August 8, 2022 • 47 mins
Safety is one of the basic human needs, along with water, food, and shelter. Feeling unsafe makes us live in a state of fight-to-flight where the sympathetic nervous system is on overdrive. Runner's World Magazine published an article on May 9, 2021, in which 60% of women surveyed have been harassed while running.
This needs to end. Now. Everyone should have the freedom to run without fear. It's time to reclaim the run. Casey Parlett joins me today with five tips on preventing attacks and what to do if you are attacked. Roughly half of the runners undergo a series of mental calculations before lacing up. In addition to considering their distances and splits, runners go through a complex checklist before they head out. How many minutes of daylight remain, how easy their keys are to reach in an emergency, which they should inform of their running route, if it’s safe to wear headphones and whether they’ll get to the end of their run without feeling afraid. I hope this episode helps you be better prepared before your next run.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:07):
Welcome to the endurance cartel podcast.
I am your host,
Javier Pineda,
endurance athletes and exercise physiologist and each week we bring you accredited human performance specialist or inspiring athletes to help you optimize your true human potential.
Now let's get down to business Safety is one of the basic human needs along with water,
(00:32):
food and shelter,
feeling unsafe.
Makes us live in a state of fight to flight where the sympathetic nervous system is on overdrive runner's world magazine published an article on May nine,
in which 60% of women surveyed have been harassed while running.
This needs to end now everyone should have the freedom to run without fear.
(00:57):
It's time to reclaim the run.
Casey par let from DBC SAN Diego joins me today with five tips on preventing attacks and what to do if you are attacked.
Hope you guys can enjoy the show.
Welcome to another episode of the endurance cartel podcast and I have a very,
(01:21):
very cool guest with us today.
Casey par Let he's owner of DBC SAn Diego and we have a lot of things in common and I've practiced for quite a while and Casey,
I'm just gonna let you say like a very brief history but more than less.
The topic here today is how we can keep our endurance athletes safe when they train.
(01:46):
There's been a lot of incidents where mostly women go for a run and they get attacked.
I've had personally 2-3 clients in the last two years where they've been running and all of a sudden they've been assaulted in some way or another or they've just been stocked and uh they've been having to call the police and one of them is still with an ongoing pending trial on a stalker.
(02:14):
So Casey,
thank you very much for being with a podcast this morning.
Thanks for having me on.
Yeah,
so this is actually a really not fun in the sense of what we're talking about,
but for me to have the opportunity to share,
this is really important and this is actually one of the reasons that I started teaching self defense.
(02:36):
So quick background on myself,
uh lifelong martial artist started martial arts at three years old,
had an opportunity to fight professionally for well over a decade and then kind of after I made the decision to retire,
I was connected with coach,
Tony blower of the spear system and went to one of his self defense courses.
(03:00):
My now wife was with me and one of the things as I was sitting through the course was like holy sh it like this is the insurance policy to everything that I do as a,
as a trainer in the gym every day,
right?
Like as,
as trainers,
like our,
we're basically trying to give people a way to improve their life,
(03:21):
have the most longevity they can to be able to perform at a high level and we work mentally emotionally and physically to help our clients be the best that they can be and as I was sitting through this course I realized really quickly that everything that I do in the gym can be taken away in an instant,
right,
Like I spent five years with the client helping them lose weight and work through the mental and emotional barriers that kind of led them to that place in the first place and they're in a good place,
(03:49):
they walk out to their car after a workout with me and they,
they get robbed or they get mugged or they get harassed and they don't have the skill set and the tools to,
to deal with that and manage that and ideally prevent that.
So that was kind of the,
the kicker for me to really dive into teaching self defense,
(04:09):
biggest martial arts for me was for a very long time,
I was able to use it as my personal hobby and not where I was coach and I kind of avoided teaching it anyway,
so this self defense was a really cool way for me to kind of get back and kind of give back all of the experience and stuff that I had had.
So that's kind of where where the self defense world came from for me and as far as like what do you,
(04:34):
what do you do?
Right,
Like we send people out,
hey,
you need to get you running,
you need your bike in and a lot of people of 9 to 5 jobs and the only time that they go get a two hour running is in the morning when it's dark at night,
which is dark and unfortunately most violent encounters happen in kind of those early morning and late night hours happens during the day as well.
(04:56):
Um,
I can tell you some crazy stories about stuff that's happened on my street in North County San Diego where everybody's like nothing ever happens there.
It happens everywhere.
And um kind of what we'll talk about today is like a lot of,
a lot of the awareness stuff.
Um,
and I'll refer back to to coach flower a lot,
(05:17):
but his,
his research has kind of proven concept for the last 40 years.
I remember a poster that Tony blair our had,
this is way back when,
when I was at practicing crossfit and it was,
it doesn't matter if you can lift £500 if you're dead.
That resonated with me so much because that's around the time that I started kind getting curious with with and how,
(05:44):
yeah,
you know,
you can do all this work,
but what's the use if you cannot defend yourself and when things really come into play,
You know,
I mean you're closer to to coach flour and I'm gonna let you take the reins here on what he would do and how you and how you created your own methodology on how to prevent any disaster because here in Miami I live in a very good neighborhood and in this neighborhood,
(06:12):
man.
I mean it's like crazy.
The things I've heard lately,
people are just not in the right state of minds,
a lot of people are hunting for not only money,
but they're just desperate,
desperate and women tend to be their target.
Yeah.
So just like real quick on that.
Like the targeting is a predator,
whether it's in like what animal nature or in the unfortunate reality of like human predators there after the weakest link,
(06:42):
right?
So like if you look at the way that a shark hunts,
if there's a,
if there's a group of seals,
it's going to take the slowest seal in the back.
So for all the triathletes out there,
right?
Like if you're out,
you're out swimming and you're the last one in the pack and you're somewhere where there's sharks,
like you better hurry up and get in the pack because otherwise you're gonna get back by the predator and that's,
that's like the joke,
right?
(07:02):
But they're the predators are looking for for the one that's gonna cower away,
that's not gonna fight back,
they can,
they can sense that and feel that.
So what we want to teach and what we want people to do it just to build,
build this awareness.
So all kind of when we started,
when you contact me about this,
you're like,
hey,
let's put a list together of like 3 to 5 things.
(07:23):
So I have five things and they're not in any specific order.
Some of some of them are going to be very,
very important and some of them will just kind of be what will lead into the next one.
But the first one that popped into my head right away headphones so we can go and talk about this for the next hour,
but I'll try to keep it short.
(07:43):
So I highly,
highly highly encourage people that are out running by themselves cycling by themselves to keep headphones out of their ears,
right?
So as soon as you put headphones in,
it kind of takes away one of your most important senses,
the the way that we're cued by a threat is going to be auditory visual and tactile.
(08:07):
So the first,
your first chance to know that something bad is gonna happen is taken away instantly.
So as soon as you have those headphones and you can't hear what's going on in the outside world,
like you see people out running with like full on noise canceling headphones on,
if you have no awareness,
you have no chance to,
to quote coach and right,
(08:30):
and what that means is like if I'm not aware of what's going on around me,
I don't have a chance to even fight back,
I don't have a chance to avoid it.
So take the headphones out,
this will do two things for you.
It'll give you a whole new heightened sense of what's going on around you and here's the other piece as,
as a coach and as a trainer it will teach you to queue in to your breathing and to what your body is actually doing.
(08:55):
So it does two things it keeps you safe and it gives you a better training session.
So headphones take them off and I hear people all the time.
My wife included,
I just can't run.
I hate running.
And the only way that I can get through it is if I had headphones on then you shouldn't be running figured out,
deal with it.
And I'll start people and be like at least do me a favor,
(09:16):
do just 11 head funded.
So just take one out and you have one in and it gives you a little bit uh even still then right,
like if I have a sound on this side and I have a headphone in on that side and I have the headphone out.
I lost all of all of my awareness to that side.
Just the basic basic way that sound travels and like when we're talking about this like predators are they're,
(09:38):
they're,
they're gonna ambush you their job just to be as quiet and sneaky as possible until that they can like grab you or do whatever it is that they're trying to do and they're typically gonna be quick,
they're gonna grab a purse,
they're going to grab a wallet,
they're gonna grab a phone or they're gonna try to take you to a secondary crime scene and we need to be aware of all of that.
(09:59):
And just simply by pulling your headphones out,
like you instantly give yourself that awareness that maybe there's something going on and then the other pieces if I'm a predator,
right?
So like how do you,
how do you know how a predator thinks you have to put yourself in that set?
We know that a predator wants the easiest target possible,
right?
So if I'm a predator and I'm out prowling for my next victim and I see no headphones,
(10:25):
no headphones,
no headphones,
no headphones,
headphones.
Which one am I gonna go after?
Which one is the easiest?
The easiest one,
Right?
And that's,
that's,
that's simple there.
That would be my,
my number one is just getting people to,
to train without headphones.
That's great by the way,
because I used to have a lot of,
I mean have headphones on and I would also see a lot of people with headphones on that work by themselves and I stopped using them first for training purposes,
(10:56):
but of course in an iron Man or in a marathon or in an iron Man,
they don't let you have any headphones at least at my time.
And this is why I was training without him.
But I've noticed,
I mean I bought myself one some aftershocks,
which don't go necessarily inside your ear,
they just go next to your ear you.
