The Walking Dead is an American post-apocalyptic horror television series which features a large ensemble cast as survivors of a zombie apocalypse trying to stay alive under near-constant threat of attacks from zombies known as "walkers" (among other nicknames). With the collapse of modern civilisation, these survivors must confront other human survivors who have formed groups and communities with their own sets of laws and morals, sometimes leading to open, hostile conflict between them.
In the series, the zombies shamble towards living humans and other creatures to eat them; they are attracted to noise, such as gunshots, and to different scents, e.g. humans. The only way to permanently kill a walker is to damage its brain or destroy the body entirely, such as by cremating it.
The Walking Dead is now the most-watched series episode in cable history. It is fiction at its best, but here are five real-life self defence lessons we can learn from The Walking Dead.
1. BE A HEAD HUNTER
In the show, you had to attack the zombies head or else they wouldn't stop coming at you. Similarly, in real life, the head is your best target for self defence. If you are a victim to assault or violence, always go for areas of the head and face, such as the nose, eyes, chin and jaw.
2. FINISH THE JOB
There are so many instances in the show where someone would throw a zombie to the ground and then turn around and start crying or having a conversation, and then the zombie would just get back up and eat them. In real life, you need to finish the job. If someone is trying to do you harm, don't just punch them once and then stop to see what they do next. You need to keep throwing punches and kicks until they no longer represent a threat to you. Then escape the situation as quickly as possible by running away and finding safety.
3. THERE'S SAFETY IN NUMBERS
Anytime someone ventured out by himself or herself, they usually end up as zombie lunch. In the real world, particularly if you're a woman, you're far safer if you're with somebody else. So if you have any opportunity to bring a friend along with you when you go for a hike in the forest, when you go for your morning jog, or when you're heading home from a club late at night, please bring someone with you. It makes it that much harder for someone to target you.
4. USE A WEAPON
In the show, you really needed to use a weapon to stop the zombies as bare hands were pretty ineffective. It's largely the same in real life unless you're really talented as a fighter. Any time you can use a weapon against an attacker, whether it's a tactical weapon or even something you just grab from your environment (like a brick, a rock, a stick, a bottle or even your mobile phone), anything at all is better than using your bare hands.
5. FIND YOUR INNER BADASS
You need to have a little piece of you that's capable of inflicting harm on someone if they're trying to hurt you. So if someone is trying to pick a fight with you and you can't go away, you need to be able to flip a switch and access that part of you that's willing and able to hurt them so that you can get away safely.
We hope you found these lessons useful, because a zombie apocalypse may be far-fetched, but a self defence situation most certainly is not. And one hurt person is one too many.
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