Don’t Get Caught Off Guard!!! Situational Awareness & The 4 States of Readiness

What is Situational Awareness? In terms of self defense situational awareness is your perception of the environment and nearby events together with your assessment of how your actions will affect your immediate and near future.

To make this assessment, you must first pay attention to details in your environment that may affect you. You will use that information to predict what could happen next. In doing so, you must consider whether or not there is a threat to your safety. You can then decide what to do to assure a safe outcome for you.

States of Readiness

A common framework for understanding situational awareness is using defined states of readiness. The following method is used by the N.R.A. to teach situational awareness. It incorporates four states of readiness — unaware, aware, alert, and alarm.

1. Unaware — When you are at home, with the doors locked, you can let your guard down. You can take a nap, drink a beer, and listen to music with your headphones. This would be the unaware state, and in those circumstances, it would likely be ok. However, if you are walking down a busy street while drinking a beer with your headphones on, or napping in the park, you are likely to have problems. You could be selected as an easy target and become a victim of a mugging.
2. Aware — This is the state you should be in when you leave the house and go about your day. This is a relaxed state, but in it, you are observant. You take mental notes of the people and things around you. You have not seen anything to alert you that there is a threat, but you are paying attention to your environment in case there are any indications that you should become more focused on any potential threats. You cannot be daydreaming or talking on the phone to maintain this state, you must be paying attention to your surroundings.
3. Alert — In the alert state, you may have recognized that conditions are favorable for something bad to happen. You are not only aware, but you are paying a little extra attention to something that looks like it could be a potential threat. You may have seen someone cross the street and start walking towards you. You may notice someone in the parking lot looking over their shoulder, then looking at you. In the alert state, you would immediately start making plans of action based on what the potential threat may do. If the situation escalates, then you already have a plan and can therefore act more quickly.
4. Alarm — When you are in the alarm state, you have determined that the potential threat you noticed earlier is indeed a real threat, and you may have to act immediately. If you noticed the potential threat in the alert state, you will already have a plan of action. You will simply be looking for the cue to take action. For example, you may have seen someone walking in your direction and decided that if they approach you aggressively, you will yell, “Stop!” and put your hands up before they get within 10 feet of you. You may have planned that if they keep coming you will create distance and move to their flank.

Using Situational Awareness

• When analyzing the people and events that you see in your environment, consciously put yourself in the appropriate state of readiness.
• Situational awareness can reduce the stress of a violent encounter by removing surprise.
• Knowing the state you are in helps you determine what to do next.

Situational awareness allows you to be ready to apply your physical skills.

Final Words

• Use situational awareness as your first line of defense. It’s your radar.
• Situational awareness is developed through training. It is not cultivated by simply reading about it or willing it.
• Monitor your state of readiness. Find the right balance of awareness so you can both stay safe and be functional in your everyday life. Being unaware while walking downtown at night is not appropriate. Expecting sudden attacks from every shadow in your home is probably not appropriate either.
• Situational awareness does not guarantee you will not be caught off guard. Nobody can be vigilant 100% of the time. However, situational awareness can make it harder for someone to catch you off guard.

Tactical Elite L.L.C.