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7 Simple Self-Defense Tricks [I thought what with the RAT convention coming up...]
Life Hackery.com ^

Posted on 08/14/2008 8:03:03 AM PDT by yankeedame

7 Simple Self-Defense Tricks

All of us want to learn kung fu. Who doesn’t want to kick like Chuck Norris and use nunchakus like Bruce Lee? Unfortunately, many of us are too busy to attend martial arts training sessions. You can buy a “how to” book of martial arts, but they usually have complicated instructions that you will likely forget during an actual attack. What you need are simple techniques that you can easily use during a fight.

1. To Survive, Accept the Fact That You May Die

Here’s a fact that is useful to remember when someone attacks you: you may get killed and panicking doesn’t reduce your chances of getting killed. Accept this fact because it should help you concentrate despite the surge of fear. Many people fear for their lives too much in dangerous situations, that they ultimately fail to save their lives. Rather than vehemently denying and fearing the fact that you could die, accept it. This is the only way to get it out of your mind and think of options before you – options that can save your life.

2. Attack When You’re Being Attacked

Your instincts are made to protect you. There is one instinct though that will most likely lead to your destruction when your attacker is near you: running away. Sure running away helps, but only when your attacker is a good distance away. Rather than retreating, advance. In a typical scenario where your attacker is the one who feels he is the predator and you’re the prey, he doesn’t expect you to fight back at all. If you react quick enough, you’ll be able to surprise him and open up opportunities to deliver damage.

3. Kick Only When Necessary

Here’s a tip direct from the dragon himself, Bruce Lee. Kicking is effective only at the right distance. Make sure that your attacker can be reached by your kick before you kick him. Also, always bring your hips with you when you kick. Kicking with your leg alone is not that powerful. According to Lee, it’s also very effective to target the body part that’s nearest to you. Remember that when your attacker gets close to you, he’s not only increasing his chance of hurting you, he’s also increasing his chance of hurting himself. If your attacker steps in your range, kick his body part that’s closest to you (usually his knees).

4. Use Your Head… Literally

Do you know that bashing your forehead into a thug’s nose once deals more damage than slamming your fist into his nose twice? The human skull is a powerful weapon. Notice that in boxing, a single headbutt is enough to open a cut in a boxer’s forehead than a flurry of punches. Your skull is hard and it’s also easy to move your head. By using your head, you can deal significant damage to your attacker using minimal effort. Headbutts are especially useful when someone grabs you from behind. Don’t waste your time and energy elbowing your attacker’s ribs or stepping on his toes. Instead, try bashing his face with the back of your head.

5. The Triangle Trick

Keep in mind that you don’t have to get hit during a fight. Imagine a vertical line dividing your body into two. Your attacker is going to attack some point along or around that line. Moving in a straight line forward or backward will change your distance from the attacker, but it doesn’t get your centerline out of the attack path. On the other hand, moving laterally left or right moves your centerline but it doesn’t change the distance between you and your attacker. The trick is to move along a triangle to change both the location of your centerline and your distance at the same time.

6. Everything Can Be a Weapon

Guns, knives, and pepper sprays are not the only weapons available to you. Anything harder than your knuckles and sharper than your fingers is a good weapon. That’s why it’s advisable to always carry something that can serve as a weapon, like an umbrella or a pen. Stones on the ground are also useful, especially if the aggressor is a good distance away. The one rule you should remember is that hard objects should be smashed against bone, while pointed objects stabbed into soft tissue.

7. Aim for All Those Weak Spots

Yes, just like the big boss in any video game, your attacker is full of weak spots however fearsome he might seem. Aim for the following body parts during a fight: eyes, nose, ears, throat, kneecaps, and groin. The groin is the most effective to hit because it sticks out, it’s at the center, and it’s very painful when hit.

Master all these tricks and you can pass up on those judo lessons your friend recommends to you. Always remember that you’re not a passive target, and you’re equally dangerous as your attacker.


TOPICS: Education; Miscellaneous; Reference
KEYWORDS: bang; banglist; selfdefense
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To: BenLurkin

Even if they are bent over or on their knees?


41 posted on 08/14/2008 2:47:34 PM PDT by B4Ranch (Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you---John Steinbeck)
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To: yankeedame
Foot stomp.

Eye gouge

Knee kick

throat chop

windpipe squeeze

Vulcan death grip

Cloak of invisibility

heel of hand upwards on nose

HK USP 9mm

etc.

