Being safe as a woman jogger

[krissbeth]

Pepperspray is only useful if you can get it out for use very, very quickly. It is usless buried in your purse somewhere you have to dig for it. Legally - in Massachusetts, you need a low-level form of a firearms permit to carry, and it can only be legally bought from real firearms dealers, but anyone without a criminal record can legally carry it. Laws vary from state to state.

Really? My mom and boyfriend have been encouraging me to get pepperspray for my jogs. Well, crap. I'm originally from Rhode Island, so I had no idea about this.

I do bring my cell and whistle (saved from the package all the girls got from campus security on our first day at university in '99 -- ha!).

 

[takyris]

That is an advantage. But it is also the major disadvantage I was thinking of - the martial arts route is a long haul before it is practically useful. A person who has gone for a few months and earned a yellow belt is typically in more danger of getting themselves hurt in a conflict, rather than less.

No argument there. It depends on the school, but yes, there's a period where you're probably a bit worse off than you'd be if you knew nothing, because you know just enough to get yourself hurt.

(In my school, you didn't get the past-white belt until you'd demonstrated an ability to do something beyond freeze when attacked in an unexpected manner. The goal wasn't to get someone to do a letter-perfect technique (although ideally, they do that when specifically requested). The goal was to get someone conditioned to instinctively not freeze up and do nothing when attacked. That said, my school didn't give out past-white belts in the first few months.)

A self defense class usually focuses on three things - avoiding the situation entirely, techniques for scaring off an attacker, and escape techniques. A martial arts class typically focuses on beating the other guy - and that means staying in their dangerous presence for longer.

The more I hear this, the more I'm convinced that either my school is an aberration (teaching self-defense with some martial arts and not the reverse), or there are just some bad schools out there giving places a bad name. We had entire classes devoted to "knowing at what point it's safe to run (and how you whack until you think you can run, and not past that point)" and "how fast can you get to the point where the gun can't fire at you" and so forth, and the first rule that the teachers emphasized in the dealing-with-guns classes was that the best thing to do was to give them your wallet and run, and how the takeaway techniques were only to be hauled out if you were afraid that they were going to kill you anyway -- they'd ordered you to come with them somewhere, for example.

IMHO, if what you want to do is be a bit more safe, a few days of self-defense class is the best first bet. If what you want to do is render attackers unconscious so you can haul them off to the cops yourself, take a few years of martial arts.

It's certainly going to be better than nothing. The talks on situational awareness I've heard in some self-defense seminars are excellent.

 

[Mark Chance]

Do you guys think that would be the best thing to do?

I find that giving strangers a puzzled look while I scratch my head with my Glock works wonders. YMMV.

 

[Lewis526]

I find that giving strangers a puzzled look while I scratch my head with my Glock works wonders. YMMV.

Keep your finger off the trigger when you do that.

 

[Mark Chance]

Keep your finger off the trigger when you do that.

Of course. One keeps one's finger off the trigger all the time except when aiming at one's target.

Seriously, and back on-topic, any form of self-defense has inherent risks. Anyone with experience in such matters knows that self-defense is a last resort, not a first response. If you get into a fight, you're very likely to get hurt. Tools such as pepper spray can help even the odds, but only if you're trained in their use. Otherwise, they're a liability.

There are many good common sense suggestions in this thread. Two more that may have been mentioned, but that I missed:

1. Jog some place more public, or at the same place during a more public time.
2. Jog with a friend.

 

[Harmon]

Best advice for Joggers so far-

1- Jog with a friend
2- Take a self defense course
3- Do not think because you took a self defense course that you know how to fight
4- Do not run with ear phones in your ears as you need to hear whats about you
5- Jog in public; jog where people are actually present
6- Trigger on finger just a moment before squeezing the trigger
7- Dog friendly people are generally good people.
8- Defense tools (Mace, pepperspray, etc) are good ideas, but seek training and check local laws.
9- Carry a cell phone
10- Whistle might be a good idea
11- Change your jogging patterns, time and places
12- Let people know where you are going and when you will return

Did I miss anything? (Sure I did)

Trying to help you (and others) stay safe.

 

[AnonymousOne]

I find that giving strangers a puzzled look while I scratch my head with my Glock works wonders. YMMV.

Roger that. Pack heat. Small frame polymer Glock for your jogging needs.

 

[Merkuri]

Small frame polymer Glock for your jogging needs.

I've always heard that a shotgun is better for deterring people. I was told that just hearing the "cha-chick" of cocking the gun will scare most people off, especially if the gun is being held by a woman, for some reason.

Though I'm not sure how feasible it would be to jog with a shotgun.

 

[RangerWickett]

I would love to see an Olympic event where you jog with a shotgun, shooting muggers for points. If nothing else, that would be a fun paintball variant.

 

[Mark Chance]

Though I'm not sure how feasible it would be to jog with a shotgun.

It could be done. Back in the day, I'd sometimes run 4-6 miles in boots with a rucksack while carrying an M-16. It's sort of like crosstraining.