So you kind of be aware of what is going on around you and I'm not sponsored by aftershocks or any of that,
(11:23):
but you can find them in any running store now,
I mean they're very easy to just put on and take off and you can,
they don't go inside your ear so you can still kind of hear what's going on,
but you're still kind of sensory wise,
you're still kind of limited in a way.
So this is that's a great QE that you just gave out case.
Nice.
Yeah,
and I think that's right,
(11:43):
like if you're like absolutely,
like I can't run without and that's that's a much better way to go.
Um I see people running with like their phone in their hand and music on it will touch on that in a little bit about some of the problems with that,
but yeah,
anything where you can at least give yourself some awareness and like you can have that auditory sense of of what's going on around,
(12:06):
you will keep you much much safer.
And then the next one is a training partner,
if you know that you're training at night,
you don't live in the greatest areas,
get yourself a training partner,
find,
find somebody to train with um and it doesn't have to be a best friend,
just somebody and like you guys don't need to talk to each other,
(12:28):
but if You and I are going out to run and we have roughly the same run to do and I'm within 50 yards of you throughout that run.
Like we're we're running in a pack in that sense.
And like the chances of us getting taken out by a predator are much less,
especially for women out there if you can and I probably will get canceled for saying this.
(12:50):
But women,
if you can run with with another guy,
uh,
it will help deter the predators as well.
Even if you're running with another female,
like two is always going to be better than one.
So,
training partners are great.
Um,
and one of the things that you had mentioned in your message to me was not even just people that are out running or cycling,
but like even just simply walking out of the gym right?
(13:13):
Like if if somebody's walking out of the gym at 11 o'clock at night and they're by themselves,
you set yourself up and typically gym parking lots are gonna be a little bit darker,
11 o'clock at night.
There's not gonna be as many people around.
So it makes it an easy place for for a predator to kind of be there and be in that position.
(13:34):
So training partner,
I'm like the person where I'm like,
I just want to go train by myself and I don't want to run with anybody.
Cool.
No headphones will at least be a little bit safer.
But that training partner,
if you're in a bad area,
if it's something that you're concerned about,
that will give you a little bit of an extra safety net there.
And during satellites here at least here in Miami,
(13:56):
we don't get a break with the heat at least during the summertime,
but we tend to train extremely early.
We're talking 3 34 in the morning and night time,
sometimes even eight or nine o'clock.
So I've seen a lot of people come out like women,
especially,
(14:16):
they tend to go out early and they,
once they get to their destinations,
they come out of the cars and start stretching in darkness.
That alone is it's I feel it's a recipe for disaster.
I hope it never happens.
But a pretty easy,
it's like darkness one woman outside stretching.
(14:37):
What are the chances?
And I don't think you'll agree with me or maybe you will just stay in the car until more people arrive.
Right?
I'll hit on that.
Now.
It's like,
like anything that you can do to put yourself around people park in an area where where there's more people,
little stuff like that.
And then,
so as as humans,
by nature,
we're all creatures of habit and especially endurance athletes,
(15:02):
they do the exact same thing day in and day out.
People that are really good at doing that monotonous over and over and over again.
They're the ones that make the greatest endurance athletes because that's,
that's the entire sport.
So while the routine is important in getting up at the same time and doing the same training over and over is really,
really valuable.
(15:22):
There's a way to break the routine,
right?
So a lot of times predators will stock for days and days and days because they're trying to find that perfect victim and they want to make it as easy as possible and I'll give everybody just so you guys,
everybody kind of has a little bit of knowledge on this.
When we're when we're talking about a predator,
we're talking about a bad guy.
What we're looking at is somebody that is after three things property,
(15:47):
body or life.
So basically they want to rob you.
They want to hurt you physically or emotionally in some way or they want to kill you.
Like that's like you can boil every scenario down to one of those three things,
what they don't want is they don't want to get hurt.
They don't want to get caught and they don't want to take too long when we start to understand the way that a predator operates,
(16:11):
it gives us that much more insight on how to avoid the predator,
right?
So,
if they're trying to not get caught,
have it not take very long and not get hurt.
There's out scoping scoping,
scoping,
waiting,
waiting for that perfect moment and a lot of times and we see it in movies,
we hear it in the news,
this person was stalking this person for however long and if you walk out of your house at four a.m. Every morning and you check your mailbox and then you do this and then you do this and then you do this and you go and run the exact same route every single morning you're setting yourself up to to be that victim.
(16:49):
Cool.
You have to leave your house at the same time every day,
a couple days a week,
do this,
run a couple days of the week,
do this run and as simple as taking a couple of different turns,
running it backwards so you don't pass the same place at the same time.
Like like those little things go a long way because now predators sees you on the first day and what they're gonna do is they know they're smart,
(17:11):
this person's gonna be here tomorrow I'm gonna come and check and all of a sudden you're not there the next day,
they're gonna move on,
they don't want to deal with it.
And it makes it really really easy if you're at the gym.
Most people,
they go to the gym,
they park in the exact same spot every single day.
They do the same thing in the car before they get out.
They do the same thing when they're walking walking back to the car park in a different spot.
(17:33):
It's it's as simple as that park on this side of the parking lot one day park on the other side of the parking lot,
the next day park in the middle of the day after that.
Like do something just slightly different and it throws that routine off right?
And Bruce lee talks about a broken rhythm,
right?
Like that's fighting.
So the way that you kind of live your life is in this broken rhythm,
(17:53):
even though there's routine and you know exactly what you're doing,
there's just like this little bit of nuance to it where people aren't gonna be able to catch on with the pattern.
Those are great.
One of the important pieces of this conversation is that like a lot of it is geared towards women because most predators are men,
(18:13):
no matter what,
like the female,
I don't want to say no matter what,
but most of the time,
like the female is going to be the easier prey.
Men are bigger,
stronger.
Like just naturally like the way that the way that were built,
it's just the way that it goes nature.
But at the same time like you you can still be a victim as a man,
(18:33):
right?
Like I can,
there's a UFC fighter,
I think a £205 fighter,
he's had his house broken into and he got into like a crazy altercation,
but like he was a victim of violence in a sense,
as a professional fighter fighting at the highest level.
His wife and his kids are in the house and he's like,
(18:55):
he's gotta take care of business.
So it's not just singled out to women.
It's like how can anybody protect himself?
And that's that's the beauty of the spear system and like it's it's really just kind of understanding some some key guidelines and some key points and it makes people safer,
right?
Like we've already talked about the the awareness,
take your headphones out,
get a training partner,
(19:15):
don't like get your ego aside and like,
you know that something bad might happen,
do do what's safest?
Get yourself that partner break your routine,
like little little things like that,
go go a really long way and as soon as you start to put yourself in a different mindset things get a little bit easier.
So here's here's the other one and I kind of touched on it earlier with people running with their phone in their hand,
(19:39):
stay off your phone right?
Like even even just simply running with your phone in your hand is going to put you at a disadvantage because as soon as that phone buzzes makes noise,
the music isn't exactly what you want,
like you're going to look at it,
you're gonna put your face down.
Um and again,
coming back to the awareness pieces that takes away your awareness,
(20:01):
your your face is now down your side track so easy to kind of get lost in that thing.
Even if it's for five seconds that five seconds was that chance that the predator was waiting to jump and attack.
So phone put it in your pocket,
put it in something.
Don't have your phone right?
(20:21):
Like I would just prefer to get people to understand that they don't really need music when they're running.
It's not not something that they do need.
Uh if you are running by yourself at night or early in the morning,
I would encourage you to have your phone on you,
but have it in a pocket.
Have it not in your hands,
not where it's going to be distracting that way.
If something is happening or you do feel unsafe,
(20:44):
you can you can make that call and have somebody there to come and take care of you and I'll kind of piggyback this on what Right now,
I didn't even put it on my list,
but let somebody know where you are.
Let somebody know that you're going out to run and what your route is.
So somebody at least is aware of of what you're what you're doing and where you're at at that time.
Um if you don't have anybody send a message out to some,
(21:07):
some friends real quick and okay,
I'm going to run this is where I'll be.
I feel like everybody's got at least a couple of people with that.
Don't post it on social media because predators will be on there too.
But we won't get into that one.
It's like down down the hatch on.
But we can this is where actually apple,
the apple little pods that they can come useful in this moment.
Right?
(21:27):
I mean having having one of those in your pocket and telling uh either your roommate or your or your significant other or your wife or your husband.
Hey,
listen,
I'm I have this pot on me or just I'm going out for a run.
And uh as long as it's you that put it on you and not the president,
not somebody else.
Exactly.
(21:48):
Yeah.
I mean like any anything where like somebody like you can let some loved ones or some people that care about,
you know,
know where you're going to be.
Um we'll just kind of put put your mind at ease.
Uh the other problem with holding onto your phone and this goes for a water bottle or really anything that you're holding on to.
So kind of get into like some of the biology in a sense.
(22:13):
And the physiology when when we're holding on to something,
it doesn't matter what it is.
Nature.
Our reptilian brain when when we're startled and we flinch,
our body will naturally hold on tighter to whatever it is that we're holding.
Because if we're holding our brain in that reptilian sense feels like that thing must be really important.
(22:36):
So we don't want to lose it.
So your cross extensive reflex takes over and will pull whatever you're holding close to your body when you flinch if somebody jumps out of a bush to grab you,
you're going to flinch in that moment if you're holding onto a phone in one hand and a water bottle in the other hand,
you now don't have anything and both hands are gonna want to come in close to your body and until you like recognize that that flinch that would normally keep somebody pushed away now pulls everything in close to your body and it gives that attacker that much more of a chance.