/h

42 posted on 08/14/2008 4:05:21 PM PDT by IllumiNaughtyByNature (I walk into a Chinese restaurant, the chef asks me "Can you smell what the woks been cooking?")
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To: Cletus.D.Yokel

Women should not plan to defend themselves against a guy by kicking him in the groin. Any guy learns early to protect his groin. I would assume rapists are especially practiced.

The big problem is the very idea of “self-defense.” Women tend to think of this as resisting whatever the attacker is trying to do. Pulling away from a larger, stronger person just doesn’t work. All it does it exhaust you while probably turning him on.

However, a smaller, weaker person can do a lot of damage if focused on throat, eyes, nose, groin, etc. Effectively attacking these requires getting in close. IOW, attacking rather than resisting. All out vicious attack by a smaller, weaker person may take the guy down. A small concealed weapon such as a screwdriver, pen, etc. can be a huge help. A pencil 4” into an eyeball will take just about anybody out of the fight.

Surprise is the key. If he knows you have a weapon of some type, he’ll likely take it away from you. Don’t let him know until he feels the point entering his eye.

He expects resistance, he doesn’t expect a counter-attack. Feigning terror and submission is an excellent tactic. It flatters his ego and encourages him to under-estimate the opposition, the most effective way ever discovered of losing a fight.


43 posted on 08/14/2008 6:07:13 PM PDT by Sherman Logan (qui)
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To: Sherman Logan

bttt


44 posted on 08/14/2008 6:08:42 PM PDT by ConservativeMan55 (Obama is the Democrats guy. They bought the ticket, now they must take the ride.)
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To: IllumiNaughtyByNature

Wedgie.


45 posted on 08/14/2008 8:08:05 PM PDT by Grizzled Bear ("Does not play well with others.")
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To: Noumenon; archy
Since I live in a State which has made CC of a loaded firearm a criminal offense, I've been forced to carry an unloaded one in a case on my person when dressed casually.

Now since I can't dress casually for work, I've resorted to several other methods of secreting inobvious weapons on my person.

A ballpoint pen can do a hell of a lot of damage if it's jammed vigorously into someones chest, throat, or arm and then dragged long ways along a major muscle group.

A sharpened pencil will give one very painful wound in a sensitive area (think cheek, eye socket, inner thigh) before it breaks.

Mrs. L has made quite the hobby of doing her own artificial nails as well. They're quite lovely, but they're also reinforced with 2 layers of fiberglass and will quite handily do some serious damage without breaking.

Of course I've always felt that the very best method of self defense was to avoid potentially dangerous situations all together. This means what pilots call 'situational awareness'. I call it 'don't be f****** stupid'. Keep your eyes open. If a situation doesn't feel right, it most likely isn't.

Anywhere you go, make sure you've got an escape route.

Don't walk into a place you don't know how you'll walk out of.

Never escalate a bad situation.

Walk away from trouble whenever possible.

Run away if necessary.

Apologize, even if you're not in the wrong if it'll defuse a bad situation.

I'd rather walk away from a potential 'fight' situation and let some mouth breathing low life think I'm a wimp than risk a serious confrontation where one of the both of us will end up with serious physical damage.

That's NOT to say I won't fight to defend myself, my loved ones, or a complete stranger if they're in real danger of imminent death or grave physical harm.

I will. And woe to the SOB who thinks I'll be some easy mark. Chances are he'll find himself on his back bleeding seriously thinking to himself "how the **** did he DO that?"

What I mean is the most effective weapon one has is ones mind. Use that effectively and chances are you'll never find yourself in a situation which requires physical violence. And if you do, you'll be prepared to react appropriately; with exreme violence applied very quickly without mercy or remorse.

L

46 posted on 08/14/2008 8:32:36 PM PDT by Lurker (Islam is an insane death cult. Any other aspects are PR to get them within throat-cutting range.)
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To: Lurker
I call it 'don't be f****** stupid'

Ah, the wisdom of the ancients. Still good today. As much as I admire the craftsmanship and engineering that goes into a firearm, The reality is that they do tend to be noisy and messy. As others have pointed out, everything is a weapon, including the dirt on the ground. We were taught to use what's handy, and that's a damn good strategy. Mrs. L has got the right mindset, for sure. It's worth noting that no one seems to find a pocket-clip screwdriver particularly alarming, either - there's a certain nerdiness factor that can throw someone off and buy a few seconds.

