Preparedness for when

GreyQueen

Trying to kick or knee a feller in the groin is good in theory but blokes instinctively protect that region and if the guy twists and your knee or foot on lands their thigh muscle instead, you've wasted an opportunity. And since it's a tactic he'll probably be expecting, your chances of getting a strike in are limited. And if the S has really HTF with a violent attacker, there may well not be another opportunity. Once you get clouted around the head, and are dazed, or someone has a choke-hold on you and you're starting to black out (about 6 seconds' oxygen deprivation is all it takes) you're out of time and out of luck.

There are a number of ways to take someone down where age and size are less relevant than you might think; I've seen a lady in her late seventies, with one withered and useless arm, send all-comers flying and young girls can throw a grown man, if they have the training, and keep cool enough to use it. Get some training in self-defence and/ or a martial art, if you think it necessary.

What you don't do with anyone attacking you is get to think you're Tyson (Fury or the original Mike) and start trading blows. Even boxers compete in their own weight classes.

You will probably have only seconds to make the judgement call whether what you are experiencing is intended to be bluster and intimidation, and thus eminently survivable, or whether the other person has selected you to be their victim for serious harm up to, and including, murder.

If you're going to put someone down, you have to be quick and dirty, and be prepared to inflict serious injury which may well have life-changing (or even terminal) consequences on the other party.

Which means very nasty things like eye-gouging, testicle-twisting, finger-breaking, throat-punching, side-of-knee kicking and even bouncing people off nearby walls, pavements, furniture.

Never underestimate the effect of doing something bat$hit crazy, too, like screaming like a banshee and running at the other party, not away from them. No point in running from someone who can move faster than you.

Human beings have an instinctive response to very loud, very sudden noises like a shriek in close proximity; it's about 1-2 seconds of freezing, usually. Which is why martial arts practise an earsplitting yell and why cultures across the planet and across time have war-cries; it freaks people out.

[Deleted User]

I love the idea of a house brick in the handbag!!!

Mojisola

GreyQueen wrote: »

If you're going to put someone down, you have to be quick and dirty, and be prepared to inflict serious injury which may well have life-changing (or even terminal) consequences on the other party.

Which means very nasty things like eye-gouging, testicle-twisting, finger-breaking, throat-punching, side-of-knee kicking and even bouncing people off nearby walls, pavements, furniture.

The advice we were given by a policeman teaching a women's class was to stamp on the ribs if you manage to get an attacker on the ground - very few people can get up and chase you if they have a couple of broken ribs.

calicocat

You can never really be sure about how you will react.

Ihave done some things I wouldn't thought I would. Entered a house following a patient knowing her son had a gun in his hand in there didn't call it in, went in alone. However...it worked.

Found myself at the top of my stairs years ago standing with a 12 bore ready to shoot an intruder...thankfully there wasn't one. (years ago before gun rules changed).

All you can do is go by your gut at the time. If you can, the throat punch is a good one. As GQ says....you need to get down and dirty. Also getting low as I think Greenbeee said is good if you are attacked from behind...go low and turn towards what you think is your best exit.

I was showing my colleges last night my new Gaga weapon....:D. They were all very impressed. You need it in you hand in your pocket though...in your handbag isn't much good. This is why I like to have one hand free as much as I can when going back to my car at night.

nuatha

Carrying anything to use as a weapon which you can't justify for other purposes will lead to trouble with the authorities and may well lead to a person attacking you getting away without conviction or even charge.
Just because it may be legal to sell pepper/mace type sprays, does not mean its legal to carry or use them - though the certainty is that these aren't as effective as the real thing. The handbag sized deodorant sprays are likely to be as effective, or the spectacles cleaner that I carry for its labelled purpose. However, as has already been said, its no use in your handbag or anywhere else its not immediately accessible. I've known a few women who wouldn't need to add a housebrick to a handbag to add to its weight or effectiveness.

Pull, Grab and Twist works and works best on noses, ears and cheeks. Grabbing an arm and trying to pull or twist is likely to back fire, unless you really no what you are doing or are very lucky - luck is a bonus, don't ever count on being lucky in a self defence situation. GreenQueen gives excellent advice, as usual. I'd add that open handed slaps are surprisingly effective in gaining a second or two of surprise, whereas punching someone is likely to hurt you at least as much as the person punched. Striking the bottom of the nose with the heel of the hand is remarkably effective - at the very least the attacker is going to be trying to see through tears, they may well end up with a broken nose, there is also a possibility they end up dead. As Gq said be prepared to be nasty.
Spitting in someone's face is likely to enrage them, not deter them from attacking you and I doubt urinating is likely to be any different.

