Australian Personal Combatives

Great tip!

Personal Security Tip #3
Don’t stop behind a vehicle without leaving yourself an escape route.

When you stop in traffic, always leave enough space between your vehicle and the one in front so you can see where its rear tyres meet the road. That gap gives you room to steer around the vehicle if a threat develops.

It may be a carjacking, an aggressive driver, a vehicle breakdown, debris, or simply the need to get out of the way of an emergency. If you’re bumper-to-bumper, you’ve surrendered your mobility, which is the single greatest advantage your vehicle provides.

Your vehicle is not just transport. It is your primary means of escape.

Leave yourself options. Mobility is security.

Yep

Personal Security Tip #2 – Increase Your Field of View

One of the simplest ways to improve your personal security is to avoid hugging the wall as you approach a blind corner.

By stepping away from the wall, you widen your field of view and can see around the corner much earlier. That extra distance may only be a metre or two, but it can give you the time needed to identify a potential threat before you walk straight into it.

The closer you are to the wall, the less you can see. The further you are from it, the more information you gain.

Threat recognition is about seeing danger before you become part of it. Give yourself every opportunity to observe, assess and, if necessary, change your direction before contact is forced upon you.

Distance from the wall equals information. Information gives you options.

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Personal Security Tip #1

Don’t wear headphones in public spaces.

I’m often asked what the single biggest thing a person can do to improve their personal security.

My answer is simple: take the headphones off.

When you wear headphones, you voluntarily give up one of your most important early warning systems, your hearing.

You won’t hear someone approaching from behind. You won’t hear an argument escalating nearby. You won’t hear a vehicle travelling at speed, people calling for help, falling debris, or the countless subtle sounds that alert us that something isn’t right.

Personal safety begins with awareness.

It isn’t just about criminals. It’s about recognising danger before it reaches you, whatever form that danger takes.

The situation becomes even worse when headphones are combined with looking down at a smartphone. Vision and hearing are both diverted away from your surroundings, leaving you almost completely disconnected from what’s happening around you.

If your attention is going to be somewhere else, make sure you’re in a genuinely safe place first.

No public space should ever be assumed to be a safe place. Awareness is your first line of defence.

Buzen-dō (武禅道) — The Path of Martial Zen

Buzen-dō is not a martial art, nor is it intended to replace the Budō a practitioner already follows.

It is a path of personal cultivation that uses Budō as the vehicle to develop the qualities that have always stood at the heart of the martial traditions: calm under pressure, clarity within chaos, presence in the moment, disciplined action and ethical restraint.

For centuries these qualities were forged through rigorous martial training. Today they remain just as relevant—not only in the dōjō, but wherever people are called upon to make sound decisions under pressure. Perhaps nowhere is this demonstrated more clearly than in the professionalism expected of modern military and law enforcement specialists, where skill must always be governed by discipline, restraint and responsibility.

Buzen-dō seeks to reconnect Budō with these deeper roots by integrating martial practice with Zazen, reflection and the lived principles of the Zen of Budō.

It is not a path of aggression.

It is a path of character, presence and right action.

Buzen-dō — The Path of Martial Zen.
Truth, tested under pressure.

(For nothing but Buzen-dō, follow the “Zen of Budō” on IG or FB)

Situational awareness is everything

A simple awareness drill that can transform your outdoor safety:

In high-stakes environments, complacency is the real threat. The terrain doesn't care about your plan; it only responds to the decisions you make in the moment. When people get into trouble in the backcountry, it’s rarely because of one catastrophic event. It’s usually a compounding series of small, unnoticed changes that eventually force a critical failure.

The antidote isn't complex gear. It’s a disciplined mental habit.

Every 10 minutes, pause for 10 seconds and ask yourself three questions:

What changed? (Weather, terrain, energy levels, daylight, footing, navigation markers)

What’s next? (The next ridge line, the incoming weather front, the steep descent, the next navigation waypoint)

What does it mean? (Do we adjust the pace? Put on a layer? Check the map? Turn around?)

This loop forces you out of autopilot. It turns passive hiking into active navigation and risk mitigation. By making micro-adjustments every ten minutes, you prevent the need for a macro-crisis response later.

Try this on your next outing. Set a silent chime on your watch, build the habit, and notice how much more of the landscape—and the risk—you actually see.

This.

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