The 14 most common pre-attack indicators to look out for.
- Excessive eye contact to intimidate you and to evaluate whether you will fight back or not.
- Avoidance of eye contact when eye contact is expected. This indicated the violent attacker is busy checking whether his escape route is open and/or whether there ar people close by who may come to assist you.
- The attacker constantly looks at your hands and pockets to determine whether you are preparing to defend yourself and whether you carry a weapon in your pockets.
- Moving one leg to the front do the strong leg is at the back. At the same time he turns his body slightly so that the stronger arm and shoulder are at the back. This helps him establish balance and will allow him to generate power when he strikes.
- Verbal threats and insults to intimidate and shock you into submission.
- Attempts to distract you by talking, offering assistance, touching you, and pretending to look at something behind you so that you do not see the attack coming.
- Concealing one hand (normally the strong hand) in a pocket or behind the back to conceal a weapon until he can get close enough to you to use it.
- Using the strong hand to feint scratching his nose or head so that he can get to high enough and ready to strike.
- Sudden changes in color or the attacker’s facial complexion. That attacker’s face may suddenly turn red or pale which is normally a good indicator of aggression.
- Uncontrolled trembling of the attacker’s lips as he becomes more aggressive/angry.
- Increase in breathing tempo & flaring nostrils as he prepares to attack.
- Opening and closing of fists
- Incoherent speech and repeating words/sentence indicates that he is not thinking logically any long and is only focused on attacking
- Pushing, shoving , posturing
