[Watch Your Six // Rear-Sector Awareness]
Tradecraft Newsletter
We spend too much time staring at threats in front of us. The attack usually comes from your blindside. That’s where “Watch Your Six” earns its keep.
Tradecraft takeaway: keep rear-sector situational awareness active while moving. Control distance, angles, and your actions. If you can’t predict or outmaneuver the threat, you reduce the angles where they can predict or engage you.
How to apply it today:
Use micro-pauses: quick checks behind you at natural breaks like doorways, crosswalks, aisle turns, elevators, and before entering or exiting your vehicle.
Manage distance: avoid getting boxed in against walls, corners, parked cars, or narrow walkways. Leave yourself enough space to move, pivot, or break contact.
Own the angles: favor routes with reflective surfaces, fewer blind turns, wider sightlines, and clear exits. Good positioning gives you information before it gives the other person opportunity.
Break patterns: don’t move at one constant speed or stay locked on a straight path. Small changes in pace and direction make you harder to read and harder to set up on.
Check your stop points: most people relax when they stop. ATM lines, coffee counters, gas pumps, and building entrances are where awareness usually drops. Those are the moments to scan, not drift.
Keep your hands free: don’t bury both hands in bags, pockets, or your phone. One hand occupied is normal. Both hands occupied is a liability.
Use reflections: windows, mirrors, polished metal, and parked car glass let you check your six without broadcasting it. That’s simple civilian tradecraft and it works.
Respect choke points: stairwells, hallways, checkout lanes, subway doors, and narrow sidewalks limit movement. Notice them early and decide whether to pass through, pause, or reroute.
Protect your reaction space: if someone closes distance for no good reason, adjust early. Step off-line, change pace, or reposition so you’re not giving away your blindside.
Lift your eyes off the screen: the phone strips away rear-sector awareness fast. If you need it, stop in a position you’ve chosen first, then use it.
Track anomalies, not everyone: don’t try to watch the whole world. Watch for the person who matches your movement, appears twice, closes distance awkwardly, or seems more interested in you than in where they’re going.
Pre-plan your exits: whenever you enter a store, parking deck, lobby, or platform, identify at least one primary exit and one alternate. You move better when the decision is already made.
If you want the full guide and drill structure, it’s on RDCTD.
Action: run a 10-minute “six check” walk tonight. Your awareness should feel automatic by the end.
Good stuff. Same action used as determining your status while checking for surveillance. I pay more attention now that I'm at an age where I no longer can move fast or outrun a younger pursuer. At an age where one is more likely to become a target of opportunity because of age and what it says about you depending on how you carry yourself. Many of my friends never consider these things despite what is broadcast on local News even in smaller communities regularly. This is a keeper.