Security Focus: Self defence

Sounds like a great pub trick - ejecting an unruly customer with just one finger. But no, it's not by pointing at the door but a genuine self-defence technique that Scottish licensees and their staff are being taught in a new training scheme.

The 'nose hook' exploits a pressure point between the nose and the upper lip to bring a violent troublemaker to their knees in "excruciating pain" promises Alan Bell, an instructor with the Self Defence Federation (UK) who has been called in by East Dunbartonshire PubWatch to teach personal safety and self-defence techniques to licensees, door supervisors and barstaff.

"It works every single time and it's particularly useful for door stewards to know that it doesn't take half-a-dozen of them to get someone under control - just one finger!" he says.

The nose hook is just one part of a programme in which Alan draws on his experience in unarmed combat and skills learned from his military career to show how to deal with a 'street attack'.

The day also includes coaching in self-defence against an assailant armed with a knife - a growing worry among licensees and police alike, Alan says.

"It isn't about making intricate moves to wrest a knife off someone - in fact the first thing we teach is that if someone comes at you with a knife you are almost certainly going to get cut. Then it becomes a matter of making sure that it isn't life-threatening, that you use your body to protect your vital organs.

"It's not the person or the knife that will cause you serious injury, it's the slicing action, so we teach a number of moves that can prevent that action. Quite often a knife is hidden, so we also show how to look for signs that an attacker has one."

And should the worst come to the worst, training includes First Aid skills specifically for knife wounds. The course has had a "very positive" reaction so far, says Alan, who has been coaching people in self-defence for the past 10 years.

"Door security people can see the benefits in needing less manpower and being less physical, and publicans who are concerned about their staff can gain confidence and peace of mind that should there be an incident they know how to step in and deal with it," he says.