(23:12):
So keep things out of your hands real simple right?
Like if you need a water bottle with you stick it in the pocket,
stick it in a water bottle belt.
Same thing with your phone,
put it in a family pack put in your pocket and now you have your hands free.
So worst case scenario if you are attacked,
if you are ambushed,
your hands are at least there to fight back with and you don't have to have that that split second where you're going like oh no I'm holding on to something,
(23:39):
I need to drop this or oh no I better hit this person with my funding.
There's all all sorts of things that we can deal with if we do end up in that situation with the easiest ways to just make sure that you keep your hands free by not having anything in them and let me ask you what screaming be a sense of defense like a big a scream or I.
(24:00):
R.
Or any other sort of defense or would you rather just run as fast as you can or try to get away as fast you can or what what were your recommendations being in case that were the case?
All of the above the problem is is like what we're kind of talking about is if we're out on the run like we're probably like far away from people,
(24:23):
there's probably nobody around yelling and screaming.
Most people unfortunately don't respond well if you are gonna yell fire some something that's not rape or like any anything like that because people tend to shy away.
But yeah make as much noise as you can run and this will kind of will hit on this kind of in the next one.
So the last one on my list of five is this idea of choosing safety,
(24:47):
choosing safety is kind of like the umbrella policy that or the umbrella umbrella principle that coach flower kind of came up with is like if everything that you do is geared around this idea of choosing safety,
you'll always give yourself a chance to to live to see another day and when we're talking to safety it's essentially just doing the safest thing in that moment to get home to your loved ones to to make it to the next day to get to the next moment of your life and a lot of people take this as like,
(25:26):
oh,
I'm gonna,
I'm gonna cower away,
or I'm gonna run because that's like their,
what they feel is safety,
but safety is anything from running away two,
I have a bad feeling,
I'm gonna go inside this building,
or I have a bad feeling,
I'm not gonna run today,
or I'm gonna wait until the sun comes up,
or I'm gonna go to the gym and run on the treadmill.
(25:48):
Like that's choosing safety.
But if I'm out running and I get attacked and in that moment,
I feel like my life is threatened.
The safest thing that I can do in that moment is fight back and try to attack the guy that's attacking me,
(26:08):
that's also choosing safety,
right?
Because that's the safest thing that I could have done in that moment to get home to my wife and kids,
right?
Like,
when you start to understand when you look at everything through that perspective,
it starts to give you a much better and easier way to to manage what's going on around you.
So,
most people these days have had like that,
(26:32):
that gut feeling kind of like,
beat out of them when I'm gonna go out on a run and I'll Give everybody a quick story.
So,
and I broke pretty much all of the rules.
So this was back in 2014,
I was in Thailand for the first time I was like,
three days out from a fight was like,
right at the end of my training,
I woke up in the morning and I was like,
(26:53):
man,
I feel really tired,
I should skip my run today.
There's the bad feeling,
that was the initial piece.
I didn't skip my run because I was like,
uh don't be weak,
you gotta run your in Thailand,
you got a fight coming up,
just just go,
and it,
my feeling wasn't like,
I'm so tired,
I don't want to run.
It was like,
(27:13):
man,
you really shouldn't run today,
I put my shoes on,
I put my headphones in,
put music on,
did the same run that I did every other day that I was there and on my way back,
a lot of stray dogs in Thailand headphones in cars.
And if you've ever been to Thailand,
especially in Bangkok streets are crazy,
(27:33):
there's cars everywhere,
running stray dogs,
they were always out and they had like,
kind of come towards you and you just kind of veer away.
And one day there was this day,
there was like a pack of dogs and the dogs are in a pack,
they're a little bit more aggressive,
have my headphones in,
veer out,
keeps coming at me,
kind of nipping and barking at me,
I veer out a little bit farther,
(27:53):
headphones,
can't hear all the cars,
I thought that I had space,
motorcycle was coming around the truck and clipped me and I shattered my foot,
basically,
almost career ending injury because I had no awareness and because I didn't trust my gut.
So and that's like,
like a big like to safety moment,
I didn't get attacked by a predator.
(28:17):
But I in a sense was ambushed by by the motorcycle that I didn't see or hear because I had no awareness and almost ended a career.
That was what I had been working my whole life for.
So coming back to this idea of choosing safety right is like most people have that beat out of women are told,
(28:40):
don't be weak,
stand up for yourself,
do this,
you don't need to be scared.
Guys are told don't be a sissy,
don't be a wuss.
Just go,
it doesn't matter.
And what happens is is every and this is from coach Flowers research that he's done is every victim of violence that lived to tell the tale all said the exact same thing.
(29:01):
I had a bad feeling and then and and when we start to recognize that and we start to understand that and we start to put ourselves in this idea of like what's actually important to me,
like I have a wife and a baby that I need to take care of.
I have a business and a bunch of employees that rely on me,
I have this,
I have that I have a professional career as an athlete.
(29:23):
It doesn't matter like what it is like,
but when there's something that's bigger then your ego,
it makes it really easy to be like,
I'm gonna skip that runner,
I'm gonna put this run off a little bit,
I'm gonna do my I'm gonna do my cycling work early in the morning and I'll do my run later.
Like,
there's a million different things that you can do,
and as soon as we trust that true safety or we trust that gut feeling,
(29:45):
we're going to be safer.
And worst case scenario,
if you do get attacked,
we know that a bad guy doesn't want to get caught,
we doesn't want to take too long and doesn't want to get hurt if you do get attacked and you fight back.
Because so many women are told,
just do what they say,
do whatever they say,
give whatever they want.
And those are the ones that get taken to that secondary crime scene.
And we know if somebody gets taken to a secondary crime scene,
(30:07):
like that's when things go really bad in a hurry.
So just by purely fighting back,
most people or most predators are going to go and try to find another victims,
they don't want to deal with it,
wow,
you just nailed that uh across the board,
man,
That was literally the first sentence and the first rule that my instructor said to me whenever you feel something is off,
(30:32):
whenever you sense that something is not right,
leave,
it's okay to leave,
it's okay,
not not to engage in anything because for me was a way of defending myself in case sh it happens,
so it's not meant to go out and bully people in case it happens,
(30:53):
I know what to do.
So,
but that gut feeling has to come first,
man.
I mean,
it's you said it and it's um I like an endurance athlete,
I would see my training in black and white,
and I'm like,
I gotta go,
there's this training I have to fulfill today,
and mind you,
a lot of endurance athletes,
(31:13):
including myself,
I would if I'm so focused on my training and it's okay to be focused,
but I in terms of athletes tend to take it a step ahead of almost being like,
they're being paid for to go train and this is where stuff gets mixed up,
you know,
because I mean,
(31:34):
uh forget about your professional life.
Forget about people that I care about.
You forget about if you said it everything,
I mean,
forget if you have a family that you need to take care of.
If you have the gut feeling and ship goes south,
that's game over.
I mean,
it's you don't you don't,
one training session is not gonna change your life.
One training session is not gonna make you lose weight,
(31:54):
you just gotta be consistent,
man.
I mean,
it's you said it.
Yeah,
and then coming,
going back to,
kind of,
what I said at the very beginning is like,
like it doesn't matter how hard you train and how much you ignore all those feelings right?
Because if you do have that feeling that something bad is gonna happen and you ignore it.
(32:14):
Like my my career was extremely halted for I had 11 months and came back way too fast from from my injury and had a couple of bad fights after,
right?
So like there's like this trickle down effect and that's like that was like best case scenario right?
Like if you have somebody that's training for a big race and you get attacked and even if you're physically not hurt mentally and emotionally,
(32:39):
like the damage that's caused by an event like that even if it's just getting robbed like you know how you feel like you get your car,
you get your car broken into you come out and your wallet's gone or this is gone or just some of your stuff's been rummaged through.
Like you feel like oh my God,
like I can't believe that that happened to me and you like you have that kind of like sick feeling like now imagine like that you're out running and somebody tries to rape you and you fight back and get away and you're okay.
(33:05):
But like imagine the mental and emotional damage that that causes like like are you gonna be in a good place to go and do this big race that you're supposed to like there's a select few that would use it as fuel like awesome like great.
But most people like they can't afford to have that violent encounter.
They can't deal with that.
So like the best thing that you can do is give yourself this opportunity to avoid the whole altercation altogether,
(33:31):
right?
Like trust your gut,
choose safety cool where there are no bad feelings.
Take the headphones out,
you hear something,
you see somebody that doesn't look safe,
go the other direction,
cut your run short,
take a different turn,
go up a hill that you weren't supposed to go up that day.
Like whatever it is like you give yourself those are opportunities to get yourself along the way.
(33:51):
Coach works with a lot of athletes kind of all all over the place and same thing right?
Like you're not going for a run,
you don't have a bad feeling,
but like you're going into the gym to to do your lifting session but on your way there like you're just not feeling it,
you're not feeling good.
Like you feel like you should skip skip the workout,
but you go anyway,
(34:12):
you don't tell your trainer that because you don't want to like be that person and you hurt your back or you do this or you do that right.
Like there's all sorts of things that happened in the gym every single day and people probably if they had some awareness and they kind of look back at like what was going on with themselves,
they were probably like going to the gym that day being like I probably shouldn't be working out now.
