Gouging, biting and headbutting are illegal in the ring, but they’re perfectly acceptable in a street situation. True self-defence technique are to brutal for any sort of sporting application. When you are attacked on the street there is no agreement, unlike in tournament fighting, as to what so-called dirty techniques can be used to protect yourself. You are not going to be asked if you intend on fighting fair when you are attacked ON on the street. When you are fighting for your life there is no such thing as “dirty” fighting techniques, there is only your survial.
In a street confrontation the kicks, punches and throws that you have learned in the dojo may not be enought to survive an attack. Tournament fighting techniques might not be enought to help you when a attacker has his arm around your neck and a knife to your throat. Biting into their wrist followed by a rear headbutt to their nose could be what you need to free yourself and get away. After you are free you can turn and poke him in the eyes and run like hell, this is street survial of the smartest.
Using so-called “dirty” fighting techniques like eye gouging might not be looked upon as fairin a fight, but what is fair about someone putting your life in danger by robbing you, or even worse trying to kill you to prove something to his gang members. You do what is needed when attacked because it as simple as this, someone will be walking away after an attack on the street and the other will be on their way to the hospital or worse the morgue.
Rules are in place in most Self-defense classes that teach self-defense techniques so as not to hurt the other students. The techniques are controled and the so-called dirty techniques are not used, because for them to work someone needs to get hurt. Good self-defense techniques that can make a difference on the street are illegal to use in tournament sparring.
It is hard to practice the so-called dirty techniques because these techniques need to be pulled to advoid injury to the fellow student so the full effectiveness of the techniques are not fully seen. Many students and instructors totally overlook or ignore some of the best street-defense techniques known to man, because of the emphasis on using “clean” techniques that can be used safely in sparring.
Practicing when and how to use hairpulling, eye gouging, biting and headbutting tehniques could make the difference between you walking away from an attack or you being carried away on a stretcher. Martial artist that only train using techniques that are tournament friendly puts themself at a disadvantage in a real life situation. To save your life or the life of a loved one you must be ready to disable or even kill your attacker.
Hair pulling techniques can prove most valuable in a self-defense situation. Grabbing a handfull of hair can help you to get free from a headlock, bear hug, or when a attacker has you down on the ground and he is sitting on your chest. Grabbing the hair is a good way to steady the head of your opponent as you get ready to deliver a blow to his head, using a headbutt, fist, elbow strike or even an eye jab.
Holding your attacker by a hand full of hair when it is dark and difficult to judge the position of his jaw will help you to steady his head and be able to judge the location of his jaw or temple quite accurately without having to see it. You can also grab his hair from behind and jerk him backwards as you kick the back of his knees and take him down to the ground so you can finish him off.
With a hand full of hair you can pull your attacker over furniture, into a plate glass window or a brick wall, as well as holding his head for a headbutt or a rising knee smash to the face. You can grab his beard if it is long enought and throw him down a flight of stairs, where the hair goes the body follows.
The skill is strong and makes a good weapon for close in fighting. Headbutting is part of some western and asian fighting arts, but you seldom see it being used in tournaments fighting. Old chinese and korean masters could drive nails into boards with their foreheads. England create a style of fighting based around headbutting techniques called “knutting.”
when someone grabs you in a bear hug, either from the front or back, or your attacker wants to grapple with you, a well placed headbutt will help them to change their mind. If your attacker has you down on the ground and is straddling you reach up and grab his head and slam your forehead into his nose as you pull his head down towards you.
Just grab his hair and jerk his head down into your forehead repeatedly, striking his nose, jaw, temple and eyesockets. Be careful and not headbutt his mouth you could end up getting cut by his teeth, however a strong headbutt to the mouth will split his lips open and knock his teeth out.
Your forehead is plenty strong enought so striking your forehead against trees and concret blocks to strenghten it will only give you a headache. However you can practice thrusting your forehead into a bean bag,or sandbag, hung from the ceiling to help you in your control and accuracy of your head thrust.
You should practice thrusting at the bean bag in a furry of 3,4,or 5 thrusts in rapid succestion concentrating on focus and follow through. By praciticing you will be able to control where you are striking better, and striking with 3 or more thrusts at a time will overwhelm your attacker.
Biting can be used to divert an attacker’s attention, inflict severe pain, or help gain release from a specific hold. When an attacker puts his hand over, or near, your mouth take advantage of this and bite down on his fingers or wrist. Biting down hard could be enought of a distraction to allow you to break free and escape from your attacker grasp.
Biting can help you to disarm your attacker when you are attacked from the rear and they have a weapon to your throat. If you can pull the hand with the weapon away from your throat a few inches you should be able to clamp down on his wrist with your teeth causing him great pain, and causing him to drop the weapon and release his hold of you.
If you find yourself on the ground being raped wait for the first opening and sink your teeth into the attackers throat, testicles, tongue, or grab an ear and bite it off. It is not pretty but it may be what is needed to help you get free from your attacker,so do it and live.
Sometimes in a self-defense situation if you attack the eyes of your opponent, by gouging his eyes or poking your fingers in them, you can get free from your attacker and escape while he stumbles around trying to see. When you are being choked from the front or being pushed around, gouging with the thumbs, one or both, works well for getting out of a choke situation, or to stop someone from pushing you around.
Grab the attacker’s head in your hands with your thumbs over his eyes and squeeze the eyeballs back into the eye sockets,this will causes great pain. You can also grab the head as mentioned above and stick both thumbs into the mouth on both sides between the teeth and the cheeks and pull the cheeks back towards the ears ripping the attackers mouth.
You can practice on bean bags, sandbags or even get creative and use lumps of clay shaped into a simulartitly of a face with eyes and a mouth and have at it.
Contrary to popular belief dirty fighting just does not come natural to most people. We are subconsciously socialized to believe fighting should be “fair” even though we intellectually realize there aren’t any rules for the street criminal.
There is an old maxum that states “You will fight as you have been trained to fight.” If this is true, then it becomes imperative for street-oriented martial artists to include “dirty” fighting techniques in their training. The facts are your attacker will use every trick in the book and he will probably assume that you are the type of victum who won’t resort to his own ruthless methods.
Whether you end up in the emergency room or the morgue instead of him may very well depend upon your willingness to practice and use the types of effective and “dirty” techniques covered in this article. On the streets the only people who talk about “dirty” techniques are the victims. Think about it! Remember when it comes down to it sometimes, the only thing standing between you and survival are your street smarts.
