalization. by being specific with THINGS to do. Defining situational awareness as practical. Being aware of WHAT situation, environment you're walking into so you know what tools to use, what the temperature of the water is, what kind of animals are in the bushes. Very useful info here, as always!

One thing that I’ve always had trouble with is when is self defence needed because when the other guy throws the first punch it’s too late. This really helped thanks

Great information as always, but the highlight of the video for me (even funnier than trying to advertise your sponsor's bike as a drive-by-bike) was the BJJ in the elevator bit. That and the 'HAHAHAHA! Idiot.' at the end. You crack me up Icy Mike! Thanks for the consistently great content.

Damn, this is a wakeup call. I currently am the guy always talking about not sitting with my back to the door lmao

I loved when you said that you're a recovering situational awareness guy. That was me. Thanks for this.

Looking forward to meeting you in October. Can’t wait to train with you guys 💪🏻 the lineup for the seminar is 🔥

I'm that guy! I would have been int the NFL if I didnt hurt my knee. I only watch RU-vid 15 seconds at a time. Situational AWARENESS!

Least favorite video yet… for no reason at all

Sensei Seth ride-by bit and the elevator bjj is very instructive. Will never forget reaction gap. Good teaching skills as always Mike.

Nice ad! Still not sure why situational awareness is so bad though. I’ll rewatch it and see if I can figure out what your trying to say - and learn some more features of your sponsor’s bike!

The bjj in the elevator killed me lol. You hit my boy seth bro!

Awesome video. Title instantly grabs the attention, snappy intro, solid advice, humour and perfectly integrated product promotion. This might be your best one yet

Pulling guard in the elevator was gold 😂

im so glad you made this exact vid. i get so tired of old men who live comfortably in surburban environments lurking SD videos just to gaslight people with "the best SD is situational awareness!" or "just run!" as if it matters to psychos if they're spotted or not. they might also cite random (usually wrong) statistics that ofc assume that everyone's risk factors are the same and especially vulnerable people dont exist.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. From my medical background but it applies here.

Walk into a restaurant or through a mall. Walk into a place where people have to stand in line. Pay attention to how many people are looking at their phones for more than a second. Those are the people that don't have any situational awareness. Best example.

Always on point with simple realistic combat tips that work!

One of the best (and funniest) videos Mike has made yet. Love it! The drive-by was priceless.

I'm that guy. Though I legitimately have hyper-vigilance. It's a common symptom of ptsd.

I must have been watching these videos too long. I was asked by the slightly drunk guy in the middle of the park alley to read his ID number, because he can't make it out and he needs to give it to somebody on the phone. My first reaction was, it's a trap! He wants me to focus on the ID he holds and sucker punch me, my second reaction was: I'm an idiot, it's Poland where I live, the guy genuinely needs help, I spelled the ID numbre for him, he repeated it number by number on the phone, said thank you, I sid you're welcome and we went our ways both happier.

By far best actual self defense video I've seen in general from anyone This is also a good way to relate the threat triangle they teach in the Navy to real world. Basically you can legally act defensively when the three sides of the threat are met: capability, opportunity, intent. Capability is weaponry, could be a gun or knife or anything but its straight forward. Opportunity is distance and position, which is relative to what their capability and whatever vulnerable people/equipment is around and again is another fairly easily distinguishable factor. The last part, intent, is easy to discern in a military capacity but much harder outside of a position you're guarding. This vid covers some great examples of figuring out intent, and also both denying opportunity and when the opportunity side is met (to know when to throw the first punch or whatever). 10/10 video!

Great video. You show that situational awareness is useless if you aren’t acting on it. The reactionary gap is the act, and you demonstrate that really good.

I prefer giving people Ocular Patdowns. Then I assess whether or not they're a threat. If they are, I usually just go with a quick head kick. Or a liver kick if they really piss me off. Seriously. Don't mess with me bro.