(34:34):
I something else is on their mind or whatever and like that choose safety principle is something that I use every single day in my life.
I use it with my clients,
I use it with myself,
my wife uses it,
my little girl when she's old enough,
she will she will use it and it's like as simple as being a trainer and a coach right?
Like if somebody comes into the gym to train with me the first thing that I do right?
(34:58):
How are you feeling today?
Oh I'm great.
No,
no.
Like like how are you really feeling and you start to get into it and like okay well that's how they feel right now.
So like what's the what's the safest or best way that that they should train that day,
Like based based on where they're at based on what those feelings are and you just have that communication and whether you're having communication with the client or having that communication within yourself.
(35:21):
And kind of like your own self talk like find find that self awareness to to do the right thing that use safety in whatever it is that you're doing in life.
Yeah man,
I mean of course you're not gonna make uh somebody do olympic lifts when they have a divorce going on and they come into the gym and all right,
we got snatches today.
Yeah,
but I'm going through a divorce to yeah,
you're not gonna,
(35:41):
your nervous system is not really there to put something over your head.
So this is when yeah,
coach.
It's very important to know how your client is is going through about their lives because we're just uh kind of instruments leading them to a better life.
And those were all great points case.
And let's summarize so we can get people on track and just let them understand what what the the safety measures are.
(36:09):
So let's number one was headphones.
Yeah,
No,
no headphones.
And that's like more like the bigger picture is bringing like giving yourself a chance to have have awareness knowing what's going on around you.
Uh Next one training partner find find a training partner just gives you that little bit of extra safety net predators aren't typically going to attack if there's two people,
(36:31):
they're um they're usually looking for that for that lone victim that they can get away with and make it as easy as possible.
Break your routine.
Um And that doesn't mean that not to train at the same time every day.
Just means to park in a different spot,
take a different run route.
Just break things up a little bit um,
here and there and it kind of gives gives you a little bit of leeway so that that predator can't stalk you successfully and then stay off your phone.
(37:01):
Um keep the phone out of your hand.
I could go on stories about that forever,
but we'll skip that for today.
So stay off your phone and really keep things out of your hands.
Um That way you have your hands free in case something actually does happen and you need to be able to fight back.
And then and then the last one that we just were hitting on is this idea of trusting your gut or choosing safety.
(37:22):
Um and that's kind of like the big,
the big umbrella policy if you look through all the other ones.
Um not having your headphones and getting a training partner,
breaking the routine,
All that like that all kind of stems under this idea of choosing safety,
I feel that we should we should tell your story because I want,
I'm gonna tell one story,
I'll go first because it happened to my brother.
And um I think he learned his lesson.
(37:46):
He he lives in Salvador is not the safest place.
I mean it's more like Thailand if I don't know which one is worse,
but he was going out for his run and he put a lot of stuff on.
I remember him telling me that he put his glasses on,
he put his earphones on everything that was very showing like it attracts attention.
(38:09):
And as an endurance athlete,
you have your compression stuff,
you have,
you put all your stuff in.
And uh he was doing his um his run and he has his I think he did 22 loops or three loops when the people got got noticed that he was doing loops.
So he was being he got pulled in and they stripped him off of everything I left.
(38:30):
I think he just left,
they just left him with his underwear in the middle of a very,
very transitory street and it's a miracle that he is still alive and he learned his lesson.
So he doesn't do that anymore.
Everything that you just said,
he practices to the T.
That's my story,
which which one is your story?
So this is actually like just a way for people to understand like how how important this is.
(38:55):
So coach has wife daughter,
they were all in different cars and they were all they all met at a restaurant,
the dinner,
they're all getting ready to leave and as and they're all kind of parked in different spots as self defense,
right?
Martial artists,
he has everybody's leaving,
he watches his wife and his daughter walk out to their car with their phone in their hands,
(39:20):
looking down,
get in their car in a dark parking lot,
staring down at their phone with just their screen glowing,
lighting their face up.
So him trying to teach a lesson here,
sneaks around his wife's pretty good and pretty dialed in.
She like basically catches in before he can do anything.
(39:44):
Daughter was probably like 16 or 17 at the time sneaks up.
She's face down on the phone.
Boom boom boom pounds on the window.
She like startles phone goes one place,
What are you doing?
Roll your window down.
She rolls the window down.
What are you doing?
Why are you rolling the window down?
(40:05):
He's like reaching in trying to grab her and he's like what are you doing?
Rolling the window down,
roll the window up.
I'm gonna smash your arms and roll the window.
And he's like,
so like the point of the story and he uses this all the time is like like that awareness and that idea of like your phone right?
Were also connected to these little devices.
And he's like what were you doing on your phone?
(40:27):
I was getting directions to my friend's house to where I was going.
And he's like next time when you're with me in the restaurant,
get the directions up on your phone,
put your phone away,
look around when you walk out to your car,
get in your car,
put your seatbelt on,
turn it on,
drive away and then pull your phone out with the directions already up ready to go.
(40:47):
And it's like like those little things and those little key pieces change what can happen right?
Because those are those are the things that the predators looking for.
It's like,
oh this is this 16 17 year old girl driving a BMW like there's there's my victim right?
If coach isn't their mom's not there like she probably does that every single night up until that point and now she'll never do it again.
(41:12):
So just like a like a ah ha like oh like that's that's how easy it is right?
Like if you study violence your whole life like coach has you understand how a predator thinks and like when you can safely teach that lesson like it's a it's a much better way than having her have to learn that lesson the hard way.
Let me ask you what are your thoughts on having some uh some tasers or any of that sort or some or some sprays that you can do weapons in general.
(41:40):
If you don't train with that weapon you shouldn't have it.
Like most people with pepper spray tasers like they end up getting those things turned on them or they hurt themselves with it and put themselves at a at a deficit because they're like oh I got pepper spray and they stick it on their key chain and they never touch it,
never take a class.
They never actually learned how to use it.
And then when time comes like like that's a really like high skilled movement in a sense like you gotta be able to pull the pin,
(42:06):
you got to do this,
you gotta do that in order to use it right?
Those are those are all like big like high highly technical movements when you're in that moment all your technical skills go away and like if you ever have seen like C.
C.
T.
V.
And watched a violent encounter happen it doesn't matter if it's somebody that's trained or not.
(42:27):
Like things don't ever look pretty like there's no like let me throw this perfect jab cross hook or let me throw this perfect gun disarm like it's ugly and it just happens like so if you're if you're not trained in it it's probably not gonna happen.
I mean think about how many stories you've heard about people getting pulling a gun out and having that gun turned on them like it's all the time.
(42:50):
So yeah their weapon weapons are great as long as you're training with them and like you're not just like oh I'm gonna go learn how to shoot this.
But your training in in those scenarios that are actually gonna get that adrenaline going and teach you how to do that under duress.
Yeah man you're never you're you're never safe and people say that thing is never gonna happen to me those situations.
(43:14):
I'm never gonna have those situations.
You never say never because when you least expected that at that exact moment you may be the next victim of anything and you sometimes you maybe just involved in in some sort of uh situation when somebody in front of you is going through that situation so what do you do there.
Um But that's we're gonna do that for another topic because we can go down the rabbit hole with that,
(43:38):
what do you do with if you see somebody else nowadays like teenagers might even pull up their phone and video tape with.
I mean it's just so crazy right?
But case listen I cannot thank you enough.
Can you share with us what your instagram is and what where DBC is and Diego is located so people can come and consult you and actually train with you too man.
(44:00):
Yeah absolutely.
So um DBC fitness.
Carlsbad dot com is the like san Diego location website.
Uh D.
B.
C.
Underscore san Diego underscore C.
A.
Is our instagram there and then my instagram is just my name.
Um At Casey par let and you can hit me up there,
(44:22):
send me a message I'm pretty easy to find and get a hold of.
So anything if you want to train come in.
Um I do do self defense stuff so that's available as well as all of my normal training stuff as well.
And I haven't announced this yet anywhere but october I'll be doing a self defense course at the facility in Carlsbad um threw threw the spear system.
(44:47):
We call it the be your own bodyguard course.
So yeah if you follow me um I'll have stuff posted up probably in the next tothe three weeks or so with an official date on that and how to register.
So um if you're in the area and you wanna get safer and kind of take this conversation and learn all the little nuances of it.
(45:07):
Um that'll be a good place to go if you're not in California,
check out Tony black hour and the spear system.
There's courses all over,
he's got online stuff as well.
So um,
there's a ton of information and a ton of stuff to learn.
Um super,
super easy to learn.
Super,
super easy to execute if you ever do need it.
That's great man.
(45:28):
And yeah man,
you can't go wrong with a spear system.
Tony flower is uh he's been doing this for decades and learned from the best himself and yeah,
like I said,
if you're a coach or you're just uh member that wants to be safer in knowing what to do in situations that can come up that everybody has the potential to be a victim.
(45:51):
I highly suggest you get this course in your counter and if not there's gonna be more courses right?
I mean,
but the more people that we can get uh involved in getting people to be more aware of their surroundings,
more aware of what's going on in trusting their gut and all those little conversations that we just touched on because we can go down a rabbit hole if we do,
(46:17):
it's gonna be a never ending podcast and um we can talk about this forever.
But Casey my man,
I appreciate you.
Thank you very much for sharing your sunday and uh we'll talk again soon brother.
