An Anti Abduction Tactic For Kids

Hi everyone

I received an email from a mother the other day asking me about anti abduction tactics for her children. Now generally I don’t go into teaching self defense to kids but I thought that I should relay the information that I gave this mother to all of you in case you are a concerned parent.

Now since I am a dad of two amazing beautiful kids I have researched and tested countless self defense tactics that apply to children. The best anti abduction tactic for kids that I have come across is this simple yet effective tactic that I am about to mention.

Ever try prying your child off a pole or bolted down object? Then you know how hard it is to do. If your child is walking and someone grabs them tell them to hang on to a bolted down pole of a street sign and yell “YOUR NOT MY DAD/MOM”.

If they are riding a bike and someone tries grabbing them and throwing them into a back of a car or trunk once again tell them to hang on to their bike for dear life , keep things simple and similar so they know and remember what to do. This will make it hard to place your child into the vehicle because the bike makes it awkward and difficult to simply place your child into that given space.

This buys them time and attracts attention to their situation.

There’s no such thing as a dirty fighter only an educated one

Norm Bettencourt

Happy Easter & A FREE Gift For You

Hi Everyone,

I hope everyone had a great Easter. I have decided to give everyone a free Easter gift today by posting Chapter 1 called Less Is More When It Comes To Personal Protection from Secrets of Street Combat. If you want more info on the book just go to http://tactselfdefense.com/secrets-of-street-combat-ebook/
Enjoy the read.






Through that experience with violence I had quickly learned that by knowing multiple personal protection techniques I was actually doing myself more harm than good.


Remembering back to that experience that forced me to put my martial arts skills up against a street fighter I remember feeling the adrenaline dump hit me full blast. My limbs felt heavy, my heart was pounding inside my mouth and I was shaking like a leaf.


I remember thinking to myself at the standoff what technique should I use and trying to go through what I had learned all those years in the martial arts dojo.


For the life of me I could not put two and two together, all the information that I had running around in my head was confused, distorted and all mixed up. I realized later on that this was all due to the effects that adrenaline played on my mind and body.


Years later while doing research to create my system I found out through talking to 911 operators, listening to 911 recordings and watching people perform fine motor skill tasks while under the stress of adrenaline that even the simplest of tasks such as remembering your name can be difficult while under the influence of an adrenaline dump.


There are countless recordings of people under distress telling a 911 operator that there is an intruder inside their home. When the 911 operator asks for there address the caller cannot remember their own address even after living at the same location for over 15 years.


So how will you be able to remember complicated, elaborate techniques such as move to the right, pivot, take a step with your left foot while using your right hand to twist your attacker’s wrist, etc. You’re not. It’s just too difficult to remember on a good day let alone while your life is being threatened.

Through my research I realized that the axiom “less is more” is particularly true when it comes to self defense. That by mastering only a few personal protection techniques instead of countless ones your reaction time will be much quicker. If you know too many techniques your brain will go through all the techniques that you know and will pick out which technique is best to use for that given situation.


Through all of the analyzing that your brain will do shifting through all those techniques that you know it will begin confusing techniques from one another, creating chaos in your mind. This all occurs in a split second inside your mind as your attacker is standing in front of you, this is what is called “Hicks Law”.


“Hicks Law”- The final result is that your reaction time now increases tremendously due to having too many self defense techniques to shift through making you too slow to respond to your enemy’s stimuli.

I remember when a suite in my apartment complex was on fire and everyone in the building was evacuating. A gentleman in front of me was trying to open a locked door but his hand was shaking so bad that he could not place his key in the key hole. This is a task that the gentlemen must have performed thousands of times over in his life time. When he needed to perform it the most he could not due to how adrenaline was affecting his body.



“K.I.S.S Keep It Simple & Similar”

Placing a key inside a key hole is considered a “fine motor skill”. As you can see this is next to impossible to do while adrenaline is pumping full speed through your veins.

The big kicker is that most self defense and martial arts techniques are placed in the fine motor skill category, so how are you going to remember or let alone perform them while under the stress of adrenaline? You’re not.

