{"id":1856,"date":"2014-06-30T11:12:04","date_gmt":"2014-06-30T11:12:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fightfast.com\/blog\/?p=1856"},"modified":"2020-04-07T18:41:05","modified_gmt":"2020-04-07T18:41:05","slug":"defending-your-zone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fightfastvideos.com\/blog\/2014\/06\/30\/defending-your-zone\/","title":{"rendered":"Defending Your Zone"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Here's A Scenario:<\/h4>\nYou and your wife are walking along a familiar street one night. Other couples pass by, and then, somehow, you two are alone...except for the shady-looking stranger looming ahead. You watch him approach, instinctively knowing that something is wrong, but disbelief stops you from acting. Suddenly, he's in your face, brandishing a weapon and demanding something from you.\n\nYou can't hear him because your mind is screaming, \"This can't be happening to me!\" But it is, and all that locker room bravado with your buddies talking about what ass-kickers and name-takers you all are seems to drain from you right along with the blood from your extremities. Your stomach churns, your bowels loosen, and you want to run, but it's too late. You and your loved one are at the mercy of your assailant.\n\nThink This Can't Happen To You? Don't be so sure. Being caught off-guard and flat-footed can happen to the best of us at any time and literally in milliseconds. But there was a moment in the above scenario where you could have prevented all of this\u2013 the moment the attacker entered your Zone<\/em>.\n\n[dfads params='groups=292&limit=1&orderby=random']\n

My Zone?<\/h4>\nThe Zone<\/em> is an invisible perimeter that martial artists, fighters, and tactical instructors use to define the point at which an opponent becomes a threat. Various fighting systems address this concept differently. It's been called everything from one's \"area of awareness\" to one's \"tactical arena,\" but the Zone is simply one's personal space.\n\nGetting too close or invading that space should provoke one of several responses depending on the degree of the threat. One question that inevitably arises is \"how close is too<\/em> close?\" Marital artist and tactical instructor Scott Hollingsworth sums it up this way: \"If someone's close enough to dance with, they're too damn close.\"\n

The Colors of Danger<\/h4>\n
\n\t<\/div>\nIn an effort to be a little more specific, other fighting systems have envisioned several concentric rings of different colors to represent increasing degrees of danger.\n\nThe outermost ring is called the Green Zone<\/span> and begins at a radius of 15 feet from your body (or up to 30 feet in areas of known danger) and extending, presumably, to infinity. This is considered a safe area. Anyone 15 feet or further from you is not an immediate threat.\n\nWithin the Green Zone<\/span> is the Blue Zone<\/span>, a ring located between five and fifteen feet from your body. This is an awareness zone. Anyone entering should be assessed as either a threat or non-threat.\n\nThe innermost ring is the Red Zone<\/span>, representing the area that is within a five-foot radius from your body. The moment someone enters this zone in a threatening way, they must be dealt with quickly and decisively<\/a>.\n
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The Purpose of the Zone System<\/h4>\nThe objective of any zone system is two-fold:\n