Safe Strides: Mastering Personal Security Tactics for Outdoor Adventures

Embark on a journey to empowerment and vigilance as we engage with Alan Earl, a law enforcement sage with 30 years of hard-earned expertise. Discover his profound insights into the world of personal safety for outdoor enthusiasts—runners, cyclists, and solo adventurers. Alan's rich background, from African beginnings to shaping the minds at the US Army Military Police School, provides a unique lens through which we can learn to protect ourselves. By blending high-level protective strategies with practical self-defense tactics, this episode arms you with the knowledge to become a hard target for potential predators.

Every step outside our door can be an unpredictable venture into the unknown, but fear not, as we dissect the mindset of criminals and explore the decisive role of situational awareness. We discuss the imperative of being your own bodyguard in today's landscape, where swift police responses are not a guarantee. From the wisdom of group dynamics to the psychological combat in violent encounters, our conversation with Alan offers strategies not just for self-defense but for transforming daily routines into opportunities to sharpen your instincts. 

Wrapping up, we share heartfelt appreciation for the collective dedication to service and education in keeping our communities safe. Alan's guidance reminds us of the importance of being 'sheepdogs'—ever watchful and ready. Take these lessons and anecdotes with you, integrating them into your life's playbook for personal security. Be sure to tune in for a wealth of actionable tips that will leave you feeling more prepared and confident as you face the world's challenges head-on.

Welcome to the Do Hard Things Podcast with your host Jay Tiegs, Are you ready to amplify and improve your life? Then you are in the right place.  On this podcast we have unfiltered conversation with inspiring people who take on challenges and share with us, the wisdom from their journey. We talk about how doing hard things adequately enable all of us to deal with life's struggles and challenges and ultimately improve the quality of our lives. 

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:43

All right, welcome back everybody to another episode of the Dure Things podcast. I'm your host. Jt is a running coach, certified high performance coach, founder of the Dure Things Nation. Our mission here is to empower you to upgrade your life through mindset and movement. A special guest with us, alan Earl with us. We're going to talk about his career in law enforcement and self-defense and, as a runner, cyclist, whatever it is that you're doing out there, you can be incredibly vulnerable being out there by yourself. So he's going to share with us some tidbits and advice from his career and perspectives. He's passionate about helping people, you know, defend themselves and I think that this is a great topic because in our community there have been instances. You know, we are a, we can be a target right, we target to a nefarious activity and it's always good to have some, some considerations, some tips to you know, not make yourself, don't allow yourself to be a victim. So that's what it's all about. So before we get into today's episode, real quick, make sure you smash that subscribe button so you're notified of future episodes. We're on Spotify, apple Pocketcast, we stream on YouTube and we're on Facebook as well. So if you're on social media, you can connect with us there and, if you would, it would really mean a lot to us if you went over to Apple and left the left a review. They go a long way to increase and tweak the algorithm so more people can find this podcast. And if there's anything here that stood out, share it with a couple of your friends and we would love to hear from you. I'm going to put my contact information in the show notes. You can connect with me on all social media. You can also connect with Alan. We'll put his contact information, so if you'd like to connect more with him, it'll be there.

Speaker 1 2:24

This episode is sponsored by the George Things Nation. We're a community, community of living life on offense, united by a focus on continuous self-improvement through mindset and movement. We offer monthly challenges and network of like-minded people of high caliber men and women to connect with. Iron sharpens iron, so we want to have that community there. We provide frameworks to give tools and trainings on running and endurance, sports related topics and fitness and also mindset, and we offer challenges to help you in order to grow. We got to be challenged. So, yeah, you can learn more about what we do. Go to dohardthingsnationcom wwwdohardthingsnationcom For more about what we do check out the latest events that we have going on and, if you feel compelled, when you grab yourself a shirt, some merch, some hat to sport around. We've got an awesome variety in the pro shop. So, all right, let me introduce today's guest and we'll get into it.

Speaker 1 3:21

So Alan Earl is in his 30th year in law enforcement and is a current serving team leader for the US Army Military Police School here at Fort Leonardwood protective services branch, where he is instructed since 2002. He's also the founder of Defensive Applications LLC, whose mission is to provide personal safety training to professionals and citizens from all walks of life. Mr Earl believes the same tactics and principles used to protect our country's leaders can be implemented in our lives to make you and your family safer. Starting his career as a patrolman in 1994, he held positions as a patrolman, swat member and defensive tactics instructor. He's also served with the US Marshall Service, has deployed several times to Afghanistan, iraq and Kuwait, conducting protective services operations and training.

Speaker 1 4:13

Mr Earl holds advanced instructor certifications in evasive and anti-terrorism, driving firearms, dignitary protection and SWAT operations. He's passionate about training and has served as the deputy director and training manager for Eastern Missouri Police Academy. Mr Earl served on several committees for the Missouri Post Post Officer Standards and Training Commission and is a use of force and protective services SME subject matter expert for the US Army. He has received numerous commendations from the Department of Defense and law enforcement agencies and also has a master instructor certification with the US Army. Mr Earl is currently a mobile training team instructor trainer for the Spear System. So, alan, first and foremost, thank you for taking the time to be here and thank you for your service to the US military and what you continue to do. It's incredibly important and we appreciate you being on the front lines and being out there teaching the next generation of law enforcement leaders and just your service and being here just to help everyday citizens.

Speaker 2 5:20

Thanks for having me, jay. I really appreciate it. It really is important and it's a passion of mine to make people safer any way I can.

Speaker 1 5:27

So if we can put out some information today to help people do that, that would be great yeah so I guess we'll start off with just tell us what drew you to law enforcement and give us a little bit of journey. I read a lot in your bio. It's very impressive. You have a lot of experience. What has drawn you to that type of work and what have been some of your? How has that led to your current role in the US military police school?