Another kicker I found out through my experience and research was that your personal protection techniques have to be simple and “similar” in movement from one another so that you can perform them quickly and you can remember them during a threatening situation.

Most personal protection and martial arts techniques require you to perform one task if an individual is holding a knife in his right hand, but if the individual is holding a knife in the opposite hand it will require you to move and do a completely different maneuver to defend yourself.




Note: In 1960 Researchers Franklin Henry and Donald Rogers found that not only does increasing the number of responses affect your reaction time, but also by increasing the complexity of the tasks, induces stress that can adversely affect your reaction time. While doing simple reaction time test, they told each subject to place their finger next to a switch and when they hear a certain sound, they are to flip the switch. After each subject’s time was registered and recorded they used the same group and did the same test but added another task to do after flipping the switch. The subjects were told to flip a second switch after completing the second task. In both tests, the only time recorded was the time it took to push the first button and Henry and Rogers found that the added stress of having a more complex task to perform caused each subject’s reaction time to increase by an average of 31%.


This is much too complicated to remember when your life is on the line and you are feeling the warmth of your urine running down your leg as someone has you at knife or gun point. Your techniques must be similar in movement to one another regardless if you are defending yourself from a punch, knife or gun attack. Remember the K.I.S.S acronym Keep It Simple & Similar.

Do You Know The Difference Between Cover & Concealment?

You hear the sound of gun shots would you know how to keep yourself and family members safe? Most people don't because they cant differentiate the difference between cover and concealment so here is a quick post on the difference between the two.

First if you hear the sound of gunshots get low to the ground and seek preferably cover which constitutes any object or barrier that will protect you from being shot. Some examples would include the engine block area of a vehicle, a solid brick wall, or a concrete planter.


Where concealment only serves to hide or obscure your location. It does not provide ballistic protection. Some examples of concealment include bushes, vehicle doors, the interior walls of most structures, and even darkness.

If you can obtain both cover and concealment at the same time you have increased your odds of avoiding getting shot big time.

So when you walk around during the day play a game in your head and see if you can take a look at different objects in your environment and differentiate them as either cover or concealment.


There's no such thing as a dirty fighter only an educated one


Norm Bettencourt

Dealing With Stab & Gun Shot Wounds

If you have been slashed or stabbed with a knife the odds of your artery getting cut is low. The reason for this is because most people do not place enough power behind there slashing or stab which is good news for you.

If the knife or weapon is impaled in your body leave the weapon in place for it is acting like a plug, stabilize the weapon by placing bulky dressing around it, use bandages to keep dressing in place while you wait for an ambulance.

If you have been shot or grazed by a bullet do not panic most injuries do not hit an artery because most people’s aim is haphazard in a shootout so the injury isn’t necessarily going to be life threatening.

Simply apply direct pressure with a dressing (gauze) on the wound to control bleeding while waiting for an ambulance. If you need to add more dressing do not remove blood soaked dressings for this might cause the clot to be removed and restart bleeding again. Apply new dressings over the old while applying direct pressure.


Note: Direct pressure means applying a great deal of pressure onto the wound so you stop it from bleeding, do not kill yourself with kindness or you may bleed to death.



If you have been shot or stabbed and the injury has penetrated the chest wall you will find it difficult to breathe here is what you want to do.

Cover the wound with a dressing such as a plastic bag or wrap to stop air from getting into the chest.

Tape three sides of the dressing in place; leave the side closest to the ground open to allow drainage. This also helps prevent air from going into the chest cavity through the wound but let’s air escape when the person breathes out. If breathing is difficult after applying this seal raise the open side to let the trapped air out, breathing will ease then.



Note: In worst case scenarios to prevent infection from a gunshot wound use a 3-1 mixture of sugar and Betadine (povidone iodine) to make a paste and place on wound. You can also use the same ratio using sugar and cooking oil or honey instead of Betadine (povidone iodine).



There's no such thing as a dirty fighter only an educated one.

Norm Bettencourt