But there's a certain economy that comes along with a well-handled knife. It's easier to conceal a blade than it is a pistol. And you can do some big damage fast. A quick slice across the forehead serves as a pretty decent distraction, especially if you keep the stroke going to take off a portion of one your opponents' ears. The basic principle is to give them something else to think about if you're not goig to kill them straightaway.

Our instructor once remarked that a knife is like a paintbrush, and that you must learn to be an artist of pain.

47 posted on 08/14/2008 8:52:51 PM PDT by Noumenon (Time for Atlas to shrug - and pick up a gun.)
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To: Lurker

The whole situational awareness thing is something that most people just don’t get. For example, I just can’t fathom why someone would want to shut down their senses with those damn iPod things. That’s just plain stupid.

Trouble can come from anywhere at any time. That’s just the nature of the world. People who think that they’re entitled to live in a perpetual DisneyLand where nothing ever goes wrong are fools. They die like sheep.


48 posted on 08/14/2008 8:58:59 PM PDT by Noumenon (Time for Atlas to shrug - and pick up a gun.)
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To: Noumenon
I just can’t fathom why someone would want to shut down their senses with those damn iPod things.

Mrs. L has one, and she loves it. Of course she doesn't wear it. She's got one of those little dock things that sits on her desk and another one for her car.

As a storage medium they're great. But I agree. Plugging one directly into your brain while you're in public where pretty much anything can happen is just plain stupid.

L

49 posted on 08/14/2008 9:11:06 PM PDT by Lurker (Islam is an insane death cult. Any other aspects are PR to get them within throat-cutting range.)
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To: yankeedame

Here’s my two cents worth of hand-to-hand tactics:

Hit your opponent with the following bodyparts:

heel, outside edge of feet, knee, elbow, heel of palm, foreknuckles (curl fingers down to top of palm and hold thumb tightly against index finger), hammerfist (hard flesh on pinky-side of fist), and knuckle-side of fist (vertical or horizontal).

Hit your opponent in the following areas:

eye, temple, throat (larynx and carotid/jugular), groin, knee instep.

Grabbing hair or clothes to hold the attacker where you want him while striking targets at your discretion is good. Don’t collapse his larynx, gouge his eyes, and stomp on his genitals if you aren’t sure you want to kill him. Smashing his knee with your heel is a good way to disable him so you can run away.

Remember, an amateur doesn’t have to learn a hundred moves and counter-moves to win a fight. All you have to do is react quickly, strike with power, and use the hard part of your body to hurt the vulnerable parts of theirs’.


50 posted on 08/15/2008 12:17:18 AM PDT by Tublecane
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To: yankeedame

Oh, and if you encounter a knife or gun, RUN AWAY!


51 posted on 08/15/2008 12:20:23 AM PDT by Tublecane
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To: Lurker
Now since I can't dress casually for work, I've resorted to several other methods of secreting inobvious weapons on my person.

A ballpoint pen can do a hell of a lot of damage if it's jammed vigorously into someones chest, throat, or arm and then dragged long ways along a major muscle group.

Particularly if it's a pen intended for that sort of self defence work. Cold Steel's *Sharkie* felt-tip pen is designed for just that sort of work, and is constructed of particularly thick and strong plastic, allowing its use as a *kubotan* impact weapoin against nerve clusters or soft tissue centers like the eyes or throat.

A sharpened pencil will give one very painful wound in a sensitive area (think cheek, eye socket, inner thigh) before it breaks.

There was an incident in the late 1960s in which three of New York's dumbest crooks tried to mug a visitor just out of the airport from his overseas fight. When the yobs demanded his money, the old man not only went at them with a pencil in either hand, but laughed at them, and yelled *a curse in German* according to bystanders, before the fur started flying.

The result, when it was over: two attackers dead, one with a pencil through his carotid and the other having suddenly acquired a knife shortly after it had been dropped by his partner who had no further use for it or anything else of this world. The third was badly injured, having suffered a skewering of his right arm by the second pencil, which had entered from his armpit and not-quite exited through the top of his shoulder, just missing the subclavian artery.