Speaker 2 5:53

Sure, I grew up in. I actually grew up in Africa. I was born in Texas but my parents were missionaries, so I was raised in Africa. I came back to the States for college when I was a teenager and during that time I witnessed just a lot of violence over there. And then, coming back to the States, the early 90s were not that good for crime around the country, so I saw a lot of that and that really influenced me. I think as a kid, seeing the crime and the lawlessness that went on in West Africa at the time in the early 80s and 90s, really influenced me to want to do something about that, to help people be safer, to stop violence when I could and when I could see it. And I think that and the combination of my grandfather being a great mentor to me and being in law enforcement really influenced me in that direction.

Speaker 1 6:47

Yeah, that's awesome. What countries did you live in Africa?

Speaker 2 6:52

Well, we spent a year in France before we went over there, and then most of the time was spent in Burkina Faso, which used to be upraalted at the time. They had military coups and they changed the name quite a bit, but that's where we're at. It was right in the center of West Africa.

Speaker 1 7:06

Interesting what would be maybe some common misconceptions that Americans might have, africa or something unique that we should know?

Personal Safety and Preparedness in Society

Speaker 2 7:16

Well, it's interesting that I still stay in touch with some people there and follow what's going on, and Africa has really been peaceful the last few years. Their standard of living has really grown and their medically and standard of living wise. They're where the United States was in the late 60s, early 70s now, so they've made a lot of progress. When I was there it was pretty much the Stone Age and you still had tribal warfare and villages killing each other and things like that. They've really made a lot of progress in the last few decades.

Speaker 1 7:55

Yeah, that content has been through a lot of hardships, and I teach geology, or geography of all things, and that's a focus area, and it's been amazing to see the progress they're going to be. The next, I mean obviously from a continent perspective. There's a lot of countries there, but they've got a lot of natural resources and they're definitely emerging. If they can just, like you said, get some good governance and leadership over there, they're really going to end up thriving. It's going to be, and I'm looking forward to that, because they've been struggling for so long.

Speaker 2 8:28

Yeah, and I think growing up in that chaotic environment is really what made me determined to say, hey, it doesn't have to be this way, it can be better. People are responsible for their own safety and need to be responsible for their own safety because where I grew up there wasn't any law enforcement or anybody to come help, and what we see going on in our society in America today, the police have slower and slower response times. If you do call 911, you know most of these violent encounters that we see with people are over before the police can get there. So everybody really does need to be responsible for their own personal safety and out of their family.

Speaker 1 9:12

Yeah, I think you bring up an excellent point. Like the crime has already happened and the police, unfortunately. I mean it's just a constraint and just to your point, to timing, by the time they arrive, like bottom line is you've got to be able to protect yourself. No one is going to come and save you in most cases. Is that correct?

Speaker 2 9:33

Yeah, exactly right. That's why one of our courses is called Be your Own Bodyguard, and we really take that approach and that mentality to personal safety, because it's your own responsibility. And you know, even though the police want to get there and prevent the crime and do something about it, just they're not going to be there. And these things go down in milliseconds. You know they happen in a few seconds and they're over. So we really need to be prepared ourselves to do something about it.

Speaker 1 10:01

I mean it's interesting you bring this up because right before we hopped on this call I just saw a video on TikTok the time of this recording there's a shooting at Joel Steehm's church, like yesterday, and I just saw the video footage of the people inside running and you can hear the gunfire. It's just, it's it when you watch these videos. These actions happen so quickly that, to your point, the police want to be there. They just can't, and we've got to be. You know we're responsible for our own safety. What do you make of all this gun violence that we're seeing in our nation?

Speaker 2 10:38

You know, I think the more people are upset, the more people are dissatisfied with their own lives then, the more they start to take it out and look for opportunities to take out that anger somewhere. And the vulnerable populations that they see, the soft targets that they see, are what they take the most advantage of. There's a there's definitely a predator mentality among the criminal element in society and they'll go looking for something like a church or school and we just need to do a better job of being prepared for that. You know they had at the Olstein church, they had a security team there and they have, you know, security measures in place at places like that. But if those people aren't properly trained, if they don't have the right mentality to do that job, then there can be a delay there and, like I said, it only takes milliseconds for the damage to happen.

Speaker 2 11:31

So we've got to do a better job of looking at what happens before the incident occurs and preventing some of that on the on the front end of it.

Speaker 1 11:40

Yeah, I mean to your point, they target, they target soft targets, they want the path of least resistance, they want to inflict as much damage as possible and cause it. It's a form of terrorism and you know, in my own experience in Iraq, I just recall you know the, the enemy. I mean they would get so good at watching the units, they would look at the posturing of the convoy coming by. They would tell if you were, and that was one of the things we would remind our troops like you know, hey, when you're, when you're out, you know, head on a swivel, they're watching you. If you look like you're complacent and not paying attention, that's when they're going to get after you, and so, and that kind of harkens probably I'm assuming what we're going to talk about today a little bit when it comes to personal defense, you know, head on a swivel, having awareness, these are some things that you can do just by posturing, and being aware can deter a lot of these things from happening to you.

Speaker 2 12:29

You sure can. You know, you, you really want to be that ADT sign in the yard. You know, at your house, if you have an alarm sign, if you have a barking dog, if you have things like that that indicate that you're going to be a harder target than somebody else down the street, then the criminal is not going to take the time or the resources to attack you. And that's kind of that be your own bodyguard mentality of examining your day to day activities and figuring out, hey, if I was a bad guy, how would I attack me? What are my vulnerabilities in my everyday life.

Speaker 2 13:05

And there's a lot of people you know that say, hey, you got to have, got to have situational awareness and they just throw that term out there but they never really address hey, how do I do that? Right, and situational awareness is looking at your daily activities, just look at your schedule and go, okay, if I was going to attack me at some point during my day, where would the best place to do that be, you know, and those kind of things. And then if we know, if we kind of get in that criminal mentality ourselves a little bit, then we can start taking actions that are going to make us a harder target with that. Just in our day to day lives. And it's not a paranoia thing of I'm going to get attacked everywhere I go outside. It's just looking realistically at your daily activities and going, hey, I probably shouldn't be looking at my phone while I'm walking through a parking lot, you know, and those kind of things. So it actually lessens your paranoia the more you can prepare for that before you leave the house.

