By Bradley J. Steiner, American Combato
While it is not unheard of for a woman or girl to be attacked by someone who punches her, the vast majority of attacks on females by males commences with a grabbing, holding, embracing, or seizing type of action ––– after which a smacking or punching follow-up sometimes is resorted to, when the assailant does not receive immediate acquiescence to his demands and gestures.
We want to emphasize to women that the common approach of the major portion of attacking actions they may anticipate provides them with a golden opportunity to react successfully with a counterattacking technique.
We will describe several excellent technical reactions to an attack that a woman can use with confidence, but first, we must explain something crucial.
An almost automatic reaction that females have when held or grabbed without warning by someone whom they either do not know or know to be a problem, is shocking. They react with stunned surprise. This is often accompanied by either completely freezing or by reflexively attempting to pull away.
At the same time, it seems to be the case that the female victim will voice some understandable but utterly useless words: “Get your hands off me!” “Don’t touch me!” “Hey, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” “Stop that!”… These are examples of what the scummy punks who put their unwelcome hands on a woman too often hear.
Believe us when we tell you: Those types of abusive garbage who attack women are not deterred by these responses; they have doubtless heard them many times before. Regrettably, the punks realize that such verbalizations indicate fear, and, of course, that only encourages them.
The same is true for the pulling away reaction and the freezing. The animals have encountered it before, and it never deters them.
Here is what we want females to understand about male violence and abuse directed against them (very often, but not always, with sexual assault being the motive and ultimate objective):
When it happens, it is not the aggressor’s “first offense.” He’s done it before. His boldness and confidence come from his past successes; it does not come from his “invincibility” or enormous physical prowess or strength. THIS IS TO A VICTIM’S ADVANTAGE!
The aggressor believes that he will be successful because of his past successes. THIS IS TO A VICTIM’S ADVANTAGE!
The aggressor does not fear the woman, and he does not believe she will be able to mount an effective counteroffensive or that she will even try to do so. THIS IS TO A VICTIM’S ADVANTAGE!
The aggressor, although initiating violence or controlling force himself, is not doing so because he wishes to engage in a fight, per se. He simply wishes to achieve submission and compliance, and he has no anticipation of encountering spirited resistance. THIS IS TO A VICTIM’S ADVANTAGE!
Without realizing it, the aggressor’s action helps the trained woman to overwhelm and defeat him and escape. THIS IS TO A VICTIM’S ADVANTAGE!
We want women to understand that virtually every aspect of most attackers’ actions and attitude offers advantages and opportunities to the would-be victim if she will work to overcome what is the typical characteristic reaction and train hard to develop a reaction that capitalizes on the weaknesses of her assailant and upon the opportunities that his actions against her provide.
Here are the keys to training effectively to deal with an intrusive, unwanted grabbing/holding attack by a male:
Think often and repeatedly during training and practice about the evil and outrage of someone daring to put his hands on you. Decide now that yes, it really could happen to you, and if it ever does – no matter when or where or why – you will not be shocked. You will be ready.
Upon feeling the attack begin, you will click into “kill mode” and go berserk with hatred, rage, and the determination to utterly destroy your attacker.
You will never try to pull away from the assailant but will instead make immediate use of the strength and momentum that he applies to move in murderously against him!
You will understand that his holding or grabbing you amounts to no dangerous threat in and of itself, but that it will lead to a dangerous attack if you were to allow it to do so. AND YOU WILL NOT!
You will attack as you go with the assailant’s force. You will not slap, smack, or pound uselessly on his arms, shoulders, and chest with your fists; nor will you attempt to forcefully shove him away and off of you.
You will go after the attacker’s EYES, THROAT, EARS, TESTICLES, SHINS, and NOSE. AND YOU WILL ATTACK RELENTLESSLY AND WITH ALL OF YOUR POWER WHILE GROWLING AND CURSING AND BITING HIS FACE.
Your techniques will be:
- Ramming your extended fingers into his eyes or gouging at his eyes with your thumbs.
- Jabbing into his throat with a half-fist hand formation so that your strong fore-knuckles strike his windpipe.
- Position allowing, you will chop with your open hand edge to his throat or neck.
- You will, if you can, apply a throat-lock (pincher grip) to his thyroid cartilage, close your fingers tightly, and pull out.
- You will smash your open hands into his ears and close them with a solid gripping action. Then bite hard into his face and, while biting down hard, rip his ears by employing a bow-and-arrow type action with both hands.
- You will ram your knee repeatedly and as rapidly and powerfully as you are able into his testicles. (Very effective after securing a grip on his ears.)
- You will stomp down hard in a scraping action of either the inside or outside edge of your shoe or boot on his shinbone, ending up by crushing the arch of his foot. (Also very effective after securing a grip on his ears.)
- You will smash the little finger side of your clenched fist across the bridge of his nose, using all of the strength you possess. Alternatively, you may strike with the heel of your hand in this manner.
- Upon being grabbed from behind, you will begin stomp-kicking back, snapping your head back into the attacker’s face, reaching back to seize his testicles, elbowing back (high to the face or mid-level to his solar plexus, depending on which is most doable at the time, assuming your arms are free to move).
You will drop your weight and not stop kicking, butting, and using your hands/arms to strike and to seize. You may hook your foot around and behind the attacker’s ankle to prevent being carried off or thrown in a vehicle while kicking with the other foot. Turn as soon as possible, and go after your attacker with the most destructive, vicious, relentless, and murderous force of which you are capable.
- You will continue to attack like a wild animal – relentlessly and with fury – and desist and escape only when you have been released and your attacker is visibly injured and no longer focusing on you.
- If by chance you break away from the attacker quickly and there is anything in the vicinity that you can take into hand as a weapon, do so – and use it to attack your attacker.
Attacks against women and girls by men are always a serious, dangerous, potentially maiming or killing situation. Only by confronting that type of problem realistically and determining to treat it with the gravity required will women and girls gain the justifiable confidence and capability to resist and survive that they deserve.
We hope this is of value to every woman who reads it, and to those who, as instructors of self-defense, train females to deal with unprovoked criminal violence.