Thank you for having me appreciate it.
I hope you enjoyed today's episode.
I really love hearing feedback from you.
I am always trying to improve myself so I can better serve you at the highest level share with us a brief review on what part of this episode that resonated with you the most.
(46:46):
You can always download the show notes and useful links.
You can go to my website,
endurance cartel dot com or any media channel You used to listen to this podcast.
Also make sure to share this with your friends and subscribe to this podcast.
Until then train smart guys.
Welcome to the endurance cartel podcast.
I am your host,
Javier Pineda,
endurance athletes and exercise physiologist and each week we bring you accredited human performance specialist or inspiring athletes to help you optimize your true human potential.
Now let's get down to business Safety is one of the basic human needs along with water,
(00:32):
food and shelter,
feeling unsafe.
Makes us live in a state of fight to flight where the sympathetic nervous system is on overdrive runner's world magazine published an article on May nine,
in which 60% of women surveyed have been harassed while running.
This needs to end now everyone should have the freedom to run without fear.
(00:57):
It's time to reclaim the run.
Casey par let from DBC SAN Diego joins me today with five tips on preventing attacks and what to do if you are attacked.
Hope you guys can enjoy the show.
Welcome to another episode of the endurance cartel podcast and I have a very,
(01:21):
very cool guest with us today.
Casey par Let he's owner of DBC SAn Diego and we have a lot of things in common and I've practiced for quite a while and Casey,
I'm just gonna let you say like a very brief history but more than less.
The topic here today is how we can keep our endurance athletes safe when they train.
(01:46):
There's been a lot of incidents where mostly women go for a run and they get attacked.
I've had personally 2-3 clients in the last two years where they've been running and all of a sudden they've been assaulted in some way or another or they've just been stocked and uh they've been having to call the police and one of them is still with an ongoing pending trial on a stalker.
(02:14):
So Casey,
thank you very much for being with a podcast this morning.
Thanks for having me on.
Yeah,
so this is actually a really not fun in the sense of what we're talking about,
but for me to have the opportunity to share,
this is really important and this is actually one of the reasons that I started teaching self defense.
(02:36):
So quick background on myself,
uh lifelong martial artist started martial arts at three years old,
had an opportunity to fight professionally for well over a decade and then kind of after I made the decision to retire,
I was connected with coach,
Tony blower of the spear system and went to one of his self defense courses.
(03:00):
My now wife was with me and one of the things as I was sitting through the course was like holy sh it like this is the insurance policy to everything that I do as a,
as a trainer in the gym every day,
right?
Like as,
as trainers,
like our,
we're basically trying to give people a way to improve their life,
(03:21):
have the most longevity they can to be able to perform at a high level and we work mentally emotionally and physically to help our clients be the best that they can be and as I was sitting through this course I realized really quickly that everything that I do in the gym can be taken away in an instant,
right,
Like I spent five years with the client helping them lose weight and work through the mental and emotional barriers that kind of led them to that place in the first place and they're in a good place,
(03:49):
they walk out to their car after a workout with me and they,
they get robbed or they get mugged or they get harassed and they don't have the skill set and the tools to,
to deal with that and manage that and ideally prevent that.
So that was kind of the,
the kicker for me to really dive into teaching self defense,
(04:09):
biggest martial arts for me was for a very long time,
I was able to use it as my personal hobby and not where I was coach and I kind of avoided teaching it anyway,
so this self defense was a really cool way for me to kind of get back and kind of give back all of the experience and stuff that I had had.
So that's kind of where where the self defense world came from for me and as far as like what do you,
(04:34):
what do you do?
Right,
Like we send people out,
hey,
you need to get you running,
you need your bike in and a lot of people of 9 to 5 jobs and the only time that they go get a two hour running is in the morning when it's dark at night,
which is dark and unfortunately most violent encounters happen in kind of those early morning and late night hours happens during the day as well.
(04:56):
Um,
I can tell you some crazy stories about stuff that's happened on my street in North County San Diego where everybody's like nothing ever happens there.
It happens everywhere.
And um kind of what we'll talk about today is like a lot of,
a lot of the awareness stuff.
Um,
and I'll refer back to to coach flower a lot,
(05:17):
but his,
his research has kind of proven concept for the last 40 years.
I remember a poster that Tony blair our had,
this is way back when,
when I was at practicing crossfit and it was,
it doesn't matter if you can lift £500 if you're dead.
That resonated with me so much because that's around the time that I started kind getting curious with with and how,
(05:44):
yeah,
you know,
you can do all this work,
but what's the use if you cannot defend yourself and when things really come into play,
You know,
I mean you're closer to to coach flour and I'm gonna let you take the reins here on what he would do and how you and how you created your own methodology on how to prevent any disaster because here in Miami I live in a very good neighborhood and in this neighborhood,
(06:12):
man.
I mean it's like crazy.
The things I've heard lately,
people are just not in the right state of minds,
a lot of people are hunting for not only money,
but they're just desperate,
desperate and women tend to be their target.
Yeah.
So just like real quick on that.
Like the targeting is a predator,
whether it's in like what animal nature or in the unfortunate reality of like human predators there after the weakest link,
(06:42):
right?
So like if you look at the way that a shark hunts,
if there's a,
if there's a group of seals,
it's going to take the slowest seal in the back.
So for all the triathletes out there,
right?
Like if you're out,
you're out swimming and you're the last one in the pack and you're somewhere where there's sharks,
like you better hurry up and get in the pack because otherwise you're gonna get back by the predator and that's,
that's like the joke,
right?
(07:02):
But they're the predators are looking for for the one that's gonna cower away,
that's not gonna fight back,
they can,
they can sense that and feel that.
So what we want to teach and what we want people to do it just to build,
build this awareness.
So all kind of when we started,
when you contact me about this,
you're like,
hey,
let's put a list together of like 3 to 5 things.
(07:23):
So I have five things and they're not in any specific order.
Some of some of them are going to be very,
very important and some of them will just kind of be what will lead into the next one.
But the first one that popped into my head right away headphones so we can go and talk about this for the next hour,
but I'll try to keep it short.
(07:43):
So I highly,
highly highly encourage people that are out running by themselves cycling by themselves to keep headphones out of their ears,
right?
So as soon as you put headphones in,
it kind of takes away one of your most important senses,
the the way that we're cued by a threat is going to be auditory visual and tactile.
(08:07):
So the first,
your first chance to know that something bad is gonna happen is taken away instantly.
So as soon as you have those headphones and you can't hear what's going on in the outside world,
like you see people out running with like full on noise canceling headphones on,
if you have no awareness,
you have no chance to,
to quote coach and right,
(08:30):
and what that means is like if I'm not aware of what's going on around me,
I don't have a chance to even fight back,
I don't have a chance to avoid it.
So take the headphones out,
this will do two things for you.
It'll give you a whole new heightened sense of what's going on around you and here's the other piece as,
as a coach and as a trainer it will teach you to queue in to your breathing and to what your body is actually doing.
(08:55):
So it does two things it keeps you safe and it gives you a better training session.
So headphones take them off and I hear people all the time.
My wife included,
I just can't run.
I hate running.
And the only way that I can get through it is if I had headphones on then you shouldn't be running figured out,
deal with it.
And I'll start people and be like at least do me a favor,
(09:16):
do just 11 head funded.
So just take one out and you have one in and it gives you a little bit uh even still then right,
like if I have a sound on this side and I have a headphone in on that side and I have the headphone out.
I lost all of all of my awareness to that side.
Just the basic basic way that sound travels and like when we're talking about this like predators are they're,
(09:38):
they're,
they're gonna ambush you their job just to be as quiet and sneaky as possible until that they can like grab you or do whatever it is that they're trying to do and they're typically gonna be quick,
they're gonna grab a purse,
they're going to grab a wallet,
they're gonna grab a phone or they're gonna try to take you to a secondary crime scene and we need to be aware of all of that.
(09:59):
And just simply by pulling your headphones out,
like you instantly give yourself that awareness that maybe there's something going on and then the other pieces if I'm a predator,
right?
So like how do you,
how do you know how a predator thinks you have to put yourself in that set?
We know that a predator wants the easiest target possible,
right?
So if I'm a predator and I'm out prowling for my next victim and I see no headphones,
(10:25):
no headphones,
no headphones,
no headphones,
headphones.
Which one am I gonna go after?
Which one is the easiest?
The easiest one,
Right?
And that's,
that's,
that's simple there.
That would be my,
my number one is just getting people to,
to train without headphones.
That's great by the way,
because I used to have a lot of,
I mean have headphones on and I would also see a lot of people with headphones on that work by themselves and I stopped using them first for training purposes,
(10:56):
but of course in an iron Man or in a marathon or in an iron Man,
they don't let you have any headphones at least at my time.
And this is why I was training without him.
But I've noticed,
I mean I bought myself one some aftershocks,
which don't go necessarily inside your ear,
they just go next to your ear you.
So you kind of be aware of what is going on around you and I'm not sponsored by aftershocks or any of that,
(11:23):
but you can find them in any running store now,
I mean they're very easy to just put on and take off and you can,
they don't go inside your ear so you can still kind of hear what's going on,
but you're still kind of sensory wise,
you're still kind of limited in a way.
So this is that's a great QE that you just gave out case.
Nice.
Yeah,
and I think that's right,
(11:43):
like if you're like absolutely,
like I can't run without and that's that's a much better way to go.