Speaker 1 13:58

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense Because I don't want to be paranoid. There's and I think the, the, the media I mean of, can really strike in the. Yes, there's a lot of bad situations that happen and you hear about these shootings and things, but in the grand scheme of things, with the amount of population, it's still a pretty small, you know percentage that you're going to be involved in something. But there is a risk that you could be involved with something and I think that, like I said, the form of terrorism and the media kind of really, I don't know they they Constrike a lot of fear. So it can.

Speaker 2 14:32

You can feel paranoid sometimes for sure you can, and that's why we spend so much time on fear management in our classes. Because you know, used to be you wouldn't hear about murders, rapes, muggings in California. You know you. You have your environment and your local news and you know of something happening in your hometown. But now we're exposed worldwide to every violent situation that happens and these things have always been happening since the beginning of time. But now we're, we have knowledge of all of those things.

Speaker 2 15:03

In the information age, we get these videos, like you said, instantly when they happen or right after, and it really can make you think the world's coming to an end, when in reality these things are still far and few between.

Speaker 2 15:17

You know, if you look at I'm I'm a big history nerd and you know you look at medieval times, when everyone was at war every day.

Safety Tips for Group Running

Speaker 2 15:26

You know, and that's why they had guards on the turrets all the time, because you always had somebody trying to invade, trying to take your property and things like that. You know, in America today, even though it seems like we've gone downhill and there is more violence in the streets and things like that you know, comparatively, when you look at the late 70s, you know there were far more murders and things like that going on at the time. That doesn't mean that you can use that as an excuse not to be prepared or to take, you know the safety training that's available to you and have a good mindset about that. But being paranoid, or you know that, can lead to just quitting and giving up as well. So you really need to have that balance of hey, I've prepared, I've done everything I can to prepare for these situations, so now I can go out and do my run or go about my daily activities without having to worry about it, because I've been trained on and prepared my mind to recognize when that danger is presented.

Speaker 1 16:26

So recently I was at a group run location. This is up in Columbia Missouri and they've got some crime challenges up there. But there's a group of us. We meet up on Tuesdays and Thursday mornings and we meet up at five. We get there probably about 515, we step off at 530. And then we usually run for about an hour. We come back to our cars at 630. This is the time of year where it's dark outside parking lots pretty full, low lighting. We come back and there's four windows smashed out and you know there's a smash and grab on on on stuff. It really freaked everyone out because it's like we were just here. We weren't gone that long. This is a Tuesday morning, this isn't like a Friday night, saturday night deal. I don't know it really. It really kind of rattled us and we're kind of like man, what, what? How do we mitigate a situation like that? Is there anything that we can do? I don't know.

Speaker 2 17:19

Sure, once you understand a little bit about a bad guy or criminal mentality, then you can start taking those things. You know those precautions and I'm not saying you know, you guys thought you're generally safe because you part. You know you're in a group and that's great, you know yourself in the morning and we're going running.

Speaker 1 17:39

I just envision criminals being lazy and not being up at that hour.

Speaker 2 17:44

For sure. But you know they'll do recon and they'll look at places that are vulnerable, that people do park to do those kind of things. You know a criminal is either want your property, your life, you know, and you know that's what they're looking for your body, your property, your life and they're looking at those things. And if we know that that that's their mentality, on the other hand they don't want it to take too long, right, and they don't want to get caught and they don't want to get injured in doing this because they're a career criminal. You know, if they're to that point where they're willing to do a smash and grab and those kind of things, that's not just a crime of opportunity. They've looked at that, they've observed, they figured out where they can do that and not get caught. And they, they know the law, they know what kind of punishment they're going to get for those actions. So they figured they'd wait until you guys left, so then it wouldn't be an assault and those kind of things. To up the ante a little bit. So if we know their mentality and what they're after, then we can start doing some things to mitigate that a little bit.

Speaker 2 18:51

And I'm not saying you guys weren't doing all those things. Sometimes we do everything we can and bad things still happen to us. But just looking for, you know, a well lit area, figuring out, you know, if I am going to go run somewhere, hey, are there regular patrols in that area, you know, and you can always call the police department and say, hey, you know, is there have there been incidents around here, you know, and those kind of things, anything we should be aware of. We're coming to your town, we're not real familiar with the area, where's the best place to run, where's the best place to park, and those kind of things. And, you know, taking those precautions, just doing a little recon before you go, does a lot to mitigate some of that, because they probably could have told you hey, we've had in this area, we've had a concentration of these smashing grabs, so you may want to consider another park to run in or track or something like that. Yeah, in that area.

Speaker 1 19:45

So now conversation came up and I and you're from your personal opinion. I'd love to hear what your thoughts are, because we were like another individual had mentioned. Well, when they drive their car there, they just leave it unlocked because at least the criminal won't smash out the windows. Because I got to deal with insurance, you're going to have to the police. They're just too busy with other things. This isn't like they're not going to. You know, chances are, especially in this community. They're just too busy. They don't have time to do a full blown investigation. The likelihood of them apprehending the individual is pretty low, which is unfortunate, but it just is what it is. Is it better to lock your car let's smash it out or is it better to leave it unlocked?

Speaker 2 20:26

It's better to lock it. Like I said, anything that we can do as a measure to delay and to make it harder for them than we want to do, that you know, car alarm, a locked door, that is a few more seconds right, and that's a few more seconds where they're going to look at that car and go. That thing has a blinking car light on the inside. That means it's got an alarm. I can go over here to this car and I don't have any of that right. This one's open, that one's locked. I'm gonna take the open car.

