“What should I carry with me to be safe?”
This is the question we see most often on women’s running posts and Facebook pages. We get asked this question in every one of our workshops. Here is our response.
Tools are great, but only if they are part of a larger safety plan. It’s best to start with a plan on how you’ll respond to potential danger by taking a self-defense course and/or mentally rehearsing how you’ll respond.
Tools come in the form of weapons, trackers, or alarms. All can enhance your ability to defend yourself provided two things.
1. Is your tool accessible and always ready to use?
Pepper spray is effective but not if it’s tucked in your fanny pack or pocket. Keep any weapon or alarm in your hand or in a holster that allows for immediate access. Attacks can happen quickly and you might have very little time to react.
2. Do you know how to use your tool? Can you use it even under extreme stress?
Make sure you are very comfortable using your selected tool. Practice using it often. Ensure you can access and use it with shaky hands under extreme stress. For pepper spray, for example, have you tested it using an inert or dummy version? How do you deploy the spray? What is the range of the spray? If you carry a knife, can you get it out quickly? Do you know how to use it to defend yourself?
What are your options if you aren’t able to carry or train in using a weapon? I coach my students to think about how they can use everyday objects as improvised weapons. What do you carry with you regularly that you could use? Keys? A solid cell phone? A heavy water bottle?
What about other types of safety devices like whistles or audible alarms? These can be useful tools to startle your attacker and draw attention to the situation from potential bystanders. However, are you carrying the tool so that it is available and ready? Also, an alarm might help if there are other people around to hear it, but we are so inundated with noise in modern society that it could just as easily be ignored. An alarm alone is not a safety plan.
The bottom line is this: just carrying something won’t make you safe. A safety mindset and basic training in self-defense is more likely to help you.