What I learned from SEAL training was “Violence of Action” means
the unrestricted use of speed, strength, surprise and aggression to
achieve total dominance against your enemy. The way they win battles
is they just overwhelm the enemy so they don’t want to be there
anymore. If you don’t adopt this concept in your fighting mentality
and truly and totally commit to violence of action you may not end up
on top at the end of the encounter.
Don’t
be afraid to hit first, and when you do, hit hard. If your verbal
judo tells you this is your best and only option. Pull the trigger
because you are in a battle! Your instincts, assessment and
situational awareness have told you that you are in danger. You don’t
know the other person’s intentions fully, and you never can. What you
can do is survive – it is your right to not be killed or harmed
by another person. As with most anything survival-related,
fighting has its own set of priorities that need to be addressed at
lightning speed. Here are the main steps.
1. Protect your
face. Keep your hands up. A shot to the forearm is a lot better than
one to the side of the head. There is a reason why this is first in
survival because you can’t think if you are dazed by a barrage of
punches.
2. Stay on your
feet and keep moving. Two layers of protection are
blocking/deflecting and moving. Both need to break down for you to
get hit. Don’t put your feet close together. Maintain a good base
in which to move in different directions.
3. Make your
shots count. Hit hard but hit accurately. Power without accuracy is
going to sap your energy. You won’t know how long this fight is
going to last, so you better save a little in the tank.
4. Escape. My
very first Master Chief told me that if I get in a bar fight, I
better not get caught. The consequences will be undesirable. Don’t
wait around. His friends might be just around the corner and what was
once 1 vs 1 may now be 1 vs 3 or more.
Hit Accurately
Again, back to
violence of action: Make every blow count and you could walk away;
otherwise, you may be carried away. Punch, kick, elbow, gouge, bite,
stab, rip, crush — you name it, you should do it, because this
person is trying to take your life. The only rule in fighting is to
live.
Vulnerable points
exist all over the body, but remember that the greatest number of
them exist from the collarbones up. Within this relatively small area
of the neck you have:
• Two carotid
arteries that feed blood to the brain.
• The windpipe,
which is the airway for breathing.
• The spinal
cord, which controls all motor skills for the body.
Your attacker may
be three times your size, but if you take away even one of these
functions, the fight is over. Even a 250-pound man made of
solid muscle will stop fighting if he can’t breathe, which is why you
must concentrate the full force of your attack on the face and neck
area.
Punches
Make a fist and
deliver a punch so you are ideally striking with the knuckles of the
index and middle finger and punching through your target, as
if you were trying to reach a place a few inches behind where you’re
aiming. Then immediately return the hand to the defensive position by
your face. You will increase the power of a punch by twisting your
midsection in conjunction with the blow.
Jab: This is a
punch thrown straight out, using your fist on your lead-leg side;
it’s not the most powerful but is great for maintaining distance.
Cross: A punch
straight in from opposite the lead leg — very powerful.
Hook: An outward
arcing punch delivered by either fist — great for targeting the ear
or jaw.
Uppercut: An
upward arcing punch delivered by either fist — great for targeting
the chin, and the best for lights-out!
Palm Strike
In addition to
the above punches, your hands can also be very effective when clawing
or jabbing with fingers, and an open palm strike can be devastating.
The palm of the hand contains one of the densest bones in the body.
1. Open your palm
and cock your arm back, just as you would for a jab punch.
2. Strike
directly at the front of the nose and aim upward. A nose broken this
way is much more painful than one that’s been hit from the side, and
it will take the fight out of nearly anyone.
Chokeholds
The rear
chokehold method (a.k.a. the lion killer) is a compression grip
applied to the throat to disrupt circulation (carotid arteries) and
breathing (windpipe), which ultimately causes the person to lose
consciousness.
1. It is best
applied from behind the attacker by wrapping your left arm around the
person’s throat, with his windpipe in the crook of your arm, and your
bicep and forearm on each side of his neck. The positioning of your
arm is the key to this technique, so remember, the deeper you can get
his throat between your bicep and forearm, the better.
2. Keep your
right arm behind his neck and grab your left shoulder.
3. Then with your
left arm, reach to grab your right arm’s bicep, squeezing tightly,
making a full lock, or chokehold.
An alternate
method is called the front chokehold, which works when you are facing
your attacker.
1. With your
right hand, reach across and literally grab the opposite corner of
his shirt collar, not the person. You will have greater control over
your adversary this way.
2. With your left
hand, reach and grip the attacker’s collar on the opposite side. This
will make your crossed arms an X in front of his throat.
3. Grip as tight
as you can while rotating your hands forcefully inward to achieve the
chokehold. You are twisting the opposite shirt collars as if you were
squeezing and wringing out a rag.
Fighting an
Assailant who has a Gun or Knife
If your assailant
has a weapon, then your choices in defense will change. Disarming a
person with a gun is incredibly risky. It takes a second to pull the
trigger, so the best option might be to comply and wait for an
opportunity to attack. However, if you are close enough and the
situation necessitates you attack, your goal would be to use maximum
effort and attack the weapon with the full intention to deflect his
aim. Trying to wrestle the weapon from his grip is less likely to
work than pushing his hand away, be it up, to the side or downward.
At this point,
you may get the opportunity to strike at vulnerable areas and disable
the attacker enough to get off the “X.” If the person has a
knife, again, keeping your distance is the goal. Use your shirt, coat
or whatever you can find to deflect his thrusting arm, which then
could provide an opportunity to use defensive tactics.
Escape
Although this is
the last step, avoiding fights altogether needs to be your first
priority. Get off the “X” and save your fighting techniques for
the gym. But you might need to strike first and hard to have the
chance to get away. Don’t stay engaged if you can escape. The moment
you have an opening, take it and leave the scene, because fights can
change instantly and drastically.
We hope these
tips will be helpful if you, unfortunately, find yourself being
attacked. To be more confident with these moves and more aware of the
best ways to defend yourself, consider signing up for some of our
classes. Give us a call at 757-558-9869 or contact
us to learn more.