Another good article from the Force Science News about distractions and aggressive subjects.

While the article is aimed towards law enforcement, what it discusses is useful to anyone that might find themselves in a self-defense situation (read: everyone). Sure those of us that take self-defense seriously spend a lot of time on skills such as marksmanship and empty-hand fighting, but those tend to only come into play when you hit condition red (or black). You should spend your life in code yellow, but when you find yourself in condition orange or red, you need to take other actions.

Most of the actions you should take towards the aggressor should be ones intended to distract and/or diffuse the situation. You want to deescalate things. Increasing the level of force is undesirable, so you must do everything within your power to bring things down. Note that one of the requirements to obtain a Concealed Handgun License in the state of Texas is taking at least 10 hours of classroom study, which includes discussions of nonviolent dispute resolution techniques. InSights Training Center’s Street & Vehicle Tactics course in large part is all about psychology and avoiding potential problems in the first place, or if you get into them how to deescalate.

The FSN article contains some good suggestions on how to distract and diffuse a situation. Worth a read. There is also a follow-up article that contains a lot of reader-submitted techniques.