Oh, the *curse* shouted by der alte before the old wolf sprung on the vicious attacking rabbits? dummer Junge, [stupid kid*], the traditional formal insult given to an opponent in German , not to actually infringe honour but was just seen as a challenge for fencing in the German mensur sabre duels. But the old fella's technique was nothing of refined traditional student duels, but of the Dolchfechten knife and dagger techniques that the old Kraut was en route to Ft Bragg to pass on to American Special Forces personnel at Smoke Bomb Hill. Hey, when you can get a Grand Master of the Brotherhood of St. Mark's school of fencing Deutsche Fechtschule to teach knife work, some lucky sergeant instructopr gets to take the day off.

Anywhere you go, make sure you've got an escape route.

Excellent advise also for situations aside from those in which contact with human or other predators might be involved, to include fire, earthquake, blizzard flood and numerous other natural disasters.

52 posted on 08/15/2008 6:16:01 AM PDT by archy (Et Thybrim multo spumantem sanguine cerno. [from Virgil's *Aeneid*.])
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To: Domandred
But how to they fix those to the rifles?

I'm not kidding about this: One of the prpoblems the British Army has had with Gurkhas during combat assaults is a tendency for them to sometimes drop their rifles and run forward for the opportunity for them to close with the enemy and use their khukuris.

There does not seem to have ever been an instance in which the defending hostiles thought this was pretty funny or gave a sigh of relief at being attacked by the little guys with *only* their large knives. There have been several events in which everyone in the overrun positions was killed, to the last man, and frequently beheaded.

AYO GHORKHALI!


53 posted on 08/15/2008 6:32:56 AM PDT by archy (Et Thybrim multo spumantem sanguine cerno. [from Virgil's *Aeneid*.])
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To: B4Ranch
If you were to attack me when I am in the shower, ie., unarmed,

My opening move would be to flush the crapper! When the scalding water hits you your mine!

Just kidding...

Regards,
GtG

54 posted on 08/17/2008 3:29:51 PM PDT by Gandalf_The_Gray (I live in my own little world, I like it 'cuz they know me here.)
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To: Gandalf_The_Gray

Don’t mess up and let me get a hand into the towel drawer. ;>)


55 posted on 08/17/2008 4:41:58 PM PDT by B4Ranch ("Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you"--John Steinbeck)
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To: archy

“...There was an incident in the late 1960s ...
..., but of the Dolchfechten knife and dagger techniques that the old Kraut was en route to Ft Bragg to pass on to American Special Forces personnel at Smoke Bomb Hill. ...”

LOL!!! I LOVE this.

I remember a story about some punks attacking a guy in L.A. (I’m old and likely misremember details) Turns out the guy was either a kickboxing champion or a wrestling champion, but YOURS tops them all.

Truth be told, I laughed in the privacy of my home office while everyone else is asleep.

Good night all


56 posted on 08/20/2008 1:10:20 AM PDT by Weya (Barack Hussein Obama hates the United States of America. No question about it.)
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To: Gandalf_The_Gray; B4Ranch
If you were to attack me when I am in the shower, ie., unarmed,

My opening move would be to flush the crapper! When the scalding water hits you your mine!

A retired cop pal whose work in internal affairs investigations left him with few friends either on or outside the force figures himself to be pretty much on his own in the event of a housebreaker or personal attack. And his tastes developed after thirty years of cop work and a couple of tours with the Second Infantry in Korea tend more toward well-used and cared for blued handguns that show the honest wear of their service rather than stainless- with one notable exception:

The 3-inch barrelled Stainless M66 .357 Magnum that was his usual carry gun as a detective, one of the first 300 from the S&W production line when the short-barrelled round butt M66 became available, hangs beneath a towel inside his shower stall.

"I sorta hate to be without a gun, no matter where I am..." sayeth the survivor of four gunfights, one with a *fellow* cop about to be arrested on felony narcotics charges. Habitual attitudes like that are what kept him alive during some harsh situations, and others that were not as threatening because he knew that he could deal with them as they unfolded.

57 posted on 08/20/2008 6:07:28 AM PDT by archy (Et Thybrim multo spumantem sanguine cerno. [from Virgil's *Aeneid*.])
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To: archy

There’s only so much a guy can do to protect himself and the family. I don’t think this retired IA cop could protect himself from someone with the skills of a military sniper or even a qualified deer hunter who is comfortable with 400 yard shots.

Hopefully I haven’t made enemies with anyone where I would have that concern. I figure the largest threat to us would be a home invasion. For that situation, I am protected.


58 posted on 08/20/2008 6:44:11 AM PDT by B4Ranch ("Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you"--John Steinbeck)
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