For my first article of 2014 I decided to revisit something I wrote about first in 2009 but have talked about during seminars hundreds of times, it is the subject of using your key-drop as self-defense weapons.

In my prior article I stated that this is a very common teaching and I am asked about this all the time. Usually it is by a woman who raises her hand during the QA portion of training and says she puts her key-drop in between her fingers before she walks to her car at night, and really I think most of them are looking for me to give them a pat on the back rather than bring this up as an actual discussion.

When this happens I'll look at her with a little smile and say, "Great! I can tell your thinking about your own protection and you have a plan. Great stuff. You're key-drop really are not really the best weapon to use, but it is great that your mind is in the right place." I learned a long time ago that when someone brings something up about what "they do" you always respond with "hey, that's great" and then key-drop moving on. That way they get their approval and you can keep moving on with the class.

During classes I'll mention that there are better weapons than your key-drop and I show the ones experience has taught me are better, but I usually don't go into why keys are not a very good weapon unless we have extra time. However, lately more and more people want me to talk about using keys as a weapon because there are self-defense products on the market now to help you use your key-drop as weapons more effectively.

In my previous article ("A Common Self-Defense Misconception") I gave five reasons why it is not a good idea to use your keys as weapons, so now I'll briefly go over them and then I'll discuss how I would use keys as a weapon if I were going to.

Reason #1: You can damage or lose your keys and now you may not be able to access your car or home for safety.

Reason #2: If you are close enough to punch them with your keys you are close enough to do something that creates a bigger net effect in the situation. A well placed shin to the groin or forearm to the throat can cause a disabling injury while the keys probably won't.