Speaker 2 20:58

So anything you can do to dissuade them, to delay them, like I said, they don't want to get seen, they don't want to get caught and they don't want it to take too long. So anytime they're trying to commit a crime like that, the bed, any kind of barrier we can put up in the way that applies to our front door of our house too. You know, you know that most residential locks, if somebody wanted to, you know, smash that thing in with their foot. They probably could, given enough time and things like that. But you put some longer screws in those hinges, you put, you know, a couple of dead bolts in there. That gives you time to respond, maybe get to a different area of your house where you can call the police and and defend that better. So Anything you can do to delay is always a good thing.

Speaker 1 21:43

I Think another good consideration is that individual, if they're looking to you, know, rape you or, you know, do some other bodily harm, they could be waiting for you inside the vehicle hiding, you know, carjacking scenario, kidnapping scenario.

Speaker 2 21:57

Absolutely, and that just goes back to building good habits, you know, and being situational aware. Yes, could they get into your car and maybe you don't notice that they broke into it and they could be in the back seat, that's true. But you know, if you just make a habit of looking in that seat, looking around, being more aware when you approach your vehicle, seeing anything unusual, you know, if you do know that you always lock your car and it's unlocked when you get back, there's your danger sign, you know. On that, and there's, there's lots of things you can do like that, just to say, hey, I always do this, just out of habit.

Speaker 2 22:32

You know, years ago Colonel Oliver North Was targeted by terrorists and they were doing Some surveillance on him and he had an old pickup truck. So every morning when he went out to get into his truck, he would walk around the truck and he would look underneath it to see if he had an oil leak. And the terrorists decided, hey, we can't put a IED on his truck because he's always looking, he's always prepared for IEDs, he's always looking for bombs. And he wasn't, he just had a habit of looking for oil leaks and his old truck, you know. So anything we can do to Lesson, you know, because they're gonna watch, like we said you they were probably watching your guys, cars watching when you Left and then came up an approach when they had the opportunity. So anything we can do to take that opportunity away or make ourselves seem like a hard target is gonna be better.

Speaker 1 23:22

Yeah, no, that's an excellent, excellent point. It's kind of freaky to think about. Someone was watching us, you know, take off and then take that opportunity to do that. Now, a lot of our, a lot of listeners here, you, many of us, are. There's a lot of women and I would speak to the guys too.

Safety Tips for Running and Cycling

Speaker 1 23:38

Like when we're out, like I, I carry and I'll keep it in my vehicle, but I don't carry off. And when I run, I feel very vulnerable when I'm running or dismounted or my bike or rucking, and you know I'm thinking about the community. You know, I think there's a lot of the people probably don't have a lot of hand-to-hand or Marksmanship training or any type of defense training. What advice would you give someone that is? They're just, they probably want to be more prepared, but they don't really quite. Maybe there's intimidating or scared, maybe it's just a timing thing, just not a priority in their life. You know, because it could be intimidating to go take a martial arts class. It could be intimidating to learn how to use a firearm. I mean, personally I love firearm, but I'm actually more worried about breaking a law because of some oversight, that there's a problem, a higher probability of me screwing something up.

Speaker 1 24:38

Then it would be to probably, you know, meet in a sale of some type, be some subtype of scenario, so therefore I'm less likely to carry some time. So, with all of that, what advice would you give someone that is just seeking that? I mean, what tips would you give them? How do we?

Speaker 2 24:57

Sure the there's a lot to that. So first, before you ever go out running or cycling, we can do a lot and you're you're very familiar with this process from being in the military Just doing a route, route recon and understanding our route and how we do that. Not to reveal any classified information or anything but standard practice for a route is just to look at it, see what the traffic patterns are like on that route, figure out do I have vulnerabilities on that route, are there places that make better attack sites than other places? Right? And then Making sure that people know that you're on that route right and where the vulnerabilities are as you do your run or your cycling, as you go down that route, before you ever get there, try to identify some safe havens, some places you could go for help if you need it.

Speaker 2 25:54

If you're running in your neighborhood, if you know some of your neighbors, then let them know. Hey, at this time and this time I'm going to be running Through here. I don't expect you to run with me or anything, but I'm going to be running and if I need help, can I call on you? Can I come to your house If I need that? I'll do the same for you. You know, if I run in the morning, you run in the evenings, I'll just you know, I'll be there, available. If you need anything, just let me know, come to the house and we can take care of that, right. So Know where your fire stations, your police stations are, gas stations that are, you know, 24 7, anywhere that you could go to get into public view, where you're not by yourself anymore, would be good, and I get it. You know I run as well. I know that that's a time when people would just like to relax a little bit. Sometimes you're meditating, you're concentrating on that, and that's great. But if you do that, that pre-work in it, then you're you're way more relaxed when you're running. Like we said that paranoia is not going to set in that I heard the leaves behind me, so now I'm just going to speed up or something, and I don't have a very good run for that day.

Speaker 2 26:59

So there's things we can do to prepare ahead of time, like that knowing your route, knowing where to go for help along the route, and you know, every quarter of a mile or so, that's going to change. So just seeing that, hey, every half a mile, every quarter mile, do I have somewhere I could go if I need to and do it? Do people know that I'm out here doing this? So if I don't show up on time, you know it could be as simple as I fell and twisted my ankle. I need help, you know, and you don't report back at the time You're supposed to, then we're going to send help to that last no location and we know what that route is.

Speaker 2 27:32

So just make sure somebody knows and is aware of where you're going and then that you have those places along the way when you can go for help if you need it. But on those attack sites, you know, if you see that, hey, I've only got one safe haven on my five mile run and I've got three or four attack sites there that are pretty good places, if I was going to attack me, that's where I would do it I'd probably start looking for another route. You know at that point, just to know. And you know.

Speaker 2 28:00

So things like that we can do ahead of time. So we can't have that enjoyable run without going out there, you know, with my knife and my gun and my OC spray and all those things you know, beginning prepared for battle, just to go on a run for the day. When that's something you enjoy Doing, it kind of takes all the fun out of it.

