How do you hold your keys?

People have heard the safety tip that when walking to your car, you should carry your keys between your fingers. So if someone were to attack you, then you can punch them with the keys, which would do more damage than with just a clenched fist. I agree, however, I also see a lot of people holding the keys in a way that would injure the person holding the keys! Believe it or not there is a wrong way to hold your keys when you are intending to strike someone with them. Pictured here is the wrong way and the correct way.

WRONG! If you hold the keys so that they are between your fingers (index/middle, middle/ring, or ring/pinky), when you actually hit someone or something you will immediately know why that is the WRONG way to hold them. What the keys will do is compress, pinching your skin. Or if the attacker grabs your hand with the keys being held this way, the keys will become embedded in your hand!

RIGHT! Decide ahead or time what your biggest and strongest key is. Using your thumb, hold that key against your index finger. Now, when you strike someone or something, you will have control over the key and it will not move. Try it for yourself! Be sure to do this lightly at first so you do not hurt your fingers. It is important for you to experience what this feels like before you actually need it because then you will not be surprised by what it feels like in an encounter.

If someone is actually attacking you the best thing to do is to go for the eyes, blind the person. You have to decide if it is the best thing morally/legally/ethically for you to do. It is not an easy thing to figure out in a about a second! Another thing you can do with keys is if you have multiple key chains. Hold one end of the set in your hand and swing them at an attackers face. What you're aiming for is, again, their eyes. Anything less will just annoy someone. People are very defensive about their eyes. If you make them water by scraping them, you'll have an opportunity to get away, which is the ultimate goal.