The Best Skill to Practice for Self Defense: Situational Awareness Podcast 323
Modern Self Protection Podcast
Release Date: 06/16/2021
MSP 346 Heroism Podcast
Modern Self Protection Podcast
For this podcast, I got with Rob Morse of the , , and We talked about some of the terrorist attacks in Israel and what you can do if those come to our shores.
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When to Change out Carry Ammo
Modern Self Protection Podcast
When should you change your carry ammo? Is it necessary? Will carry ammo go bad? What could make it go bad? Check out show notes at for anything you might have missed. P.S. I'm riding to raise money to fight Alzheimer's and would love if you could throw a couple bucks at it. Get some . Stay Safe, Ben
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Battlefield Leadership; Prepare Now
Modern Self Protection Podcast
Be the leader now so that you can learn to be better if you ever have to defend yourself or your family.
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Modern Self Protection Podcast
Like every skill you have for self-defense, de-escalation should be practiced any time you can.
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MSP 342 Tactics over Skills
Modern Self Protection Podcast
I'm here to tell you that tactics are more important than the gear and the skill you have with the gear. Your understanding of what is going on and your move toward what you want to happen is your tactics. A definition of gear is obvious, it's the stuff you have. The definition of skill is how you can use that gear. Your tactics are the overall mindset and how to employ your skills towards a goal. It's just bigger thinking... See the rest at
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Welcome to the Party
Modern Self Protection Podcast
I spent 10 years in the Marine Corps including a combat tour and being part of an anti-terrorism force. I left the Marine Corps to return to Iraq as a private contractor for the U.S. Government fighting terrorism. I gave a large portion of my adult life to fighting terrorism and the horrors that most people don't want to deal with. To me, a terrorist is about the lowest scum on earth. Then in 2008, I was called a terrorist for the first time by then-President Obama. The term domestic terrorist had just started and I was on the list. Being a white male, military-aged, former military,...
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Wimps in Our World Podcast 340
Modern Self Protection Podcast
Going against the grain takes humility, guts, and the chance to lose. Courage, like most things, is a muscle that you have to exercise in life. If you don't practice courage, it will atrophy and die. How often do you practice courage? Moral and or physical? Do you do new things that you are going to look foolish at? Do you accept challenges when others ask you to do something that should be possible? Do you do things that are hard that others say are hard, shouldn't be done, or is impossible? Do you do different hard things on purpose because they are...
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Should You Give Medical Attention to a Bad Guy
Modern Self Protection Podcast
If you have to defend yourself should you give medical aid to the person that just tried to hurt you? No. Is the simple easy answer and should be the end of it. Three things to consider when making this decision: The Tactical Situation; will this act put you further in danger? Morally; is it the right thing to do? Legally; will this make your actions more or less defendable in court? See the entire discussion on
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Habits, Good, Bad, and Training Scars Podcast 337
Modern Self Protection Podcast
Habits are good and bad, but Training Scars will get you in trouble. Start with a good war story to show you had training scars creep into all of us. What training scars and bad habits do you have that will "get you killed in the street?" I know you have at least one, we all do. Check out the full notes at
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Be Prepared for anything Podcast 336
Modern Self Protection Podcast
Last weekend I participated in a church mass shooter training event. Most of the time I’m the instructor or coordinator, but this time I actually got to participate. My church got a bunch of volunteers to volunteer to be actors in the scenarios. Our head of church safety organized and ran the training. It was a lot of fun, and I got to mix it up with the bad guys more than once. Didn’t even die this time. Not bad…. but… Most of the scenarios were normal church shooter events; one domestic violence, one attack on the pastor, one run of the mill mass killer, but the last one was an...
info_outlineSituational Awareness is the one thing that was drilled into me in Law Enforcement and the Military. It is the one thing that directly overlaps from law enforcement, military, and self defense. Why? It is the one thing that will allow you to buy time in an emergency. And time is everything when someone is trying to take your life.
Two things to work on, improve, and practice situational awareness are to notice normal so you can see the abnormal, and ask why people are there at that point in time. What are they doing?
If you work on these two easy things you can move towards mastering your situational awareness and your self-defense.
Noticing normal lets you see when something else is missing or coming. Everywhere you go, there is a normal or baseline. Anything outside that rhythm should stand out to you if you are paying attention.
The one law enforcement always talks about is when it is 100 degrees out and someone walks in wearing a trench coat buttoned up. In the military, it was always looking at what the people are doing around you. If people are leaving quickly or don’t show up like normal they probably know something that you don’t in a foreign land.
A couple of Marines wrote an entire book about it called “Left of Bang”. If you want to know more about noticing normal and then noticing when something is out of place, it is a great book.
The second is to ask “why is this person here?” At first, you will suck at it, but as you do it a bunch you will be able to figure out the stories behind people at the local stop and rob you are at to get gas and a drink. If you do it for a while, you will find that one person that is there to victimize someone. Hopefully, you will figure it out before they victimize you.
Bad guys come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and genders. You have to figure out why that person is looking at you, why they are there, and what they are going to do. If you know this before that person acts, the encounter slows way down and you can buy the most valuable thing in a violent encounter, time.
When you answer that why question you get in front of the reaction curve and you can make that person react to you instead of you having to react to them.
Listen to the podcast to get more examples and motivation on how to be better at your situational awareness (SA).
Thanks for listening, don’t forget to check out the Shooter’s Club, and if you need ammo check out Lucky Gunner.
Stay Safe,
Ben