Resist Abduction

[HanshiClayton]

This is an excerpt from Shotokan's Secret, the First Edition. It was one of the sections that was lost when I revised the book to create Shotokan's Secret, Expanded Edition].

The main reason parents bring their children to us is fear of abduction, even though the risk is extremely low. Children like Megan Kanka, Polly Klass, Elizabeth Smart, Juli Sund and Sylvina Pelosso haunt us out of proportion to their numbers. The last two were abducted, tortured and killed within a few miles of my house. I took it personally.

Children are uniquely vulnerable, and there is no magical panacea to protect them. All we can do is to warn them of the danger, and then teach them to be extremely slippery.

Young women and older children need to be told that “abduction” consists of a stranger trying to force them into his car. Tell them the classic abduction stories. For children, it’s the man who is driving around looking for his lost dog. “Have you seen my dog? No? Well, then, would you get into the car and help me look for my dog?” Make them aware, but be careful how you explain the danger.

For older girls and young women, tell them about Ted Bundy. His technique was to put a fake cast on his arm, and then ask a pretty girl to help him load groceries into his van. When she leaned into the van with a box of groceries, he hit her over the head with the cast and bundled her into the van.

The key is the car. Don’t get near a stranger’s car for any reason! Even if he points a gun at you, you are better off shot and bleeding on the sidewalk.

We teach them karate, of course, so they can kick, block and dodge. In addition, I teach my students a wide variety of grappling releases. We drill on breaking wrist holds, clothing holds, arm locks, chokes, bear hugs, etc. The goal is to make the student hard to hold. This makes it much more difficult to drag the victim into the bushes or to the waiting van. A technique as simple as windmilling the arms while twisting and turning makes a child almost impossible to hold.

To teach slipperiness, you can make a contest out of dragging people across the room. Attackers try to drag victims across a line on one side of the room. Defenders try to break free and run to the safe zone at the other side of the room. Change partners and try again. That can get pretty lively.