Self Defense – Teens Can Protect Themselves from Bullies
Many children are plagued each year by relentless bullying from their peers. As children enter their teenage years, this problem only persists and begins to get worse. When it comes to self defense, teens are generally unaware of the steps that they can take to protect themselves. The tips below can help teenagers learn how they can stop being the victim today.
Passive Defense Measures
One of the first things that teenagers should learn in order to protect themselves are passive defense measures. With self defense, teens do not usually turn to passive tactics first, but they should always be the first option. By passively defending themselves, teens can fend off a bully’s attacks without provoking and angering them further.
Some commonly ignored and overlooked passive tips include walking away, not making eye contact, ignoring the bully, avoiding the bully all together, and agreeing with the bully in an order to end the conflict. If a teen is able to defend themselves in a passive way they are able to put an end to the cycle of violence and set an example for others.
Authoritative Defense Measures
Sometimes passive defense ideas do not work. For whatever reason, a bully may decide that they do not want to let someone walk away or avoid them. When it comes to self defense, teens in these situations may find themselves having to employ authoritative defense measures in order to protect themselves.
These measures can include alerting a teacher, the principle, guidance counselor, other adult, parent, or even the parents of the bully about the conduct that is going on. In these cases the teenager is able to protect themselves from further harm by passing the responsibility on to someone else, and avoiding conflict yet again.
Physical Defense Measures
As a last resort, teens may find themselves having to turn to physical defense measures in order to keep themselves safe. In these forms of self defense, teens should be taught how to restrain a bully until help arrives or they relent. They should not however, be taught how to inflict pain of any kind, and bully the aggressor. This teaches the bully and the victim nothing, and can often cause more harm.
If used properly, physical defense measures can be quite useful, but it is important to help children understand that these measures should be their last resort, and should only be employed if they are at risk of being physically harmed themselves. When taking classes for self defense, teens may also gain a sense of control and boost their self esteem as well.
Bullying is something that should never take place, but unfortunately it does on a daily basis all around the world. When it comes to self defense, teens need to understand that there are many different types of defense measures that can be used to help them cope with their problem. Physical violence is not the answer to being bullied however, and it is important for teens to learn new and unique ways of dealing with a bully.