Speaker 1 28:18

Yeah, so I'm running in a newer community because I am up in Living in Columbia, so I don't, I'm learning as I go and oftentimes we're running in the dark. So you bring up some great points that need to be more aware of. Like a lot times I'm just following the leader, I'm following the, the group and like badly, but no really, where I'm at, I always bring my phone with me so I guess if I get lost I can GPS my way back. But you bring some great points like I don't know where the police stations are, I don't know where the fire departments are in all a lot of the places, and it oftentimes is dark. So there's some excellent points that you make there, just, and they do post the route ahead of time. I've just been too lazy to take a look at it. So what, that makes me realize that you know what that that's. I need to take some more ownership and be more diligent about that, and that's just good sound advice. I appreciate you bringing that up.

Speaker 2 29:04

Yeah, yeah, you know, in most of our classes we really try to address the before before, before the incident happens. Even in our law enforcement classes. You know what we've seen and I've been to every defensive tactics course that law enforcement has to offer and those courses are kind of derived from martial arts classes. So it's a lot of complex motor skill movement, a lot of things that take a long time to learn and Most people just aren't that invested in doing that because that's not their career.

Speaker 2 29:35

That you know. They're not facing that criminal element every day. But even the people that are, when that ambush attack occurs, when something unexpected happens, like it's gonna happen to us when we're running, happens to a law enforcement officer, when they think they're just making a traffic stop and all of a sudden this person is trying to take their head off that ambush attack is really the most dangerous kind of violence that we can experience and that's the most common kind of violence we're gonna experience as well. So we really try to anticipate and and dissuade that and prevent that ambush as much as possible and then we train on, when the ambush occurs what we can do about it.

Speaker 1 30:12

Something I was coming to mind is I recently I got a set of noise-canceling headphones when I was traveling. I was down in San Antonio and I went for a run. I had my. This sound great, sound awesome. I get really get in my podcast, great music. But I I Jumped a couple times because it would be another runner or cyclist have come back to me. I was like, oh, I didn't hear him coming. Usually I wear the. I got a pair of aftershocks that are the bone conducting so they don't go over the ear. But that's a great reminder that the ear buds, which used to be popular, like if you don't have a set of aftershocks, those are and you like music and podcast Because you can hear people coming up on you Versus like the sound. You know the the noise canceling because far more vulnerable. I definitely have noticed and felt wearing those. Although they sound great, they feel comfortable and I see people running in them all the time, but someone can sneak up on you pretty damn quick and they're gonna probably target you because of that.

Speaker 2 31:09

Right, that is more of an indicator that you're not as aware with the earphones on, and I got it. People want to listen to music and things like that, but if you're really training athletically for a race, you're really trying to get that timing down and those kind of things. Music can be a deterrent to that. I was just looking at.

Speaker 2 31:30

I follow Andrew Huberman, listened to a lot of his podcasts and stuff. They were talking about sports performance and listening to music while you work out, while you run, and it can really screw with your timing on some of your running Because as the beats speed up, we start to speed up too. Our heart rate goes up a little bit. Music has that influence on us and that may not be the time that we want to do that. So I would say, if you are going to listen to music, really pay, obviously use the headphones where you can still hear the ambient noises coming up, but preferably it would be not to use the headphones at all. It's going to make you more aware and you're going to be more in tune with that mind-muscle connection what your body is doing when you actually do run or exercise.

Speaker 1 32:16

Yeah, Now, so many of us were out there. We might have our headphones, might have a cell phone, might have a bottle of water with us. Someone sneaks up on you and ambushes you like what should your reaction be?

Speaker 2 32:33

This probably would be hard to talk through, but yeah, it's actually pretty simple to talk through so many of the things that people think self-defense is very complicated. You have to train on it a long time to get good at it. You have to get your black belt before you're able to defend yourself. What we found is that's just not the case. You have hardwired into you your fight system. You already know how to fight. You just need to be reminded of it. Before there were ever martial arts, cavemen fought each other and fought each other very well over fire and food and things like that. We have that all hardwired into us a defensive mechanism that can really help us get through that initial ambush and start to think about what we need to do. I'm really glad you talked about hey, somebody just came up all of a sudden on my side. They weren't attacking me, but you looked over your shoulder all of a sudden. You saw that movement and you had a flinch response when you were describing it. We actually train on that in our classes.

Speaker 2 33:36

When that flinch occurs, it does a lot of good things defensively for us. Our fingers play open wide when we have that ambush. That surprise happens If you've ever had one of your siblings or somebody throw something at you unexpectedly a water bottle, a pillow, whatever it is those hands come up, those fingers play out and they move towards the danger to push it away. Having those fingers played and having that reaction of pushing away the danger is actually the strongest human movement we can have. It's like we're pushing a car. It's just kinesthetically, physiologically, it's one of the fastest and hardest things we can do to get somebody off of us. That's really what we're trying to accomplish is to get that distance to where we can get away, where we can alert other people that we're in danger and something bad is happening.

Speaker 2 34:29

But surviving the ambush is the important part of that, and that flinch response and converting that flinch response into some action really helps us get through that initial ambush. When we are scared, when we go into our reactive part of our brain, then that flinch response buys us the time to get back to our thinking brain and figure out whether our next move is going to be, instead of freezing in place. So training on that conversion of the flinch response is important and we can show you how to do that pretty quickly. We can show you how to do that in one day. So that's a lot of what we do is work with that flinch, get people familiar with it so they're not walking around paranoid. But when something does happen, we recognize that as danger. We let the flinch happen. You know, it's kind of like an airbag in a car wreck the airbag just goes off and keeps the bad thing from impacting you and it gives you time to do something else after that.

Speaker 1 35:24

Yeah, I've trained in a couple different martial art disciplines, just kind of loosely, but I recall at Krav Magadi the Israeli fighting style was very spaced off of your natural reactions, which made it really quick and easy to learn. And I'm assuming that's what your one day, two day seminars really focus on, right?