Um I see people running with like their phone in their hand and music on it will touch on that in a little bit about some of the problems with that,
but yeah,
anything where you can at least give yourself some awareness and like you can have that auditory sense of of what's going on around,
(12:06):
you will keep you much much safer.
And then the next one is a training partner,
if you know that you're training at night,
you don't live in the greatest areas,
get yourself a training partner,
find,
find somebody to train with um and it doesn't have to be a best friend,
just somebody and like you guys don't need to talk to each other,
(12:28):
but if You and I are going out to run and we have roughly the same run to do and I'm within 50 yards of you throughout that run.
Like we're we're running in a pack in that sense.
And like the chances of us getting taken out by a predator are much less,
especially for women out there if you can and I probably will get canceled for saying this.
(12:50):
But women,
if you can run with with another guy,
uh,
it will help deter the predators as well.
Even if you're running with another female,
like two is always going to be better than one.
So,
training partners are great.
Um,
and one of the things that you had mentioned in your message to me was not even just people that are out running or cycling,
but like even just simply walking out of the gym right?
(13:13):
Like if if somebody's walking out of the gym at 11 o'clock at night and they're by themselves,
you set yourself up and typically gym parking lots are gonna be a little bit darker,
11 o'clock at night.
There's not gonna be as many people around.
So it makes it an easy place for for a predator to kind of be there and be in that position.
(13:34):
So training partner,
I'm like the person where I'm like,
I just want to go train by myself and I don't want to run with anybody.
Cool.
No headphones will at least be a little bit safer.
But that training partner,
if you're in a bad area,
if it's something that you're concerned about,
that will give you a little bit of an extra safety net there.
And during satellites here at least here in Miami,
(13:56):
we don't get a break with the heat at least during the summertime,
but we tend to train extremely early.
We're talking 3 34 in the morning and night time,
sometimes even eight or nine o'clock.
So I've seen a lot of people come out like women,
especially,
(14:16):
they tend to go out early and they,
once they get to their destinations,
they come out of the cars and start stretching in darkness.
That alone is it's I feel it's a recipe for disaster.
I hope it never happens.
But a pretty easy,
it's like darkness one woman outside stretching.
(14:37):
What are the chances?
And I don't think you'll agree with me or maybe you will just stay in the car until more people arrive.
Right?
I'll hit on that.
Now.
It's like,
like anything that you can do to put yourself around people park in an area where where there's more people,
little stuff like that.
And then,
so as as humans,
by nature,
we're all creatures of habit and especially endurance athletes,
(15:02):
they do the exact same thing day in and day out.
People that are really good at doing that monotonous over and over and over again.
They're the ones that make the greatest endurance athletes because that's,
that's the entire sport.
So while the routine is important in getting up at the same time and doing the same training over and over is really,
really valuable.
(15:22):
There's a way to break the routine,
right?
So a lot of times predators will stock for days and days and days because they're trying to find that perfect victim and they want to make it as easy as possible and I'll give everybody just so you guys,
everybody kind of has a little bit of knowledge on this.
When we're when we're talking about a predator,
we're talking about a bad guy.
What we're looking at is somebody that is after three things property,
(15:47):
body or life.
So basically they want to rob you.
They want to hurt you physically or emotionally in some way or they want to kill you.
Like that's like you can boil every scenario down to one of those three things,
what they don't want is they don't want to get hurt.
They don't want to get caught and they don't want to take too long when we start to understand the way that a predator operates,
(16:11):
it gives us that much more insight on how to avoid the predator,
right?
So,
if they're trying to not get caught,
have it not take very long and not get hurt.
There's out scoping scoping,
scoping,
waiting,
waiting for that perfect moment and a lot of times and we see it in movies,
we hear it in the news,
this person was stalking this person for however long and if you walk out of your house at four a.m. Every morning and you check your mailbox and then you do this and then you do this and then you do this and you go and run the exact same route every single morning you're setting yourself up to to be that victim.
(16:49):
Cool.
You have to leave your house at the same time every day,
a couple days a week,
do this,
run a couple days of the week,
do this run and as simple as taking a couple of different turns,
running it backwards so you don't pass the same place at the same time.
Like like those little things go a long way because now predators sees you on the first day and what they're gonna do is they know they're smart,
(17:11):
this person's gonna be here tomorrow I'm gonna come and check and all of a sudden you're not there the next day,
they're gonna move on,
they don't want to deal with it.
And it makes it really really easy if you're at the gym.
Most people,
they go to the gym,
they park in the exact same spot every single day.
They do the same thing in the car before they get out.
They do the same thing when they're walking walking back to the car park in a different spot.
(17:33):
It's it's as simple as that park on this side of the parking lot one day park on the other side of the parking lot,
the next day park in the middle of the day after that.
Like do something just slightly different and it throws that routine off right?
And Bruce lee talks about a broken rhythm,
right?
Like that's fighting.
So the way that you kind of live your life is in this broken rhythm,
(17:53):
even though there's routine and you know exactly what you're doing,
there's just like this little bit of nuance to it where people aren't gonna be able to catch on with the pattern.
Those are great.
One of the important pieces of this conversation is that like a lot of it is geared towards women because most predators are men,
(18:13):
no matter what,
like the female,
I don't want to say no matter what,
but most of the time,
like the female is going to be the easier prey.
Men are bigger,
stronger.
Like just naturally like the way that the way that were built,
it's just the way that it goes nature.
But at the same time like you you can still be a victim as a man,
(18:33):
right?
Like I can,
there's a UFC fighter,
I think a £205 fighter,
he's had his house broken into and he got into like a crazy altercation,
but like he was a victim of violence in a sense,
as a professional fighter fighting at the highest level.
His wife and his kids are in the house and he's like,
(18:55):
he's gotta take care of business.
So it's not just singled out to women.
It's like how can anybody protect himself?
And that's that's the beauty of the spear system and like it's it's really just kind of understanding some some key guidelines and some key points and it makes people safer,
right?
Like we've already talked about the the awareness,
take your headphones out,
get a training partner,
(19:15):
don't like get your ego aside and like,
you know that something bad might happen,
do do what's safest?
Get yourself that partner break your routine,
like little little things like that,
go go a really long way and as soon as you start to put yourself in a different mindset things get a little bit easier.
So here's here's the other one and I kind of touched on it earlier with people running with their phone in their hand,
(19:39):
stay off your phone right?
Like even even just simply running with your phone in your hand is going to put you at a disadvantage because as soon as that phone buzzes makes noise,
the music isn't exactly what you want,
like you're going to look at it,
you're gonna put your face down.
Um and again,
coming back to the awareness pieces that takes away your awareness,
(20:01):
your your face is now down your side track so easy to kind of get lost in that thing.
Even if it's for five seconds that five seconds was that chance that the predator was waiting to jump and attack.
So phone put it in your pocket,
put it in something.
Don't have your phone right?
(20:21):
Like I would just prefer to get people to understand that they don't really need music when they're running.
It's not not something that they do need.
Uh if you are running by yourself at night or early in the morning,
I would encourage you to have your phone on you,
but have it in a pocket.
Have it not in your hands,
not where it's going to be distracting that way.
If something is happening or you do feel unsafe,
(20:44):
you can you can make that call and have somebody there to come and take care of you and I'll kind of piggyback this on what Right now,
I didn't even put it on my list,
but let somebody know where you are.
Let somebody know that you're going out to run and what your route is.
So somebody at least is aware of of what you're what you're doing and where you're at at that time.
Um if you don't have anybody send a message out to some,
(21:07):
some friends real quick and okay,
I'm going to run this is where I'll be.
I feel like everybody's got at least a couple of people with that.
Don't post it on social media because predators will be on there too.
But we won't get into that one.
It's like down down the hatch on.
But we can this is where actually apple,
the apple little pods that they can come useful in this moment.
Right?
(21:27):
I mean having having one of those in your pocket and telling uh either your roommate or your or your significant other or your wife or your husband.
Hey,
listen,
I'm I have this pot on me or just I'm going out for a run.
And uh as long as it's you that put it on you and not the president,
not somebody else.
Exactly.
(21:48):
Yeah.
I mean like any anything where like somebody like you can let some loved ones or some people that care about,
you know,
know where you're going to be.
Um we'll just kind of put put your mind at ease.
Uh the other problem with holding onto your phone and this goes for a water bottle or really anything that you're holding on to.
So kind of get into like some of the biology in a sense.
(22:13):
And the physiology when when we're holding on to something,
it doesn't matter what it is.
Nature.
Our reptilian brain when when we're startled and we flinch,
our body will naturally hold on tighter to whatever it is that we're holding.
Because if we're holding our brain in that reptilian sense feels like that thing must be really important.
(22:36):
So we don't want to lose it.
So your cross extensive reflex takes over and will pull whatever you're holding close to your body when you flinch if somebody jumps out of a bush to grab you,
you're going to flinch in that moment if you're holding onto a phone in one hand and a water bottle in the other hand,
you now don't have anything and both hands are gonna want to come in close to your body and until you like recognize that that flinch that would normally keep somebody pushed away now pulls everything in close to your body and it gives that attacker that much more of a chance.
(23:12):
So keep things out of your hands real simple right?
Like if you need a water bottle with you stick it in the pocket,
stick it in a water bottle belt.
Same thing with your phone,
put it in a family pack put in your pocket and now you have your hands free.
