Hard Challenge Signals Resistance and Gauges Start of Fight

by Brad Parker

I’ve received a number of questions regarding the hard challenge from the Rape Escape Level 1 video. This is where a person has approached you and has ignored your soft challenge. You step back and raise both hands, arms outstretched, palms facing the opponent. You verbalize at the same time, "Stop! Leave me alone!".

I advocate that a woman escalate to the hard challenge position, even IF she decides for some reason that she is either unwilling or unable to resist further.

This hard challenge position is also the same posture we teach for all our personal protection and combat self-defense courses. I like it for a number of reasons:

1. When you step back and get your hands up, YOU are controlling the distance, not him;
2. You’ve put him on notice that you are willing to resist. Studies have shown that half of all potential rapists break off their attack if the defender even indicates a willingness to resist. Think about that, if you even ACT like you are going to resist, you have just increased your chances of success by 50%;
3. With your hands up, you’ve marked a boundary that tends to keep an opponent further away;
4. Witnesses can instantly identify that there is a problem (this won’t assure that you will get help from anyone). It’s obvious from your posture who is the good guy and who is the bad guy;
5. You have kept your weapons in between you and the opponent. Your front hand is a good gauge of distance (watch Royce Gracie use his front hand during any of his UFC matches). Plus, it is like a trip wire, when you can touch him with your front hand, you can touch him with your rear hand. That means a palm heel thrust to the chin is a prime technique when he continues forward;
6. When you have your hands up and keep them in line, protecting your centerline, you force the opponent to either swing around your hands or to grab or move your hands. In the Rape Escape series, there are a couple of easy solutions for when the guy grabs the woman’s hands…depending on whether you want to leave the area or stay where you are. Against the hit, it is significantly easier to block a swing coming in a circular fashion around your hands than it is to block a punch straight up the middle.

It is also a great method to gauge when the fight has started. This is an area that we’ve seen a lot of students have trouble with. Someone approaches you or some words are exchanged. It might be temporarily confusing, do you assume that this isn’t really a fight or do you leap forward and rip his throat out? The question comes up over and over, "I think I know WHAT to do, but I’m not sure WHEN to do it". When you use this hard challenge method, you know when to do it. The bad guy tells you when the fight has started.

Here’s how. He comes up to you, typically engaging you in conversation ("interviewing" you to see if you will be a good victim). You maintain eye contact (but you are not Mad Dogging him) and move away or to the side. Depending on the situation, you verbalize (the soft challenge). He persists in aggressive behavior. You step back -- and to the side forcing him to face you with his next move -- and get your hands up and verbalize with the hard challenge.

Now it’s up to him. His next move tells you whether you are fighting or not. If he stays in his spot, no matter what he says or how loudly he says it, you are not fighting. If he makes a move toward you, you’re fighting.

One caveat here. Just because the guy did not make a move on you at this time, get your stuff together and make a tactical exit. He might be getting his courage up to go through with it, his buddies might be goading him to fight or he might be getting a weapon out of his car. If I’m in an altercation, no matter where, I quickly make a move to leave if the guy (or guys) are staying. If they leave, I wait around for a long time, but not until closing time. AND I make sure I don’t get jumped in the car park.

I’ve recently learned that Geoff Thompson uses a similar method and calls it "the fence". Having seen Mr. Thompson demonstrate it, he uses it in a more subtle and sometimes deceptive manner. As I see it, he keeps his hands in between him and the opponent at all times, but moves them around as if he was gesturing and, luring the opponent into a false sense of security or using a sort of distraction technique, then cracks the guy with a punch to the jaw for the knockout.

You always have the option of deescalating the conflict at anytime from this position. If the attacker doesn’t make a move toward you, there’s no fight and you can continue to disengage. Since most of human perception is biased by what we see rather than what we hear, witnesses almost universally see you as the defender and the other guy as the aggressor.

Try it in your training or your role playing.