Soft Skills

Imagine you had a superpower that meant you would never have to use violence and put yourself at risk of losing a fight and getting hurt, fearing arrest and imprisonment or reprisal attacks. That superpower is your brain!

Let’s start with the small window in time before violence happens. What if your awareness skills were honed to detect and avoid any potential risk of violence? If, over time, you developed an instinct to spot the potential for trouble, you’d be far safer than the person who walks around blindly with no thought for their safety.

If you knew what a potential attacker looks for in a victim, you’d know how to conduct yourself whilst in a public place to avoid conflict.

Sometimes, in spite of your highly developed situational awareness skills, trouble will creep up and surprise you. At this point, when violence is about to happen, imagine if your superpower also included the ability to de-escalate any potential aggressor from wanting to cause you harm. Knowing a little psychology will give you the ability to calm any situation down and prevent an assault.

Another reason why the soft skills to avoid violence is so important is that many people don’t have the mindset for physical violence. You can teach them endless amounts of techniques over many years and they’ll still freeze in the face of conflict.

Now let’s look at the moment in time straight after a violent incident. If you got into a street fight, through no fault of your own, would you know how our laws in the UK view using violence for self-defence? Let me tell you, it’s a grey area. Our laws, like our lives, are sometimes complicated and learning a little about the law, reasonable force and intent is vital for your self-protection.

Knowledge is power. Violence is frightening, unpredictable, painful and messy.