So worst case scenario if you are attacked,
if you are ambushed,
your hands are at least there to fight back with and you don't have to have that that split second where you're going like oh no I'm holding on to something,
(23:39):
I need to drop this or oh no I better hit this person with my funding.
There's all all sorts of things that we can deal with if we do end up in that situation with the easiest ways to just make sure that you keep your hands free by not having anything in them and let me ask you what screaming be a sense of defense like a big a scream or I.
(24:00):
R.
Or any other sort of defense or would you rather just run as fast as you can or try to get away as fast you can or what what were your recommendations being in case that were the case?
All of the above the problem is is like what we're kind of talking about is if we're out on the run like we're probably like far away from people,
(24:23):
there's probably nobody around yelling and screaming.
Most people unfortunately don't respond well if you are gonna yell fire some something that's not rape or like any anything like that because people tend to shy away.
But yeah make as much noise as you can run and this will kind of will hit on this kind of in the next one.
So the last one on my list of five is this idea of choosing safety,
(24:47):
choosing safety is kind of like the umbrella policy that or the umbrella umbrella principle that coach flower kind of came up with is like if everything that you do is geared around this idea of choosing safety,
you'll always give yourself a chance to to live to see another day and when we're talking to safety it's essentially just doing the safest thing in that moment to get home to your loved ones to to make it to the next day to get to the next moment of your life and a lot of people take this as like,
(25:26):
oh,
I'm gonna,
I'm gonna cower away,
or I'm gonna run because that's like their,
what they feel is safety,
but safety is anything from running away two,
I have a bad feeling,
I'm gonna go inside this building,
or I have a bad feeling,
I'm not gonna run today,
or I'm gonna wait until the sun comes up,
or I'm gonna go to the gym and run on the treadmill.
(25:48):
Like that's choosing safety.
But if I'm out running and I get attacked and in that moment,
I feel like my life is threatened.
The safest thing that I can do in that moment is fight back and try to attack the guy that's attacking me,
(26:08):
that's also choosing safety,
right?
Because that's the safest thing that I could have done in that moment to get home to my wife and kids,
right?
Like,
when you start to understand when you look at everything through that perspective,
it starts to give you a much better and easier way to to manage what's going on around you.
So,
most people these days have had like that,
(26:32):
that gut feeling kind of like,
beat out of them when I'm gonna go out on a run and I'll Give everybody a quick story.
So,
and I broke pretty much all of the rules.
So this was back in 2014,
I was in Thailand for the first time I was like,
three days out from a fight was like,
right at the end of my training,
I woke up in the morning and I was like,
(26:53):
man,
I feel really tired,
I should skip my run today.
There's the bad feeling,
that was the initial piece.
I didn't skip my run because I was like,
uh don't be weak,
you gotta run your in Thailand,
you got a fight coming up,
just just go,
and it,
my feeling wasn't like,
I'm so tired,
I don't want to run.
It was like,
(27:13):
man,
you really shouldn't run today,
I put my shoes on,
I put my headphones in,
put music on,
did the same run that I did every other day that I was there and on my way back,
a lot of stray dogs in Thailand headphones in cars.
And if you've ever been to Thailand,
especially in Bangkok streets are crazy,
(27:33):
there's cars everywhere,
running stray dogs,
they were always out and they had like,
kind of come towards you and you just kind of veer away.
And one day there was this day,
there was like a pack of dogs and the dogs are in a pack,
they're a little bit more aggressive,
have my headphones in,
veer out,
keeps coming at me,
kind of nipping and barking at me,
I veer out a little bit farther,
(27:53):
headphones,
can't hear all the cars,
I thought that I had space,
motorcycle was coming around the truck and clipped me and I shattered my foot,
basically,
almost career ending injury because I had no awareness and because I didn't trust my gut.
So and that's like,
like a big like to safety moment,
I didn't get attacked by a predator.
(28:17):
But I in a sense was ambushed by by the motorcycle that I didn't see or hear because I had no awareness and almost ended a career.
That was what I had been working my whole life for.
So coming back to this idea of choosing safety right is like most people have that beat out of women are told,
(28:40):
don't be weak,
stand up for yourself,
do this,
you don't need to be scared.
Guys are told don't be a sissy,
don't be a wuss.
Just go,
it doesn't matter.
And what happens is is every and this is from coach Flowers research that he's done is every victim of violence that lived to tell the tale all said the exact same thing.
(29:01):
I had a bad feeling and then and and when we start to recognize that and we start to understand that and we start to put ourselves in this idea of like what's actually important to me,
like I have a wife and a baby that I need to take care of.
I have a business and a bunch of employees that rely on me,
I have this,
I have that I have a professional career as an athlete.
(29:23):
It doesn't matter like what it is like,
but when there's something that's bigger then your ego,
it makes it really easy to be like,
I'm gonna skip that runner,
I'm gonna put this run off a little bit,
I'm gonna do my I'm gonna do my cycling work early in the morning and I'll do my run later.
Like,
there's a million different things that you can do,
and as soon as we trust that true safety or we trust that gut feeling,
(29:45):
we're going to be safer.
And worst case scenario,
if you do get attacked,
we know that a bad guy doesn't want to get caught,
we doesn't want to take too long and doesn't want to get hurt if you do get attacked and you fight back.
Because so many women are told,
just do what they say,
do whatever they say,
give whatever they want.
And those are the ones that get taken to that secondary crime scene.
And we know if somebody gets taken to a secondary crime scene,
(30:07):
like that's when things go really bad in a hurry.
So just by purely fighting back,
most people or most predators are going to go and try to find another victims,
they don't want to deal with it,
wow,
you just nailed that uh across the board,
man,
That was literally the first sentence and the first rule that my instructor said to me whenever you feel something is off,
(30:32):
whenever you sense that something is not right,
leave,
it's okay to leave,
it's okay,
not not to engage in anything because for me was a way of defending myself in case sh it happens,
so it's not meant to go out and bully people in case it happens,
(30:53):
I know what to do.
So,
but that gut feeling has to come first,
man.
I mean,
it's you said it and it's um I like an endurance athlete,
I would see my training in black and white,
and I'm like,
I gotta go,
there's this training I have to fulfill today,
and mind you,
a lot of endurance athletes,
(31:13):
including myself,
I would if I'm so focused on my training and it's okay to be focused,
but I in terms of athletes tend to take it a step ahead of almost being like,
they're being paid for to go train and this is where stuff gets mixed up,
you know,
because I mean,
(31:34):
uh forget about your professional life.
Forget about people that I care about.
You forget about if you said it everything,
I mean,
forget if you have a family that you need to take care of.
If you have the gut feeling and ship goes south,
that's game over.
I mean,
it's you don't you don't,
one training session is not gonna change your life.
One training session is not gonna make you lose weight,
(31:54):
you just gotta be consistent,
man.
I mean,
it's you said it.
Yeah,
and then coming,
going back to,
kind of,
what I said at the very beginning is like,
like it doesn't matter how hard you train and how much you ignore all those feelings right?
Because if you do have that feeling that something bad is gonna happen and you ignore it.
(32:14):
Like my my career was extremely halted for I had 11 months and came back way too fast from from my injury and had a couple of bad fights after,
right?
So like there's like this trickle down effect and that's like that was like best case scenario right?
Like if you have somebody that's training for a big race and you get attacked and even if you're physically not hurt mentally and emotionally,
(32:39):
like the damage that's caused by an event like that even if it's just getting robbed like you know how you feel like you get your car,
you get your car broken into you come out and your wallet's gone or this is gone or just some of your stuff's been rummaged through.
Like you feel like oh my God,
like I can't believe that that happened to me and you like you have that kind of like sick feeling like now imagine like that you're out running and somebody tries to rape you and you fight back and get away and you're okay.
(33:05):
But like imagine the mental and emotional damage that that causes like like are you gonna be in a good place to go and do this big race that you're supposed to like there's a select few that would use it as fuel like awesome like great.
But most people like they can't afford to have that violent encounter.
They can't deal with that.
So like the best thing that you can do is give yourself this opportunity to avoid the whole altercation altogether,
(33:31):
right?
Like trust your gut,
choose safety cool where there are no bad feelings.
Take the headphones out,
you hear something,
you see somebody that doesn't look safe,
go the other direction,
cut your run short,
take a different turn,
go up a hill that you weren't supposed to go up that day.
Like whatever it is like you give yourself those are opportunities to get yourself along the way.
(33:51):
Coach works with a lot of athletes kind of all all over the place and same thing right?
Like you're not going for a run,
you don't have a bad feeling,
but like you're going into the gym to to do your lifting session but on your way there like you're just not feeling it,
you're not feeling good.
Like you feel like you should skip skip the workout,
but you go anyway,
(34:12):
you don't tell your trainer that because you don't want to like be that person and you hurt your back or you do this or you do that right.
Like there's all sorts of things that happened in the gym every single day and people probably if they had some awareness and they kind of look back at like what was going on with themselves,
they were probably like going to the gym that day being like I probably shouldn't be working out now.
(34:34):
I something else is on their mind or whatever and like that choose safety principle is something that I use every single day in my life.
I use it with my clients,
I use it with myself,
my wife uses it,
my little girl when she's old enough,
she will she will use it and it's like as simple as being a trainer and a coach right?
Like if somebody comes into the gym to train with me the first thing that I do right?
(34:58):
How are you feeling today?
Oh I'm great.
No,
no.
