An Escape Plan: recap and giveaway

**This Giveaway Is Now Closed*** I went ahead and flipped a coin–Steph was heads, Cathy, tails…….and Cathy won. Congrats!

Hmm…turns out that I haven’t posted since I told you I was going to a night of Protective Thinking, sponsored by An Escape Plan. I didn’t actually escape, but instead I learned a LOT of self-defense with fellow bloggers and probably one hundred others at Conseco Fieldhouse.

The focus of the night was the ProActive techniques developed by Jeff Patterson, co-owner of An Escape Plan. He introduced to me the idea that when faced with an eminent attack, the best thing to do ise  make the first move. The element of surprise is a good weapon. Even by saying,”Hello! How’s it going?” you could easily throw a potential attacker enough off guard that he changes his mind. If the threat remains, we were shown three proactive moves that should get us away from an attacker and able to run/call for help.

In addition to this, Jeff shared a lot of insight into how to stay safe and what your body does when presented with a dangerous situation. A few snippets I took away from the evening include:

1) You can’t depend on fine motor skills in an attack situation. Dialing the phone, putting a key in a lock, pressing the nozzle on a can of mace are all fine motor skills.

2) Strike first. It is perfectly legal to protect yourself from what you feel is a dangerous situation. Be prepared to hurt your attacker, and be OK with that-if you don’t get him, he will get you.

3) Men know better. If you are in an empty parking garage, men know not to pull into the spot next to you. They know in a deserted situation not to crowd you. They know. So if someone is following too closely, if your space feels invaded–there’s a reason, and it probably isn’t a friendly one.

The ProActive techniques are also shared on An Escape Plan’s new DVD, the complete “Protective Thinking” series. I was given an DVD to review, and I found it extremely informative. The other two parts to the DVD are “ReActive” and “Ground Survival”. Those two sections answered the question,”What if I don’t get to make the first move?”

Having experienced the ProActive portion of the program, I can’t tell you how helpful it was to practice those techniques that evening. We did each move several times, and by the end of the night, I felt like I really had it down. In watching the rest of the program on the DVD, I would recommend pausing the DVD after each technique and practicing, preferably with a partner. I can see this being a good way to spend an evening with a youth group, moms group, or any other kind of social group interested in personal safety. I know I will be sharing it with my children when they are older.

Does this sound like something you’d like to learn more about? The DVD is available for purchase on the website An Escape Plan.

What? You read the word Giveaway in the title? Well then it’s your lucky day! One reader will receive the DVD “Protective Thinking” just by leaving a comment.

Giveaway Guidelines: One entry per comment, one comment per person. Please be sure your comment in linked to your email in some way, or list it in your comment. You may make an additional comment after tweeting the following:

“Protective Thinking” DVD giveaway, learn how to keep yourself and your loved ones safe! http://??.sl.pt

Comments will close and a winner will be chosen sometime Saturday! Good Luck!

**Disclosure: I was invited to this free event, and given a DVD to keep, and one to give away in exchange for posting on this event.** (just in case you were wondering)