Learning a form of self defence is very worthwhile, practising one is even better.

I think this discussion came about because of media coverage of events in Cologne, media coverage is often far from accurate about actual causes or for that matter about what actually happened.

nuatha

Speaking of inaccurate media coverage, a number of US power failures have been blamed on cyber terrorism - turns out there's a more mundane cause: http://www.citylab.com/design/2016/01/map-squirrel-cyberattack-power-outage-blackout-terrorism/423648/?utm_source=SFFB
Unless someone has been training suicide squirrels. (Would that be eco-terrorism?)

GreyQueen

There are nerve clusters in the centre of the face, one between upper lip and nose, and one just above the nose. I once landed clumsily in an aikido class and smacked my own knee cap into the nerve cluster below my nose. Painful doesn't begin to cover it, your eyes will tear up no matter how hard you think you are.

A police officer told me once that if they're called to a brawl and want to identify who has been fighting, they look at knuckles for spilts and contusions. He also said it's far more effective to hit someone with the heel of your hand and they can't tell if you've been fighting by looking at your hands. If the angle is right, and the blow is delivered with sufficient force, the heel-of-hand-to-base-of-nose blow can kill by driving a splinter of bone up from the nose and into the brain. Blows to the throat can also prove fatal, whereas blows to the jaw seldom are. A slap flat across the ear, with the fingers held together, will usually rupture someone's eardrum, one with fingers splayed apart won't.

If you have to hit someone with a closed fist, you must always have your thumb outside not inside your fingers, or you will probably break your thumb. With your thumb out of action, you're pretty ineffectual. Practise forming a fist at your leisure, until you instinctively do it thumb-out.

The outside edge of your hand, and the outer edge of your forearm, are very strong, and can deliver potent blows without you sustaining permanant injury. Your elbow is the body part which delivers maximum force per square inch, so you can concentrate a lot of force in a small area and really hurt someone.

I once got away from a violent and abusive drunk who grabbed me by the arm from behind when I was walking alone on a city street. In the dark, about 6 pm on a winter's evening. I knew he was there as he'd crossed the street from the opposite side of the road to harrass me.

He grabbed my left arm (I am right-handed) and I used the momentum of him stopping me dead to swing around and jab him in both eyes with the extended fingers of my right hand. I was released immediately, bad words were uttered, and I ran away. I could move pretty darned fast aged 19, I wouldn't shift like that now. And the adrenaline rush had me with the shakes for the best part of two hours and sleepless the following night.

It's a far far better thing to go through life never having to raise your hand in violence to another human being than it is to have to fight. But unless you're accepting that you will just endure whatever life throws at you, you will probably fight back. It's better to know how to do that effectively than to flail at someone like a windmill.

Oh, and one last thing; if you're knocked down, get up. Always, always get up. My aikido class used to include one of Scotland's procurator fiscals. She was called to murder scenes where the bodies still lay and she told us that once someone is down, instinct in the attacker(s) seems to be to kick them to death. She had seen this many times.

Always try to get back on your feet, even if you're reeling, because if you're down on the ground, you are far too easy to kick and it's very easy to sustain serious injuries such as ruptured internal organs, broken bones and fatal head injuries down there.

Plus, as my sensei pointed out, getting back on your feet really messes with the other guy's head.

ivyleaf

Personally I would have great difficulty getting back up even if I hadn't been attacked :eek:

Frugalsod

nuatha wrote: »

Learning a form of self defence is very worthwhile, practising one is even better.

I think this discussion came about because of media coverage of events in Cologne, media coverage is often far from accurate about actual causes or for that matter about what actually happened.

I also think that the risks are overblown, but preparation is better than having to really use it. The better safe than sorry applies but I doubt that it will ever be needed.

GreyQueen

ivyleaf wrote: »

Personally I would have great difficulty getting back up even if I hadn't been attacked :eek:

You would surprise yourself at what you can do if pumped on adrenaline. I once leapt three foot vertically from a hole in a bog which was filled with freezing cold peaty water; I'd stood on what looked like solid ground which gave way under me. With a 40 lb pack on. Just bounced up by disgusted reflex. If I'd stopped to think about it, I would have really struggled to extricate myself. Which would have been fun as I was up a mountain at the time.

As if was, it was a disgusted relflexive Yuck!! and I literally bounced back out again without thinking about the mechanics of it.:rotfl:

Smallish women, even girls, can and do deadlift cars. A US teen was honoured in the past week for rescuing her Dad by lifting a car off him. If she'd stopped to think about it first, she would have 'known' that was impossible.