"guys that don't know how to wrestle but carry a gun" ...I was just attacked personally from halfway across the country, no amount of reactionary distance was gonna stop that lol. From my time in the military, I think reactionary distance is INCREDIBLY important, especially if you have a gun. I used to do security forces type stuff in the middle east, and I was in charge of a team guarding a pier, searching vehicles and people. I made sure to stand well behind where I had the guy doing personnel searches, so if something happened i had a good 30 feet to work with; if you pulled some shit, even at a dead sprint there was no way you were reaching me, especially considering that behind me on an elevated concrete platform was a guy with an M4, although chances are i would have been able to draw and engage with my m9 before he could have chambered around and turned on his optic lmao. Carrying in condition 3 is fucking dumb.

Part of the reason that I kept watching this video is seeing Mike having ridiculous fun on his cool new bike.

If you ride a bike use a helmet, not only you will be safer but you have the chance to headbutt someone or if you have it in hands you can use it as a weapon

Aventon has been a great deal for years now. Debating still getting one. It would definitely help with getting me back to commuting to and from work as my cardio is shot since having covid. Can't really commute to work in the mountains here when half my ride I'd be walking up hills.

Drinking game, shot everytime Mike slips the bike back into the video.

I love the use of formal customs to gauge a person's state of mind. Brilliant

Dude i love your channel. So glad i found it. Thanks for bringing your knowledge and experience to us.

I couldn't stop laughing at sensei seth getting shot lmao i love it when you're this playful in your videos, learned about the concept of "reactionary gap " and got to laugh, plus, that bike does look pretty darn good! Shoutout to sensei seth and hard2hurt

The best thing is not to violate 3 rules: Don’t do stupid things. Don’t go stupid places. Don’t be out at stupid times. You can get away with breaking 1, but all 3 puts you at risk.

Absolutely love this conversation. Thank you for sharing. "There is no first punch in karate" is a semi-controversial statement that has been misunderstood as "You have to wait for the attacker to hit you before you react" And... who doesn't love BJJ in an elevator?

I didn’t think I was going to agree with you at the start of this video. But it turns out you make some really good points and I actually learned something. Thanks!

Having fun while honing your situational awareness is also possible. They aren’t mutually exclusive.

“Situational Awareness is the answer” “That will be $50. Thank you.”

I have always done what you described in the elevator. I never really thought about it as self defense, more a respect thing to let people have free access to the buttons I suppose. Thank you for the great videos, I really like your humor!

This feels like one of those videos that was made just because it's always tempting to try to argue against conventional wisdom, when in fact there's nothing wrong with the conventional wisdom.

I would definitely classify myself as someone with an unhealthy obsession with situational awareness. While doing security work I was involved in a few really scary situations in crowds and now my head is constantly on a swivel while out in public: - I often experience severe neck, shoulder, and head pain after just a few hours. - I can't tell you the last time I enjoyed being at an event or party. - I no longer allow myself to drink or be intoxicated in any way while out. Situational awareness isn't fun and I wouldn't recommend people focus on it. You are better off reacting to situations as they happen and just living your life. 😔

I love how he says teaching situational awareness is dangerous while showing you how to be situationally aware. You’re being quite pedantic.

Dude. Bravo. Your best and most poignant video to date. Super helpful, actionable advice in this one.

This video showcases your true mastery, and it's no self defece. One of the bests so far.

I think that Jeff Cooper's '4 Conditions' cast a very long shadow, even into unarmed martial arts - as witnessed by the focus on 'situational awareness'. Also, if you enjoy bicycling, you and your family should take some vacation i Holland or Denmark: we rule bicycling for fun and pleasure, no lie.

Super glad to see that you're aware of this situation in the self defense community. Good SA bro 😂

mike with another really useful and educational video on self defense! well done, sir

Bro, ur awesome! Ur vids are full of great advice, I love ur vocabulary and teaching method! Always quirky and fun which helps the great advice stick!! Keep rocking man!! 🤘🤙

"I live my life in condition yello!" That's called anxiety. Go to a psychiatrist!