Speaker 2 35:42

Yeah, it's just giving people simple skills that they can learn in a day. We're not telling you you can go fight in the UFC, you know when you're done with our classes, but you know it's like a CPR class. You learn how to save somebody's life. It's just that the life you're saving is your own here. So you know we really put emphasis on you know these are just the skills you need for your specific situation.

Speaker 2 36:06

So when we train nurses you know ER nurses they have specific situations where people are angry. Drug seekers come in. They don't take no for an answer. They start getting violent and you have to do something about it. But you can't be smashing those people with elbows and, you know, dropping things on them from the top rope and that kind of stuff. So we show simple ways that you can manage the violence without excessive force but still protecting yourself in the process. And once you make that conversion to your thinking brain, it's pretty easy to do. But you have to train on it or you're just going to be stuck in that fear reaction, you know. And once you flinch, now what I've never been here before, I don't know what to do about it. So I'm just kind of stuck. And through our training you can really make that conversion and start to think and start to move.

Survive and Thrive

Speaker 1 36:56

Now, once someone has been in an altercation or attacked but the perpetrator has moved on or they're you know they're departing, they're retrograding or treating whatever, you're retreating whatever, what would be some good ways to like some good information that law enforcement would need as far as, like you know, you're probably looking at the height, what they're wearing. Like what information in that moment when you're going through that? What would be some tips or tactics for better reporting for law enforcement so they can have a better chance of catching the individual?

Speaker 2 37:34

Yeah, you know it's funny what people consider a win in those situations. Right, I had a student one time and I'm definitely getting to your question. I just I want to throw this out there. It's important for everybody to understand when violence happens, you know, it's not about winning, right, it's about surviving. It's not about who's right, it's who's left in the situation, right? So just the fact that you survive the situation should tell you that you won that encounter, right? So if anybody has experienced that, if they're doubting themselves now after the violent encounter and like, oh, did I do the right thing? I should have done more. You know why did this happen to me? Those kind of things you're alive right now. That means you won. You know, if you gave up your property, if you had to fight to survive it, if you froze, and just because of circumstances, that person fled and you're still alive, then you won in that situation. Right?

Speaker 2 38:34

But there are some things that if and that's why that mind, that mentality, is so important I've got to be able to convert to the thinking part of my brain, to my neocortex, in order to obtain any information that's going to be useful, right? So making that transition from my reactive brain where I'm ambushed and I do this to. Okay, now I'm thinking, now I'm figuring out hey, what do I need to do here? Right, survival is going to be our first priority, which means I'm not going to let them move me to a secondary crime scene, I'm not going to get in the car with them, I'm not going to comply with what they're doing, unless that few minutes of complying with what they're doing gives me an advantage in defeating the attack. Right, but moving to a secondary crime scene is never going to be an advantage for you, because they're going to move you somewhere more isolated where people don't know where you are, and those kind of things, right?

Speaker 1 39:26

So what you're saying is it's probably better to fight and resist versus comply and submit.

Speaker 2 39:33

Yeah, and at the right time. Right, we want to pick our opportunities to do that. But I can't do any of that if I'm scared to death, if I'm frozen, if I'm still in that emotional state. Right, I've got to make that transition, to start thinking, and it can be something as simple as start thinking about what I'm going to do to the bad guy as opposed to what the bad guy is doing to me. If I can get that and visualize that positive goal, then my body is actually going to do what it needs to do to make that goal happen without really even having to think about it. I want to have that positive goal in mind and that's going to start me down the path of winning this encounter and putting it in my favor. But after the fact, anything you can do to help with law enforcement would be good, but most police officers are just going to be happy that you survived the incident more than anything else. We'll do the investigation on it and we'll put those pieces in place to try to help, but the main thing is you surviving it and that's going to be the priority and the focus.

Speaker 2 40:46

If you get a license plate, that's great. If you get the color of the shirt. That's great, but people can change those things. If it comes down to, you have no other choice and you have to defend yourself. Dna under the fingernails always helps.

Speaker 1 41:01

Yeah, that's great. It's great being able to scratch them. Yeah, Excellent. In regards to things you can carry you can carry mace. You can carry a whistle. There's little tools that you can carry firearm Is there a preferred, I guess, for people that might be intimidated, Is there a better solution versus others? Do you have any recommendations when it comes to that?

Speaker 2 41:31

Yeah, I'm all for carrying a firearm If the person is trained, if they know the law, if they know how to use it and they know those reaction times of how long it's going to take me to get this thing out when it's appropriate to use. Knowing your backdrop, all those things that go into a shooting that results in a justified shooting that doesn't harm anyone else and has no unintended victims around those circumstances are super rare compared to the times that somebody says give me your wallet, or somebody wants to grab you to pull you into the bushes, or those kind of things. The gun crime gets the biggest amount of media attention but there's thousands and thousands more of assaults and physical attacks than there are gun crimes. I know people have their politics and their beliefs around that stuff, but if you are going to carry, I really believe all those things need to be in place. You need to have the training, you need to have the awareness of when you can use it, when you can't, how long it's going to take you to get that gun out Because, like we said before, most of these are ambush situations and they go down in milliseconds For you to be capable, while you're getting ambushed, of actually drawing your gun and now we've got a gun out that can be fought over.

Speaker 2 42:56

That's not necessarily the best thing to do as well. There's just more preferred strategies there in that initial encounter. Now, once I fight my way to an area where I can and I can't retreat and I can't get out of there and I have no other choice than the gun or those other self-defense tools and weapons are always an option. But it's been my experience especially with OC spray. You're going to spray yourself more than you're going to spray that other person. Wind is always a factor, other people around is always a factor, and it's very rare that it hits its target and has that effect. A lot of people can fight through OC pretty easily as well. Any of these tools pale in comparison to having the right mentality and being able to think through the problem and stay in that thinking brain.

