Time to Get Physical

If you are cornered and your body has been threatened, here's how to physically protect yourself...

How many techniques to learn The more self-defense you know, the more tools you have to choose from when being assaulted. However, you don't want so many ideas swarming around in your head, that you can't choose one in time to protect yourself. Read all the techniques below. Understand, practice and review them all. But make sure you also focus on a couple versatile effective techniques so you have them down cold. One of the most versatile techniques covered in this chapter is the eagle claw. When attacked if you don't have time to pick and choose a technique, you can always use the ones you focussed on with impunity.

When to hit

When your assailant starts to swing or kick at you don't wait for it to connect. Don't even wait to block it before you strike. If it looks like it will connect, immediately enter toward your assailant's vulnerable areas and strike. With practice your strikes should be fast enough to hit your assailant before his hits you. The average Joe will probably use a John Wayne movie style punch, which can be seen coming, long before it hits you. As soon as your assailant makes a fist, or pulls back his hand to strike, strike him in the eyes or throat. Don't think about it, and don't wind up. Just do it!

Fight Dirty

Your Nasty Weapons If your life or body is in serious danger, there's no code of honor that you must live by. Your assailant broke the code the moment he attacked you. Parts of your body have evolved to protect you. There's no shame in using them. Nails, teeth, and spit are all fair game. Your finger nails evolved from claws, in order to make the fingers better able for climbing and for using tools, but they are still weapons, especially when used on the vulnerable points, such as the eyes, throat, crotch and areas of loose skin.

What to Hit

(diagram coming soon)
This diagram points out the most vulnerable and effective targets to attack...

  • Knees: Strikes to the knees are effective in crippling an assailant when struck from the side.
  • Eyes: A strike to the eyes can be both painful and can leave your opponents vision impaired.
  • Nose: A strike upward to the nose will also leave your assailant temporarily blind due to excessive tearing.
  • Abdomen: The abdomen is only protected by the abdominal muscles. If your assailant does not have a toned tummy, this might be a good place to attack.
  • Groin: The groin is extremely vulnerable in men to a knee attack and especially vulnerable to squeezing. Squeezing of the testicles causes excruciating pain in men, possibly to the point of unconsciousness. A woman's groin is also susceptible to a knee or kick.
  • Ears and Fingers: The ears and fingers, especially the pinkies are great for pulling, twisting and bending backwards! In addition, the ears are a direct doorway to very sensitive tissue within the inner ear. Quickly slapping them on both sides of the head simultaneously can cause a world of hurt with little exertion. This technique can permanently damage their hearing, so use only when absolutely necessary. Also be careful not to leave yourself open for attack.
  • Loose skin: The loose skin around the love handles, under-arms, lateral biceps, face, or crotch is especially susceptible to the eagle claw technique.

If all this sounds nasty, it is and that's why it works.

How to Hit

Force = Mass x Velocity
If you're velocity (speed) is fast enough you can generate a lot of power regardless of size. A good exercise to build speed and fitness, is to see how many strikes you can release in one minute. (See also Bruce Lee's punching exercise) This can be done using all the different strikes. Certain strikes such as the phoenix eye, don't require a lot of power. They work very effectively as long as you penetrate the vulnerable area. It takes very little force to use the phoenix eye technique to penetrate 1 inch into an eyeball or Adam's apple. Remember when practicing your techniques, that they must not only hit the surface. They must penetrate.

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