Empower Yourself: Mastering Personal Safety and Resilience with the AARM Course.
- Feb 24
- 7 min read
Updated: May 19
Podcast: Listen & Learn whilst you read
Introduction to Personal Safety and Resilience:
In today's complex world, the ability to navigate potential risks and ensure personal safety is more crucial than ever. Traditional approaches to self-defense often fall short, focusing solely on physical techniques. That's why the Assault Awareness & Risk Management (AARM) course is designed to equip you with a holistic skillset, blending practical self-defense with crucial life skills. This article delves into the AARM course, exploring its unique approach and how it empowers individuals to thrive in the 21st century.
The Need for Modern Self-Defense:
As highlighted in "Life Skills for Life: Self-Defence Training for the 21st Century," article, modern self-defense transcends physical combat. It's about cultivating awareness, understanding potential threats, and developing strategies to mitigate risks. The AARM course embodies this philosophy, offering a comprehensive framework for personal safety.
Key Components of the AARM Course:
Awareness and Risk Assessment:
The course emphasizes developing heightened situational awareness. This involves recognizing potential threats, understanding environmental factors, and learning to read non-verbal cues.
If you don't see it coming, you cannot possibly prepare and defend yourself from it. Personal Safety and Resilience requires awareness and observation skills at three main levels, 1. Risk Analysis, 2. threat Assessment, and, 3. Attack (assault) anticipation. Analysis, assessment and anticipation are the three A's of personal preservation and protection. They enable us to avoid dangerous circumstances (risks), evade threats (dangerous situations), and to Mitigate, Manage and Manipulate (man-handle) confrontations if necessary. Mmm's the word but, B and C grades just won't cut it!
One of the best ways to develop your awareness of surroundings and environment is simply to get out and about, Explore your environment, where the risks and threats might materialise, and, how you can move around it effectively and efficiently. We don't need to be an olympic athlete to do this, performing 'death defying stunts' just for the fun of it! The core principles of Parkour as described in the Blog Articles "Escape from Middle Örth" and "Zombies on the Run" are all about flow and the ability to move from place to place with speed and ease. What better way to keep healthy and fit at the same time as building your personal protection awareness and capabilities!?
Whilst these skills per say are 'out of scope' for the AARM course , they are encouraged as part of your own personal training programme outside of the confines of the course. SeTs Ryu also teaches Parkour essentials and hosts community discussion forums and study groups where you can get online learning and support beyond the borders of the physical course or any other barriers.
De-escalation and Conflict Resolution:
AARM teaches effective de-escalation techniques, enabling participants to manage potentially volatile situations without resorting to physical confrontation. However, as good as they, are purely linguistic communication skills such as NLP or even Verbal Judo, without the physical skills properly aligned with them can only get you so far. Incongruences will expose your bluff and open the flood gates.
This aligns with the concept of "Life Skills for Life: Life-Long Learning in the 21st Century," article which advocates for developing emotional intelligence and communication and other applied psychology (business) skills among others that enable us to cooperate, coordinate and collaborate with a group of people to get work done and achieve results that would not otherwise be possible if working alone.
This is precisely what Workshop Facilitation is all about and why it is so valuable for most businesses today. It's sort of like what the British army's SAS regiment calls a Chinese 'Parliament'. It helps 'Get Shit Done' when time is short and the pressure is on. The AARM course is a modular workshop in itself, but also contains modules in which Workplace Facilitation principles and methods can be directly applied in order to customise and personalise the learning experience to a greater or lesser extent.
Practical Self-Defense Techniques:
The course incorporates practical self-defense techniques, focusing on effective and easy-to-learn methods for protecting oneself. These start with releases, escape and evasion skills in order to evade the threat, at least until help arrives.
These techniques are designed to empower individuals of all physical abilities, not so much through fighting but, by controlling the situation in such as way that it limits the threat's assault opportunities whilst optimising your own, and, hopefully deters them altogether.
Traditional Martial Arts were a product of the people (culture), time, place and circumstances. Few of them have evolved to adapt to modern day requirements, preferring instead to be preserved as cultural antiques. Those that have tried to adapt, have frequently adapted by focusing on the more esoteric (health) or sporting aspects, losing a great deal of their true worth in the process.
Psychological Resilience:
In the podcast, the interviewer asked her guest "How might this course help you in these situations ". The gentle expressed his feeling that "The stress management skills might be helpful. If I were ever in a scary situation like that I would want to be able to stay calm and think clearly". This is important for developing or exuding a sense of confidence that helps act as a deterrence to potential assaults.
