Former Navy SEAL Clint Emerson, author of 100 Deadly Skills: The SEAL Operative’s Guide to Eluding Pursuers, Evading Capture, and Surviving Any Dangerous Situation, explains what to do if someone tries to mug you and how you can defend yourself if you need to. Following is a transcript of the video.

You always want to keep your eyes on their hands. What their hands are doing, where they’re going, if they’re telegraphing, if they’re communicating that they have something else, whether it be a gun or a knife. If you have something sentimental, give it up. It’s not worth holding on to or risking your life.

If he’s going for a weapon and you can confirm that you should always follow the mantra: run, hide, fight. Run, increase distance from the threat will increase survivability every time. Move away rapidly, if you can’t than fight. The most important thing if you find yourself face-to-face [with] an adversary with a weapon is gaining control of the weapon. As long as that weapon is free you are in danger. So, gain control of the weapon. You try to trap it, you try to strip it, and then immediately start beating the guy with it.

If you’re not comfortable trying to trap and strip a weapon from someone than you want to kind of adapt to your environment, improvise. Maybe you have some things on you that you can then in return use as a weapon, you know. I talk a lot about steel barrel pens and using those as a weapon. Your messenger bag, a purse, whatever you’re carrying can be a weapon. Anything to create enough pain so that you can create distance and get away.

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