[Survival Self-Defense] Cafe and Convenience Store Danger Situations... Chair as the Best Defense Tool

Editor's NoteWhen you cannot escape from an assailant wielding a weapon, you must use your belongings to protect your vital organs and then flee. If you have a self-defense tool, you can effectively use it to protect yourself and escape. Every Sunday, we will share how to properly utilize self-defense tools and how to strike quickly and run away to protect yourself, demonstrated by Jeon Seong-yong, head instructor of the Korea Arnis Association Self-Defense Center (association president, male in the photo), and instructor Go Kyung-ah (female in the photo).

The self-defense survival education program aims to temporarily incapacitate the opponent and escape from dangerous situations. It assumes various real-life crisis scenarios and focuses on simple and swift techniques to overcome extreme situations, buying a golden time of 10 seconds to increase the survival rate by 10%.

In this edition, we explain how to use a chair as a shield to defend against high attacks from a distance in dangerous situations occurring in places like cafes or convenience stores, and how to evade. For women with less physical strength, actively resisting and defending against weapon attacks using a chair or similar objects is crucial to protect vital organs and create an opportunity to escape.

1. If an assailant attempts a high attack with a weapon, quickly assess the situation and grab a nearby chair to use as a shield. Hold the chair close to your chest and step forward with your right foot (for right-handed individuals), applying your weight to defend. Shift your center forward and use both hands holding the chair to extend it strongly in a straight line. Use the chair as a shield to block the opponent’s weapon. It is important to quickly straighten and bend both elbows in a straight line during this motion. If the recovery motion is not swift, the opponent may grab the tool. For a chair with a backrest, holding the backrest with your left hand and the seat with your right hand is an easier way to defend using the chair.

2. Quickly retract the chair you used to block the opponent’s weapon toward your chest. It is best to press the chair close to your chest to protect your heart and lungs. This motion prepares you to perform the next attack and defense movements quickly and powerfully.

3. Simply defending can leave you vulnerable to continuous attacks. After defending, you must actively counterattack to buy golden time. Strongly thrust the chair you are holding straight toward the opponent’s vital points such as the eyes or neck. Using the chair legs to stab can deliver a significant shock to the opponent and neutralize their criminal intent. When the opponent is stunned by the impact, quickly escape and hide in a nearby store or seek help.

4. If the opponent pushes in with their left hand to grab the chair and counterattack, step your left foot sideways and twist both your right and left hands holding the chair clockwise downward around the chair’s central axis. You must break the opponent’s left hand holding the chair by twisting it apart from the chair. At this time, it is important to use the opponent’s pushing force to move your center axis to the right using your left foot.

5. If the chair retrieval motion is not swift, as shown in the photo, the opponent may grab the chair with their hands. Also, if the opponent pushes in with their left hand to grab the chair, they can block your defense and counterattack.

6. Twist the opponent’s left hand holding the chair to separate it from the chair, then strongly thrust the chair straight to strike the opponent’s eyes and neck. At this time, step forward with your right foot to apply your body weight and extend both arms holding the chair strongly, using the chair legs to attack the opponent’s vital points.

All movements in survival self-defense require a foundation of muscular strength and stamina. Consistent strength and endurance training are necessary to achieve synergistic effects.