Speaker 1 43:51

That's a really good, excellent point there, I think mindset and having the ability to work through that versus utilizing the tool, because without the training of the tool it could make matters worse, absolutely yeah. Now how with we don't train for this, we just go for a run? These are situations I'm assuming you go to a seminar is probably your best way to train in these types of scenarios. Is there anything, any other recommendations to work through the mindset of that, or is your best recommendation we go to attend a seminar?

Speaker 2 44:32

Yeah, absolutely attend our seminars. They're a blast, they're fun. People come out of them with a entirely different mindset than when they went in. Like we said, it's not that paranoia, it's not creating that. But I've had a lot of real estate agents in the Pulaski County and Lake of the Ozarks area have been through our training. They just have a different mindset when they're showing a house. When they're doing that, they're more confident, which results in more sales and those things, because they know I'm in a good position when I'm standing here explaining. Look at the kitchen and those things. They're standing in better places. They're more prepared.

Speaker 2 45:07

They can recognize the attack early in it because of our training we back it up and we do things in super slow motion where you can really get good at understanding all the pre-contact cues and the things that go into that person that's about to commit violence. They're going to tell you with their body, with their voice, with their facial expressions that they're about to do you harm and if we can start picking up on those things then we can get way ahead of that ambush, get out of there before the attack ever starts or before they even think about attacking us. And that comes down to trusting that instinct and that intuition that we all have. Just, you know, there's so often that we're like, oh, I'm being paranoid, I don't believe it, I'm just being goofy about this, I'm just letting the fear take over, and those kind of things, and it puts us in more vulnerable positions.

Speaker 2 46:02

You know how many times says elevator doors opened up, you see somebody that doesn't look quite right on the elevator and you get on there anyway. Right, so you've just put yourself in a metal box with this unknown person. That something told you something's not quite right about this person and nobody can get to you for help. And now you're in this four by four metal box because you didn't allow your instincts and your intuition to prevent you from doing that. Right, Something overrode that either your own you know I'm just being silly about this or I don't want to offend somebody. You know, and you know in polite society we get pretty good at that kind of stuff. So we just need to trust our instincts and our intuition, which can keep us out of a lot of that beforehand.

Speaker 1 46:51

That's an excellent point. Trust your spidey senses right. You have that intuition for a reason. There's something in your mind saying danger. And to your point, why don't want to come off as rude, or what if I'm wrong? Or you know well, it's better to be safe than.

Speaker 2 47:04

Yeah, and especially for women in our society. You know that rudeness, that I don't want to offend you kind of thing that most women have a pretty agreeable personality and want to get along and sometimes that can put us in those more vulnerable situations as well.

Speaker 1 47:24

Yeah, Well, what else could we talk about in regards to running or cycling that might be beneficial for you know our community, that you can think of?

Speaker 2 47:35

Yeah, that fear management is a huge piece of that. If you're, if you're not going to get any training, you don't want to think about what could happen if violence occurs in your life or develop strategies to do that. You know that's fear. That's preventing you from going to a seminar or thinking about what you would do in those situations. And fear is a lot of false evidence appearing real and false expectations appearing real. And that's why we spend so much time on that in our seminars, because that's a very important aspect of self defense, not only for a violent encounter but just in our everyday lives, of putting ourselves where we want to be. You know, doing the hard thing. If we're, if we're not putting ourselves out there and putting ourselves in those tough positions, fear is what holds us back from doing that. You know I'm not going to get in that ice bath, even though I know it's healthy for me, it's going to do me a lot of good, because I'm afraid of something. You know, whatever that is that's stopping you from doing that. Oh, what are good people going to think? You know, what is that person that I don't know, that I'm never going to see again? Think of me if I don't get on that elevator with them. You know, and once we spell that out and articulate it, it becomes kind of a silly fear that we can overcome. But those are all just false expectations about something that's going to occur in the future. That's probably not going to occur at all, you know. That's why it's false and false evidence.

Safety Tips for Running and Self-Defense

Speaker 2 49:02

I see some really big person, you know, with a tap out t-shirt on and they're all muscled up, They've got tattoos, They've got a big scar on their face and you know they've got prison tattoos. It looks like they just got out of jail. You know, immediately, if you're struck with fear with that person, then that's all false evidence. You know, just anybody can buy a tap out shirt, right? The guy could have a scar on his face because he didn't look when he crossed the street and a bus hit him. One day he could have gone to jail for check fraud, you know. And he's not a violent person at all, right. So we really concentrate on some of that fear management, especially in the violent encounter, because that's where it can overcome you, it can make you freeze up to where you can't think through the situation and find those opportunities where you could get away. Or if you can't get away, then end the violence any way you can.

Speaker 1 49:57

A strategy I like to use is run with slower friends, because sometimes fear is f everything and run, and you cannot run them.

Speaker 2 50:03

Yeah, that was always one of the things you know in Africa that was. The joke in the village was I don't have to be faster than the lion that's chasing us, you know, I just have to be faster than you are.

Speaker 1 50:15

Yes, that's a bad joke, but there's some truth to it, Since we're talking about animals. Okay, so this is another common thing with the running community is running into dogs and what are. Would you have any recommendations when it comes to animals and yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2 50:37

Now, running like we were talking about previously, anything you can do to deter the attack is a great thing to do. So running with a dog is going to make you less of a target than Somebody that's running by themselves without that dog, especially if it's a bigger dog German Shepherd, you know something like that. People just have you know if they see that it's just going to take too much time, it's not worth the effort and they're going to go down the road and find somebody else. Yeah, now, when you're running and and I have lots of experience with this when I was playing soccer in Africa Every time we ran, for the soccer team went on a three and five mile run we always had wild dogs and other animals chasing us.

