The idea is to thread them between your fingers allowing the tips to protrude from between each finger. With the keys wielded as such you are now all Wolverined up and, according to the advice, ready to poke and slash with wild abandon.
Me, personally, I hate this advice-it stinks of theory with no field testing.
First things first, the strategy of the entire thing assumes that the receiver of the wisdom is an intelligent human being who is interested in self-protection and rather than advise this concerned human being to acquire a designated weapon (whether that be a firearm, knife, Taser, pepper spray, tactical flashlight, what have you) the advice-giver skips what should be ideal strategy "Get yourself a self-protection device" and instead goes to the world of improvisation.
We can cut the advice some slack if we assume that the advice is given to someone who is morally opposed to weapons, but this makes no sense. "No, I won't carry a knife or some other device to harm another human being, but I will listen avidly to how to MacGyver my car keys to do the same job less effectively."
Yes, there are times when we do not have designated weapons and we must go improvised (the entire crux of our X-WEAPONS DVD set--see below) with that in mind just how effective tactically is this key advice?
Prep Time Considerations
It takes time to thread keys, might we have located a better improvised weapon?
Tactical Uses
The tactical advice is around 80% slashing and 20% thrusting or poking.
How well does that stand-up?
In my field tests, after the first slashing blows the keys pivot rearward, that is towards the webbing of my fingers-opening up a series of small cuts (this is off blow number one mind you-blows three and four provide more of the same with less bang for my buck as the keys are in poor slashing position and there is little time to re-adjust mid-chaos.
If you have threaded with the serrated edges towards your webbing, all the more woe.
In thrust tests, more of the same. The keys alter position every which way leading to more cuts and, to be frank, hedged use. The last thing you need in survival scenarios is timidity.
In my view it would be better to have a go-to designated weapon, failing that use an alternative thrusting/slashing weapon that can be attached to a key ring (never as a fist load-we'll discuss this in an upcoming Legends).
If you'd rather not jam up your pockets with extra stuff on your key ring (I'm that guy) a ballpoint pen will work just as nicely. (See our video on the subject for details).
Keys as weapons rates an F in my experience, unless you use them as a ballistic weapons class and toss them as a distraction to flight.
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For more details on our X-WEAPON and Self Defense see here.
