This may look like a weak defensive position, but that is to your advantage since it brings your opponent’s guard down. In addition, this position protects your face and your ribs, two places you’ll likely want to protect.
You stand the best chance of winning a fight and getting away if you stay upright. Avoid taking the scuffle to the ground at all costs.
If you’re attacked by a person with a knife or a gun, you need to try to avoid confrontation and get away. If it’s impossible to avoid a fight, you need to end the confrontation with a high-impact attack as quickly as possible, then run for help.
The eyes and nose are the most sensitive soft spots on your attacker’s face and are vulnerable to elbows, knees, and your forehead With the hardest part of your forehead, right near the hairline, try to smash your assailant’s nose by tensing your neck and driving your forehead into the middle of their face. This is the quickest and most unexpected way to end a fight completely. However strong, experienced, or violent your attacker, it’s very difficult to quickly recover from a hard head-butt to the nose.
If this doubles up your opponent, consider smashing your knee into their nose to ensure that they’ll be down for the count.
This is especially effective on larger attackers and easy to do from your guarded position. Kick at shins and knees soccer-style, with the instep of your foot. This is a quick and painful kick. In addition, if their legs are close enough, lift your knees into their inner leg (femoral nerve), outer leg, knee, or groin. These will break down your attacker and may disable them.
In some cases you may also want to attack your attacker’s neck. To effectively choke someone, do not do the typical Hollywood “hands around the entire neck,” but instead just put your thumb and fingers around the trachea (especially easy to find on men with large Adam’s apples). Dig, drive, and sink your fingers into this notch and they will experience intense pain and probably fall down. Note that poking the eyes, breaking the eardrums, and choking someone can all be extremely harmful. Only do these actions in extreme circumstances in which your life may be in danger otherwise.
If you get a chance to leave safely, go for it. Be sure that you’re safe from your opponent when you decide to stop defending yourself. In many cases, you can end the situation immediately by giving the attacker your wallet. This is a logical choice, especially if at knife or gunpoint. Your life is worth much more than the cash and cards you have on you. Toss the wallet away from you and run.
This will get you out of their choke and leave their head, ribs, and legs wide open to your counterattack. When your attacker is behind you, the shins are right behind your legs and primed for your stomping and raking.
The wind up. This is the initial argument before the fight erupts. It might start out relatively harmless but escalate quickly and unexpectedly. Verbal threats. When the arguing brings in the threat of physical confrontation, try saying “I’m going to _____”. Shoving or other prodding behavior. Attempts to get you to escalate a conflict into a full-blown fight usually start not with punches or kicks but with nose-to-nose intimidation tactics and shoves. It’s still possible to walk away at this point without getting into a full-blown fight. The full-blown fight. You’ve stopped arguing and started throwing punches. [8] X Research source
If you’re in the middle of an argument, calm it down by lowering your voice. Macho dudes in a bar can escalate stupid things quickly but be ready to hug and buy you a drink by apologizing and distracting them. If you’re calm, they’ll cool down. If you’re being ambushed by an attacker, you need to get where people can see you and help you. It’s less likely that you’ll be grievously harmed if you’re on a busy street corner where people are passing by. The confrontation has less of a chance of escalating in public.
If you must walk alone, gloom onto another group of walkers and stick close by. You don’t have to know them to find safety in numbers.
Most states that respect individuals rights have CCW permits available for law-abiding citizens. You can also get a small personal alarm keychain that will emit a high pitch siren like a car alarm when its pin is pulled, similar in design to a grenade. Consider taking a self-defense class if you live in a dangerous area and are concerned for your well being.