AARM addresses the psychological aspects of self-defense, helping participants build confidence and resilience in the face of adversity. This is a parallel physical and mental process, like two wheels of the same cart, that must be in harmony in order to be effective under such conditions.
Mental balance and stability is equally important as physical stability and balance. This also means knowing how to take a fall and get back up again, both physically and mentally. No matter how much we believe and have confidence in the course and the training, making mistakes is part of the game and life's ultimate teacher through which, we start to mitigate fear and build faith in ourselves.
The way you carry yourself can encourage/invite assaults from people with a predisposition to violence, where as the calm purposeful focus that comes from knowing what to do and the confidence gained from having done the necessary training will transform the body language signals emanating from you.
Legal and Ethical Considerations:
The course provides insights into legal and ethical considerations related to self-defense, ensuring participants understand their rights and responsibilities. Once the physical confrontation is over, the mental emotional and even legal consequences can continue for sometime afterwards, perhaps even years. Is it really worth it?
The classic martial artists' refrain is that "The Law is an Ass", and "Better to be eating porridge than pushing up grass". There is no smoke without fire, so these attitudes and philosophies have their roots in real world practicalities and experiences, however, they do tend to be focused on the most extreme situations and consequences. A 'Life or death', 'kill or be killed' mentality, very Sith like in the Star Wars world. To some extent this may still be true in some societies and cultures such as the Asia and the Americas. In more modern cultures and societies however, this is rarely the case or appropriate. This is one reason the study and analysis of statistics to ascertain the true risks and threats in our own societies is so important.
To avoid negative moral and legal consequences, we need to respond to threats in an appropriate and reasonable manner given the situation and circumstances in general. Although their opinion on the matter rarely seems to align with real-world practicalities, the law usually gives some guidelines on this. Despite its apparent ignorance of reality and the personal interpretations applied by legal practitioners, the law has its reasons for being the way it is, given that it must take into account the greater good of society, not just the interest of a single individual, no matter how badly victimized. We also have to be able to defend ourselves in court, and justify óur actions through reasoned argument and evidence. There is no easy way to achieve this, but do it we must - or at least try to.
Connecting with "Watch, Weep, and Wonder (NAFF)":
The NAFF (Norway Action Film Festival) article emphasizes the importance of critical thinking and questioning conventional approaches. It also discusses societal and psychological development issues related to how violence and self-defence is portrayed in movies, in particular the Hollywood variety. The AARM course aligns with this ethos by encouraging participants to challenge traditional notions of self-defense and develop their own informed strategies. This does require critical thinking that can only be achieved through awareness, knowledge and practical experience.
Why Choose the AARM Course?
Holistic Approach: The AARM course integrates physical, psychological, and legal aspects of self-defense.
Practical Skills: Participants gain tangible skills that can be applied in real-world situations.
Empowerment: The course empowers individuals to take control of their personal safety and build resilience.
Expert Instruction: The course is led by experienced instructors who provide personalized guidance and support.
A Call to Action:
Ready to take control of your personal safety?
Book or Enroll in an AARM course today and embark on a journey of empowerment and resilience. Visit https://www.mindsets.eu/courses/assault-awareness-%26-risk-management-(aarm)-course to learn more and register.
"Do you want to know what you can do?
Don't ask, ACT!
Action will define you"
(Thomas Jefferson)
Conclusion:
This AARM course was created by Chris spencer, a qualified higher-education teacher & lecturer in Security & Risk Management (M.Sc.) and a Certified Protection Officer (CPO) with the International Foundation for protection Officers ( IFPO). He also has many years of work experience as a security screener (airport), supervisor (pubs, hotels, events) and security guard (Shops) in Finland. The course was initially derived from an earlier course developed in the U.K. by a Clinical Psychologist on which Chris Spencer was trained and authorised as a teacher. Since moving to Finland, Chris has long since further developed the course using his own studies and work experience as a professional security officer.
The AARM course is more than just a self-defense program; it's a transformative experience that equips you with the skills and mindset to navigate the challenges of the 21st century. By blending practical techniques with crucial life skills, AARM empowers you to live a safer and more confident life. We cannot always rely on others to do it for us, no ethically should we. By taking responsibility for making yourself safer, you also make the world a safer place for others, and society as a whole.
Learn more, Ask, and then ACT!
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