*cough* active self protection lol

I am a very aware person usually. Lived in philly for ~20 years. I was absorbed in my mind one day because of things that had happened, was waiting for a train on a platform where there was only 1 other person (little asian young woman) and no one else around at all - middle of the day. 4 teenagers came up behind me, spread out a bit around me and semi-surrounded me, one hit me on the side of the head and had me on the ground and were al kicking me before I knew what was going on my backpack was 10' away on a bench, where the woman had been sitting until she saw what happened to me and ran I instinctly covered my head with arms and yelled "I don't have anything" they said "give us your stuff" and I told them my bag was on the bench over there, they saw it and all went to it, I got up and ran in the parking lot maybe 70 yds away a guy pulled up next to me and rolled down his window, said he saw what happened and that I could get in/call the police total fail on situational awareness, but it allowed the woman to not be the victim and the harm done to me was extremely minimal, the bump to the ground on the back of my ear was worse than any of their kicks, and it was minimal

Fantastic video and advice I haven't heard before

Actually using you head is the best self defense weapon. I heard Dave Leduc say so.

Kind of disagree here. In day to day life you probably don't have to worry about too much, but you should at least understand where you are. Years ago I had a friend that was from the U.K. that had come over for education and didn't know what some parts of Boston are like, especially at night. He had his headphones in listening to music not paying attention, then he woke up without his phone/wallet. People don't jump you from the front. You wouldn't walk through some deep woods without being mindful of bears, don't make that mistake in poor neighborhoods at night. Edit: Maybe we are on the same page here, it just took a few extra minutes to grab the context. I'll leave the comment up regardless. Edit2: I really need to start watching the whole video before I start formulating a reply. Talking about getting space and throwing the first punch etc, I said already that you don't get jumped from the front, but sometimes it's set up that way. This is what I used to deal with growing up pretty much exactly. How it works is: someone will start talking to you directly in front of you > the other guy punches you in the back of the head while you respond, or slams you from behind. The only time I've seen different, is when everyone knew each other. So probably if some random dude starts talking to you and trying to get your attention, be mindful of that. Honestly though, I've NEVER seen this stuff go on after I left the city. If you are pretty sure you are alone though, always always always always throw the 1st punch. Even if you aren't. If you don't get the 1st punch, you might not get the 2nd.

Good implementation of the sponsor, not disrupting and keeping the content intresting

I have avoided problems a lot by ''situational awareness'' - it works. I say that as a British person; here we normally don't come across guns, but there are plenty of knives/edged weapons in urban areas primarily. Overall, edged weapon use tends to be mostly confined to large cities and by younger people. Avoiding trouble is a sensible option - always. There are some instances where we do have to have to be ''hard to hurt''. Here in the UK, I don't feel, most of the time, under threat. That's good. I like this guys approach and do agree with him. Distance is good. Useful videos sir. Thank you for posting. God bles you all in the USA. PS I was in the British Police some years ago, so I have often got out of trouble by ''jaw jaw not war war'' ; admittedly sometimes we have to directly confront. Some great advice here. Thanks🙂

I like this because it's something concrete to do. I felt like other places would just say "pay attention to your surroundings" but that's relatively vague and it's easy to get distracted. This is something clear that you can think through versus "am I paying enough attention?"

Building a house isn't fun but we do it because its optimal for survival.

The advice on the elevator was very solid advice....will keep that in mind going forward 👍👍

That elevator bit was super informative. Thanks for sharing!

I knew a person who was very into the situational awareness, anyone can be a threat, I'm always prepared to spring into action kind of thing. He had a stroke at age 26.

Let’s call it what it is, “situational awareness” is just “street smarts for suburbanites”. if you grew up in any major city in the US you naturally gained “situational awareness” by the age of 8 lol

I've actually been looking for a new bike!!! Thanks Mike!

I believe the whole situational awareness dialogue is good in the beginning for those who have absolutely none. But to be branded as the be all end all is folly. Great video as usual!