The art of being discreet, tactile, and stealthy isn’t simple. You have to know what’s going on around you at all times whilst maintaining a low-profile; and refrain from drawing any attention to yourself.
If you’re someone who is stealthy, you are known to keep under-the-radar and out of other people’s eyes, and can sneak in and out of places with ease. Although you may not have thought that being stealthy is useful, you’d be surprised, as there will be many situations throughout your life where you need to keep quiet and out of sight, whether it be for your career or safety out on the streets.
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How To Be Stealthy
Here are some of the most important things to consider if you want to learn to be more stealthy.
Moving Silently
The most important aspect to being stealthy is having the ability to move silently. If you’re one of those people who is loud footed, you are most likely going to have a problem with this at first.
If you’re using stealthiness to sneak past someone out on the streets or are trying to avoid somebody you know, you must avoid stomping on the ground. You must remember that the art of moving silently is not easy whatsoever. Look at the way a cat moves, every single footstep and landing is calm and calculated as they use their body precisely to avoid making noise. Practice tiptoeing around your home and listen to the amount of noise you create; if you can sneak past your friends and family without them knowing, you must be pretty good! Test yourself, you may find yourself being pretty good at moving silently without even realizing.
You can also master the technique of fox walking to massively minimize the noise produced from walking.
Controlling Breathing
Having the ability to control your breathing can be tough, especially in the most dangerous of situations. Danger heightens the senses, meaning that your heart rate will increase and with that your breathing as well. You must master the ability to try and keep calm in situations like this and breathe through your nose to create less noise.
By controlling your breathing it will mean that less noise will be produced from your mouth and people close by will not be able to hear of your whereabouts. In the military, for example, snipers must master the art of their breathing to take a shot. By controlling their breathing, they are increasing their efficiency and focus.
Consider Your Clothing And Accessories
If you’re out in the open and are wanting to be stealthy, you must consider your clothing before you leave home. If you’re a fan of wearing jewelry, you have to consider the fact that they cause a lot of noise with sudden movement. If you have to quickly bail somewhere, be aware that your necklaces and chains may create a lot of noise and provide insight as to where you may be.
Master Whispering
If you are with a friend or work colleague and need to be silent and stealthy, you must master the art of whispering. Sometimes, whispering can actually be just as loud as talking due to sibilance, meaning that it is much more noticeable to human senses. If you want to be good at whispering you must be as close to your partner/friend as possible and whisper silently right up to their ear.
According to explainthatstuff.com, you may find that you can surprisingly hear somebody’s whisper from a further distance and this is because if the whisper is loud enough, the sound wave can bounce off of another object and then be picked up through your hearing; so whispering quietly is off mass importance if you want to be stealthy.
If you are forced to speak, you may want to learn how to disguise your voice.
Accessing Routes
If you’re at home and are a teenager who has just snook home from a party and don’t want to wake your parents, you must remember to avoid making any noise on your commute back to your room. You may have creaky floorboards within your home that you know your parents will hear if you step on them. To avoid the creaks in floorboards, make sure to keep towards the wall as there is less of a chance of the floor creaking, and be sure to keep on your tip-toes whilst walking. Walking barefoot will also reduce the noise emitted from walking. This is also handy if you want to sneak someone into your house.
Also, if you know that you need to be stealthy and silent before entering somewhere, you must make sure to access your surroundings and think about the best route to avoid making noise.
Master The Ability Of Hiding
If you simply want to hide from your friends and family to scare them at home, you must have great awareness and be good at keeping quiet. First off, you need a good hiding spot to do so and you must also make sure to not make any noise whilst you are there. If you are hiding in a wardrobe to startle your friends, you must refrain from laughing or making any sudden movements to avoid making noise in your hiding spot.
Become One With Darkness
Those who are stealthy must become one with the darkness. I know this sounds like it’s from a sci-fi movie but you must keep in the dark if you want to remain stealthy. Walking in shadows and out of the light might make you feel like a vampire, but in turn will make you more unrecognizable if you were to be spotted.
Swimming
Remaining underwater is the best possible way to remain stealthy whilst in water, but you must remember that when you come to the surface you cannot just spring out due to the splashes caused by rising to the surface. You must slowly come out of the water and control your breathing at all times.
Why Might You Need To Be Stealthy?
As I mentioned before, being stealthy comes with a variety of different benefits and can aid you in many different situations. Below are some examples, where being stealthy will benefit you.
Military
If you know anybody in the military or special forces, you will know that they have attended years worth of training to become an elite soldier. Each soldier has to master the art of being stealthy to avoid bringing attention to themselves and to their team, meaning that they have a greater chance of avoiding danger in the most uncertain of situations.
Keeping Safe On The Streets
If you live in a fairly rough area where crime is common you might want to use stealth to your advantage to avoid these dangerous situations. If there is a group of people who you are scared of and you want to keep away from, taking safer and quieter routes is a must.
Avoiding Parents
If you’re a teenager or kid who wants to try their best to avoid their parents at all times, being stealthy is a great way to avoid them. If you want to sneak out of your house to attend your friend’s party for example, being stealthy is a skill that you must adopt.
Scaring Your Friends
Being stealthy can be fun, especially if you are using it to scare your friends. If you can keep quiet around them, the element of stealth will make that jumpscare all the better.
Related post – how to sneak up on someone
Martial Arts
Some martial arts like ninjutsu are based around the whole idea of stealth. Practitioners of the martial art adopt the techniques of the famous Ninjas, who mastered their movements to inflict surprise attacks and counter those who are attacking them.
Avoiding Dangerous Animals
If you live in the wilderness and are surrounded by dangerous animals like wild bears and lions, you must master the art of stealthiness as a means of surviving the scariest of situations. Running away like a headless chicken will most likely increase the chances of you being attacked by a wild animal.
