To overcome bigger and stronger people
in a Self Defense situation, you have to bring as many advantages back
in your favor as you possibly can. Targeting weak and sensitive areas is one of the methods that makes this possible.

The human body is full of weak and sensitive areas. The two areas of the body considered as Primary Targets are the eyes and the throat. It does not take a genius to work out why either.

Without his eyes, that attacker cannot see and therefore cannot fight. Without his throat intact, the attacker cannot breathe and therefore cannot fight. It does not take much of a strike to seriously injure a persons eyes, it does not take much to seriously injure a persons throat.

In a life threatening situation, you must do whatever it takes to preserve your life. Do not let some ruthless thug, deny you the right to life, to seeing your children or other family members again. You are going home and this person is not going to stand in your way.

That being said, the situation must be serious to justify striking to the eyes or throat of another person. If you feel that your life is in danger then you can do whatever it takes in order to defend yourself and preserve your own life.

Strikes from close quarters and from a submissive stance are highly likely to reach their intended target. As the Primary targets are so sensitive, even light or partially stopped strikes will be effective. Strikes to these areas will at minimum create an opportunity to put some distance between you and the attacker.

There are so many other effective targets on the body and so many ways that you can strike them that you do not have to concentrate only on the eyes and throat, you have to take whatever target is exposed to you at a moment in time, in a given situation. Initiating your strikes with your closest tool will open up other targets. When I refer to tools, it is simply different parts of your body that you can use to strike with.

Just think about some of the other targets available to you on an attacker’s body. Let’s keep the terminology non-technical too. There is the nose, sides of neck, mid chest, ribs, groin, inner thigh, outer thigh, knees, shins and insteps as a good starting point.

There are just so many tools on your body and different ways that you can use them for very effective striking. Fingers, open hand, clenched fist, side of fist, side of hand, forearm, elbow, head, knees, shins, instep and heel.

Look to inflict pain, as much as possible quickly. Think of the way that a cat would fight a dog, sticking to its head, swiping, scratching, biting, hissing, spitting and screaming.

If someone is low enough to attack you, let them start worrying about whether they are going to see again, what they will look like with a chunk bitten out of their nose, what they will look like with an ear missing or chunks of hair torn out, even all of the above. All of a sudden they are more worried about protecting themselves than whatever they were intending to do to you.

Concentrate on all of these things that you would do to the attacker and not so much about what he might do to you.

An attacker, especially in the case of a sexual attacker, does not want to get hurt or caught so if you can show in the first few seconds that you are full of fight. It is very likely that they will abort their attack.

By Malcolm Bale - 2nd Degree Black Belt in Jiu-Jitsu

Fightwize Self Defense run classes and courses for Men, Women and Children. Learn Escape Techniques, Targeting and Striking, Ground Defense, Keychain Defense, Take Downs and Hold Downs.

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