The What-If Game: Advanced

I have been teaching and preaching to play the what-if game for as long as I can remember.  I have been doing it ever since I first started learning about police officer survival tactics when I was an Explorer Scout in High School.

If you haven’t heard of this before, it is very simple, but can play big dividends towards your self defense.  All you do is think “what if” this happened or that happened and go down the thought of how you would handle yourself.  A lot of us do this in a negative way when we think about conversations with our boss.  If that SOB says this then I am going to quick, sue, and report him to the FTC.  And then I’m really going to tell him off!  I know you have done it… me too.

But playing the what-if game for your self defense is putting yourself in situations and having a realistic plan (you know you aren’t going to tell off your boss).  What if you are sitting in your favorite restaurant with your family and a crazed gunman comes in and opens fire! What are you going to do?  Realistically?  And with the things you are carrying right now.  Gets a little harder when you can’t stand up with your favorite rifle with all your friends and shoot back.

You can play the what if game every where at any time.  It’s simply making a plan for when something bad happens.

If you are boarded of that and think you are ready for the advanced game, here it is.

The advanced game is how you would attack someone if you were the bad guy.  Start by looking at you.  If someone was going to rob you, where and when would it be?  If someone was going to break into your home, how would they do it?

I was reminded of this trick (think like your enemy) in the book I’m reading: “How to be Your Own Bodyguard” by Nick Hughes.  In the book he talks about looking at your home from a criminal’s eyes.  How would someone break into your home if they really wanted in?  How would someone steal your car?  Where and when?  How would someone kidnap you? 

That’s how bodyguards must think all the time.  They look at the battlefield from the enemy’s eyes to anticipate what will happen.  Bodyguards will continue down this thought line and shore up those week spots.

For you the advanced what-if game should be looking at your life and the dangers it has in it.  What is the most common crime in the place where you live?  What is the MO (Motus Operandi which is Latten for how they do it)?  Now look at it from the criminal’s eyes.  How would they commit that crime against you?

Around my home we keep having people stealing things out of cars in the middle of the night.  They come around 2 am and check car doors in people’s driveways.  When they find one open, they go through the car to see if there is anything valuable and run off with a hand full of stuff.  They work in pairs or more with a getaway car parked close by.

Mine is simple, they want cars that are open so they can grab stuff and go.  We lock our cars.  All the time.  Always.  We haven’t had a problem yet, but I keep an eye on it.  I’m also looking at putting a bigger motion activated light in the front… even though that doesn’t seem to bother them.  It will give my security camera a better picture and maybe I can get that info to the police and help them catch the thieves. 

Are you ready for the advanced game?  Go find out what crimes are common and how they are being done in the areas you frequent the most.  Find out what is happening around your home and your work to start with.  Then start looking at the stores you shop at and the other places you go.  Then you can see the world through the criminal’s eyes and stop them before they victimize you.

Stay Safe,

Ben