Like like how are you really feeling and you start to get into it and like okay well that's how they feel right now.
So like what's the what's the safest or best way that that they should train that day,
Like based based on where they're at based on what those feelings are and you just have that communication and whether you're having communication with the client or having that communication within yourself.
(35:21):
And kind of like your own self talk like find find that self awareness to to do the right thing that use safety in whatever it is that you're doing in life.
Yeah man,
I mean of course you're not gonna make uh somebody do olympic lifts when they have a divorce going on and they come into the gym and all right,
we got snatches today.
Yeah,
but I'm going through a divorce to yeah,
you're not gonna,
(35:41):
your nervous system is not really there to put something over your head.
So this is when yeah,
coach.
It's very important to know how your client is is going through about their lives because we're just uh kind of instruments leading them to a better life.
And those were all great points case.
And let's summarize so we can get people on track and just let them understand what what the the safety measures are.
(36:09):
So let's number one was headphones.
Yeah,
No,
no headphones.
And that's like more like the bigger picture is bringing like giving yourself a chance to have have awareness knowing what's going on around you.
Uh Next one training partner find find a training partner just gives you that little bit of extra safety net predators aren't typically going to attack if there's two people,
(36:31):
they're um they're usually looking for that for that lone victim that they can get away with and make it as easy as possible.
Break your routine.
Um And that doesn't mean that not to train at the same time every day.
Just means to park in a different spot,
take a different run route.
Just break things up a little bit um,
here and there and it kind of gives gives you a little bit of leeway so that that predator can't stalk you successfully and then stay off your phone.
(37:01):
Um keep the phone out of your hand.
I could go on stories about that forever,
but we'll skip that for today.
So stay off your phone and really keep things out of your hands.
Um That way you have your hands free in case something actually does happen and you need to be able to fight back.
And then and then the last one that we just were hitting on is this idea of trusting your gut or choosing safety.
(37:22):
Um and that's kind of like the big,
the big umbrella policy if you look through all the other ones.
Um not having your headphones and getting a training partner,
breaking the routine,
All that like that all kind of stems under this idea of choosing safety,
I feel that we should we should tell your story because I want,
I'm gonna tell one story,
I'll go first because it happened to my brother.
And um I think he learned his lesson.
(37:46):
He he lives in Salvador is not the safest place.
I mean it's more like Thailand if I don't know which one is worse,
but he was going out for his run and he put a lot of stuff on.
I remember him telling me that he put his glasses on,
he put his earphones on everything that was very showing like it attracts attention.
(38:09):
And as an endurance athlete,
you have your compression stuff,
you have,
you put all your stuff in.
And uh he was doing his um his run and he has his I think he did 22 loops or three loops when the people got got noticed that he was doing loops.
So he was being he got pulled in and they stripped him off of everything I left.
(38:30):
I think he just left,
they just left him with his underwear in the middle of a very,
very transitory street and it's a miracle that he is still alive and he learned his lesson.
So he doesn't do that anymore.
Everything that you just said,
he practices to the T.
That's my story,
which which one is your story?
So this is actually like just a way for people to understand like how how important this is.
(38:55):
So coach has wife daughter,
they were all in different cars and they were all they all met at a restaurant,
the dinner,
they're all getting ready to leave and as and they're all kind of parked in different spots as self defense,
right?
Martial artists,
he has everybody's leaving,
he watches his wife and his daughter walk out to their car with their phone in their hands,
(39:20):
looking down,
get in their car in a dark parking lot,
staring down at their phone with just their screen glowing,
lighting their face up.
So him trying to teach a lesson here,
sneaks around his wife's pretty good and pretty dialed in.
She like basically catches in before he can do anything.
(39:44):
Daughter was probably like 16 or 17 at the time sneaks up.
She's face down on the phone.
Boom boom boom pounds on the window.
She like startles phone goes one place,
What are you doing?
Roll your window down.
She rolls the window down.
What are you doing?
Why are you rolling the window down?
(40:05):
He's like reaching in trying to grab her and he's like what are you doing?
Rolling the window down,
roll the window up.
I'm gonna smash your arms and roll the window.
And he's like,
so like the point of the story and he uses this all the time is like like that awareness and that idea of like your phone right?
Were also connected to these little devices.
And he's like what were you doing on your phone?
(40:27):
I was getting directions to my friend's house to where I was going.
And he's like next time when you're with me in the restaurant,
get the directions up on your phone,
put your phone away,
look around when you walk out to your car,
get in your car,
put your seatbelt on,
turn it on,
drive away and then pull your phone out with the directions already up ready to go.
(40:47):
And it's like like those little things and those little key pieces change what can happen right?
Because those are those are the things that the predators looking for.
It's like,
oh this is this 16 17 year old girl driving a BMW like there's there's my victim right?
If coach isn't their mom's not there like she probably does that every single night up until that point and now she'll never do it again.
(41:12):
So just like a like a ah ha like oh like that's that's how easy it is right?
Like if you study violence your whole life like coach has you understand how a predator thinks and like when you can safely teach that lesson like it's a it's a much better way than having her have to learn that lesson the hard way.
Let me ask you what are your thoughts on having some uh some tasers or any of that sort or some or some sprays that you can do weapons in general.
(41:40):
If you don't train with that weapon you shouldn't have it.
Like most people with pepper spray tasers like they end up getting those things turned on them or they hurt themselves with it and put themselves at a at a deficit because they're like oh I got pepper spray and they stick it on their key chain and they never touch it,
never take a class.
They never actually learned how to use it.
And then when time comes like like that's a really like high skilled movement in a sense like you gotta be able to pull the pin,
(42:06):
you got to do this,
you gotta do that in order to use it right?
Those are those are all like big like high highly technical movements when you're in that moment all your technical skills go away and like if you ever have seen like C.
C.
T.
V.
And watched a violent encounter happen it doesn't matter if it's somebody that's trained or not.
(42:27):
Like things don't ever look pretty like there's no like let me throw this perfect jab cross hook or let me throw this perfect gun disarm like it's ugly and it just happens like so if you're if you're not trained in it it's probably not gonna happen.
I mean think about how many stories you've heard about people getting pulling a gun out and having that gun turned on them like it's all the time.
(42:50):
So yeah their weapon weapons are great as long as you're training with them and like you're not just like oh I'm gonna go learn how to shoot this.
But your training in in those scenarios that are actually gonna get that adrenaline going and teach you how to do that under duress.
Yeah man you're never you're you're never safe and people say that thing is never gonna happen to me those situations.
(43:14):
I'm never gonna have those situations.
You never say never because when you least expected that at that exact moment you may be the next victim of anything and you sometimes you maybe just involved in in some sort of uh situation when somebody in front of you is going through that situation so what do you do there.
Um But that's we're gonna do that for another topic because we can go down the rabbit hole with that,
(43:38):
what do you do with if you see somebody else nowadays like teenagers might even pull up their phone and video tape with.
I mean it's just so crazy right?
But case listen I cannot thank you enough.
Can you share with us what your instagram is and what where DBC is and Diego is located so people can come and consult you and actually train with you too man.
(44:00):
Yeah absolutely.
So um DBC fitness.
Carlsbad dot com is the like san Diego location website.
Uh D.
B.
C.
Underscore san Diego underscore C.
A.
Is our instagram there and then my instagram is just my name.
Um At Casey par let and you can hit me up there,
(44:22):
send me a message I'm pretty easy to find and get a hold of.
So anything if you want to train come in.
Um I do do self defense stuff so that's available as well as all of my normal training stuff as well.
And I haven't announced this yet anywhere but october I'll be doing a self defense course at the facility in Carlsbad um threw threw the spear system.
(44:47):
We call it the be your own bodyguard course.
So yeah if you follow me um I'll have stuff posted up probably in the next tothe three weeks or so with an official date on that and how to register.
So um if you're in the area and you wanna get safer and kind of take this conversation and learn all the little nuances of it.
(45:07):
Um that'll be a good place to go if you're not in California,
check out Tony black hour and the spear system.
There's courses all over,
he's got online stuff as well.
So um,
there's a ton of information and a ton of stuff to learn.
Um super,
super easy to learn.
Super,
super easy to execute if you ever do need it.
That's great man.
(45:28):
And yeah man,
you can't go wrong with a spear system.
Tony flower is uh he's been doing this for decades and learned from the best himself and yeah,
like I said,
if you're a coach or you're just uh member that wants to be safer in knowing what to do in situations that can come up that everybody has the potential to be a victim.
(45:51):
I highly suggest you get this course in your counter and if not there's gonna be more courses right?
I mean,
but the more people that we can get uh involved in getting people to be more aware of their surroundings,
more aware of what's going on in trusting their gut and all those little conversations that we just touched on because we can go down a rabbit hole if we do,
(46:17):
it's gonna be a never ending podcast and um we can talk about this forever.
But Casey my man,
I appreciate you.
Thank you very much for sharing your sunday and uh we'll talk again soon brother.
Thank you for having me appreciate it.
I hope you enjoyed today's episode.
I really love hearing feedback from you.
I am always trying to improve myself so I can better serve you at the highest level share with us a brief review on what part of this episode that resonated with you the most.
(46:46):
You can always download the show notes and useful links.
You can go to my website,
endurance cartel dot com or any media channel You used to listen to this podcast.
Also make sure to share this with your friends and subscribe to this podcast.
Until then train smart guys.
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