3 F-Words from a Navy SEAL for Your Personal Protection

Hey guys, what is going on? Chris Sajnog here, retired Navy SEAL and founder of the SEAL Training System, and in this video, I want to teach you the three F's of personal protection. Now let's go ahead and get started.
All right, so a lot of times when we find ourselves in a stressful situation, especially a violent encounter of some sort, we may be dropping a bunch of f-bombs in hopes that maybe saying a bunch of offensive f-words is somehow magically going to help protect us or our families. But in reality, there are three better, more useful f-words that I'm going to teach you that can help you protect yourself or your family in any violent situation. And they are to Flow, to Fight and to Follow up.

So first up is to Flow. Now, Flowing means that you're flowing like water through any situation. You're just as smooth as can be. It means that you are in control of the situation and a lot of times people have heard about fight or flight, and or freeze. So those tend to be the three reactions to any stressful situation that people are taught. But what I like to teach is the fourth F, and that is to Flow.

So what happens in a stressful situation, you're going to fight if you understand the situation and you believe you can win that situation, so you're attacked by somebody and because of your training, you go, you know what? I'm bigger than this guy; I can take him. I'm going to fight him for whatever reason. That is your fight response.

The next one is to take Flight or to run away. And you're going to do that when you understand the situation, but you think you can't win that situation. So you know what's going on. You're like, okay, this dude is like six foot seven, 300 pounds and it's all muscle and he's got a knife and, I'm going to run away.

And then the other one is the deer in the headlights and that is to Freeze. So what happens here is you have no idea what the situation. It'd be like, for me, I've never practiced what I would do if an alien spaceship came in like landed right next to me and was like, Hey, what's going on? Like I would freak out. I'd be frozen. No idea. So that's deer in the headlights. That is freezing.

So you've got Fight, Flight and Freeze. But there is a fourth reaction, and that is to Flow. So that's what I want you to do. How do you Flow through a situation? You practice! If you practice enough and you understand situational awareness, and you understand other people and how to control yourself and other people in all kinds of situations, you're going to be able to Flow through that situation.

The second F is to Fight. And when it comes time to fight, I want you to fight your ass off! That's right. I want you to go for it. You have to go all out when you've decided it is time to fight; it is time to fight, it's not time to go, "Hey, put your dukes up. I'm going to fight you." Why would you tell somebody that you're going to fight them when you decide it's time to fight - and you need to do everything you can to prevail because you've already done everything you could do to Plan and, to Prevent this from ever happening.

You've done your due diligence. But now this situation, this person has pushed you to the point where this is your last option, and it should be your last option, right? I want you to not have to fight. It's not like a pacifist type thing. It's just a smart thing. Unless you're in the UFC and fighting is your job, you should always be looking for ways to not fight but being prepared for when you do.

And then our third F is to Follow up. So like everything I do, I am about teaching and learning and learning from our past mistakes, learning from things we do well; also in how can we get better. So looking in every situation, even if it's a situation that you detect that it's a potentially a threat situation, but it ends up not being, put that into your system here and turn it around a bit and go, why did I think that was going to be a violent encounter? And it ended up not being because every time you go back, whether, whether it ends up being something or not being something you are continuing to learn how you have prevented that violent encounter in the past. How could you have prepared yourself or your family better for that violent encounter? So just remember to always follow up and learn from what you've done in the past.

So that is it. Remember those three F-words for personal protection; Flow through every situation that you're in. Heck, you should be flowing through your entire life! Next up is to Fight. Fight your ass off when it comes time to fight. And then finally Follow up. Learn from your mistakes, learn from your experiences. Whatever you do, always be getting better and improving yourself. That is all I have time for today. Until next time, you guys keep paving your path to perfection.