Speaker 2 51:23

Um, so you know, very Just like with a criminal, anytime you can vary your route, make them change direct. If you are getting chased by a dog, you know making them change directions a lot is Going to confuse them, tire them out, make it not worth it for that animal as well. And so they don't. You know they're very fast in a straight line, but very few street dogs that might pose a threat to you are going to be Wanting to cut back and forth and make sharp turns a lot. So if you do have a dog chasing you, then that's one of those Things you could do to to dissuade that pretty quickly, and they're terrible too. So once you can get out of their territory, they're not going to continue to pursue.

Speaker 1 52:13

Yeah, I've had a few issues with with dogs over the years riding and running and can always be kind of a challenge On a bike. What I do is I kind of slow up a little bit, let them get kind of close and just take off and they get wore out pretty quick. That's probably the best way to deal with that. With a dog uh, running, I don't know that's uh, just like you said, side to side, just try to out run them if you can't really outrun them, but just try to get away from them. And you know, try to make yourself bigger and yell at them and throw a rock at them. This seems to help a little bit. Water bottles squirt them with a water bottle.

Speaker 2 52:46

Yeah, if you can't get away and this this applies to the criminal as well.

Speaker 2 52:50

You know, we, we, uh, in our courses we teach the 3d's we detect the danger in order to avoid it.

Speaker 2 52:57

If we can't avoid it, then we deter it and de-escalate it, try to defuse the situation as much as possible, and then, if we can't defuse it, then we go into defend mode, and that's kind of what you're talking about there.

Speaker 2 53:12

If I can't get away from the dog, if I can't get away from the criminal, if I can't deter them In some way and make it make myself a hard target to where they don't want anything to do with me, then I have to defend, and with animals, just like with humans, um, you take a strong stance, you take a Uh to where they think you're a predator as well, they're not going to mess with it because, again, it's not worth it. You know they're gonna. They have that same mentality and there's a lot of similarities between a dog chasing you to attack and a criminal mentality, because they have that predator mentality as well. So, uh, if we keep those 3d's in mind, you know, in that progression, then it's going to give you a good idea of where you're at and, and what you have to do at that moment 3d's.

Speaker 1 54:01

I love it. I was going for a run one night. This is probably one thing that probably scared me the most. I was out for a run it's like a Friday night, probably like 10 o'clock at night and I had my headphones in. This is in Ballin, missouri, just running on the sidewalk next to busy road, and I'm running all of a sudden I have this like sharp singing, stinging sensation in my, in my back. It kind of knocked the window out of me. It's like, oh, I like what the hell was that I?

Speaker 1 54:25

I reached back. It was like goo and I'm like, oh, my god, I just get shot. And it took me a second because I had that flight or fight instinct and I'm like what, what's going on? I realized it was an egg and these teenagers are throwing throwing an egg at me when they're driving by. But, man, it scared me so bad because I, legitimately I was shot like I don't know what this gooey is, but it's not good. I just had my, you know. But I didn't have a hole in the front of my chest, so that was good. System check, everything's a go. I find a big ass brick. I was waiting for the drive by again, but the rest of the run I had. I didn't know if they were coming back or not, but they just. I guess they just laughed it off and ran or drove off, but man, I was furious, absolutely.

Speaker 1 55:10

Yeah, I ran the rest of that run with a brick, with my, you know, looking over my shoulder. I didn't know if they were coming back and it startled me and it kind of terrified me a little bit because I I don't know what they wanted, I don't know if they're just being there, just punk teenagers I guess, but they could have, you know, who knows I? But that was probably, uh, one of the more rattling situations I've been in absolutely, but you know positives to that though.

Speaker 2 55:33

Um, I would look that as a training rep. You know, uh, because you were able to, you know you obviously went into your olympic system when you thought you know you were shot and you know your your prior profession, obviously, that's, that's something that would occur, right, and it probably felt warm and you're like, oh man, that could be a lot, you know. Absolutely could. But you made that transition from oh no, oh no, oh no. What do I do to okay? Okay, now I got this, you know Check.

Speaker 1 56:05

I'm checking everything out.

Speaker 2 56:06

Okay, I'm good, I can come back now.

Speaker 1 56:08

Come back now when I'm well, now that I'm aware, yeah, I got something for you.

Speaker 2 56:13

Yeah, absolutely so, um, you know, I would look at that as, hey, that's a really good you know training scenario where no harm came to you. That, uh, you know, because a lot of times experience is a really bad teacher. Right, because I think it was wall Whitman said you know, experience always gives you the test before the lesson and, uh, anytime we can have an experience where we survive it, then that's a good lesson to count on and that's good training.

Speaker 1 56:40

Yeah, no, absolutely. Well we're. We're approaching an hour here. Are there any final thoughts or uh tips that you have for us before we wrap up? Uh, wow, that went really fast. I really appreciate it. It did go like correct, didn't it.

Inspiring Conversation of Appreciation and Service

Speaker 2 56:51

Yeah, uh, appreciate this opportunity to Uh help people. If I can anyway help make people safer, um, then we're. We're always willing to do that. You can contact me there with, uh the information you're going to post and if anybody has any questions, wants to continue the conversation about safety. I love talking about this stuff. I love making people safer, so anyway, I can help anybody, let me know. Like I said, we do classes for different professions real estate agents, nurses Um and we can make it specific to your scenario that you're experiencing and we can train you specifically for the scenarios You're going to have in your life and your job.

Speaker 1 57:32

Well, we'll put all your contact information in the show notes. So if you want to contact Alan, you can get in contact with them there or just reach out to me. I'll be happy to put you in contact with them. Well, sir, great conversation, great insights, a lot of things to think about. I appreciate yourself with service and and wanting to give back, and, you know, be a sheepdog and protect and serve and teach others. I think that's very noble and I appreciate you, uh, taking the time to be here.

Speaker 2 57:59

Hey, thanks for what you do too. You're really changing people's lives. I've been following you on social media seeing the great things you're doing and, uh, keep up the good work. Well, I'm honored.

Speaker 1 58:08

I appreciate it Well for everyone out there. Keep doing hard things and stay safe out there and we'll see you guys in the next episode.