In the previous article, I wrote about the absolute need to not hyper focus only on the single attacker that is in front of you and that you know about. As I said, that is to ensure that you can see other things going on around you and allows your brain to make other cognitive actions. Today we will go into more depth about why we need that ability, because that allows us to exercise the best option to survive and win against the violent criminal offender.

As I mentioned before, one of the dangers or hyperfocusing is that we get mentally locked into a single answer to the problem. In the specific case of using Jiu-jitsu for self-defense, we need to keep in mind that yes, in some contexts, entangling with an attacker and even taking them to the ground may be the single best answer. It may also be the single worst answer. It all depends on context. If we turn all of our attention to the single opponent in front of us, we may miss the second attacker coming up from behind who hits us when we are not prepared. Or we may miss the signal that our opponent is going for a weapon that he is carrying and he starts shooting or stabbing. Or we may miss that the police have pulled up and all they see is us on top of another person and they interpret things to mean that we are the aggressor and we end up getting arrested.

If we miss these signals, and keep trying to choke him out or break a limb, we may miss the moment when we should have done something else. That something else may be just pinning the other guy so he cannot move or continue the attack. Or it may be that we need to get up and run away from the situation. Or that we should not go to the ground at all. We need to have multiple options to maximize our chance to preserve our lives and well being.

Arguably, we need more options than just pure Jiu-jitsu, such as possibly using tools ourselves. The tool may begin and end at pepper spray, or it may include knives, small impact weapons such as saps, and might very well include firearms. However, these extra options are a bit outside the specific scope of this series, so suffice it to say that the more options we have, the better the chance we select the right one.