Try the butterfly snap and other safety moves
As newspaper headlines demonstrate, we can never be entirely safe from violent people.
So some agencies, including Baptist Home Services of Montgomery, AL, are giving their staffs instructions in self-defense.
Tammy L. Burton, an officer and self-defense instructor with the Baptist Health Police Force in Montgomery, teaches home care employees these techniques to use to gain time for escape if they are grabbed or attacked:
• Hammer fist: Make a fist and punch the groin. "If you hit a man in the middle of his testicles, he will bow down, and you can get away," Burton says.
• Elbow strike: If someone comes up behind you and tries to choke you, you can use an elbow to strike the person’s side.
• Shin stop: If someone is choking you from the front, then you can kick the person’s shins and stomp on the toes.
• Butterfly snap: If someone grabs you around the throat with both hands, cross your hands like a butterfly, with the wrists facing your chest. Then snap them out and force yourself back.
• Straight kick: Once you’ve snapped out with the butterfly move, kick the attacker in the groin with your foot.
• Knee strike: If the attacker has you locked in a bear hug, then use your strength in your hips by twisting your hips and coming up with a knee strike in the groin.
• Finger spear: Stretch all of your fingers out together like a spear, and thrust them at the attacker’s eyes and throat.
Burton says each of these techniques is designed to get the victim time to get away and call for help. Simply screaming won’t help because the attacker will think you are panicking and might hit you and knock the wind out of you, she adds.
But once you are running away, you could yell fire to get other people’s attention, she advises. "Also, yell Stop! Leave me alone!’"
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