How to Knock a Man Out
By The Sensei
Today I taught a lesson in hand-to-hand. It’s been a while since I taught a whole, two-hour group session—due to other commitments and my own training—and I’d forgotten how much I enjoy it.By The Sensei
We focussed on “sniper attacks”—how to take down and opponent quickly and efficiently. The key to knocking out an attacker is vital point striking. As the name suggests, you need to hit definite areas, and often with a great deal of force. This is actually exceedingly difficult in “live combat”, because when you are in a street fight, your flight-or-fight physiological response takes over and your fine motor skills—the co-ordination you require to powerfully hit a small, moving target—go straight out the window. In addition, your opponent will be doing his best not to get hit!
The key is to hit your opponent before the fight starts. You can call this “pre-emptive strike” or a “sucker punch”, whatever. Dirty? Yes. But I’m talking about real combat here—a situation where you are not the true aggressor, and there’s no way to gracefully decline. A good example might be a potential mugging, where you are being threatened, psychologically “felt out” by an aggressor. Forgo all the natural to-and-fro associated with this ritual, and knock the bastard out.
The two best areas to strike are the jaw and the ear. The points along the jaw-line on either side, just below the mouth, are the ideal targets. If hit hard enough, this area is a leverage point which will cause the skull to quickly pivot on the upper vertebrae of the neck. The human brain is not actually connected to the skull; it floats loose in cerebrospinal fluid. This fluid normally acts as an excellent cushion, however when the head is caused to pivot and stop rapidly over a short range, the brain continues moving and impacts against the inside of the skull. Soft brain meeting hard bone is what causes all knockouts and concussions in combat.
A good alternative target option is the ear, or temple. Striking this area hard will transmit force into the cochlea, a tiny organ located in the inner ear which allows us to maintain balance. This is why you see people get wobbled (if not knocked down) so easily by shots to the temple or behind the ear. You get the same effect by slapping a cupped hand into the ear itself, and this can also pop the eardrum, resulting in permanent hearing loss in that ear.
Beyond these two targets are the next best options are the eyes and the throat—both very difficult targets to hit, but which will impair functioning if struck. Everybody talks about genital strikes—the old “kick in the nuts”—as the ultimate fight-stopper, but this isn’t always true. In your strikes, always attack your opponent’s function first; it’s a mistake to go for pain. Adrenaline can temporarily mask the effects of strikes that would normally be exceedingly painful, as can drug or alcohol use. Famously, junkies high on PCP (“angel dust”) have been shot several times before even slowing down. Although adrenaline and drugs can mask pain, they are powerless to protect the brain—a hyped up or drug-crazed attacker can be knocked out the same as anybody else. They can be blinded just the same, too. The message here is that, when it matters, you should go for the face.
Alternative vital points
Remember, you don’t need to knock an attacker out with one punch to win a fight. This is actually very rare. But if you can get him slightly groggy, or disoriented with an initial vital point strike, that’ll give you the opening you need to finish him off with a flurry of devastating blows—but only if you’ve been training hard for it.
Next time you train, get out some hook and jab pads, and train for maximum power for single sniper shots. Have your partner move the pad slightly to ensure a moving target. Hit as hard and explosively as you can, and do most of your work from a neutral position, not a fighting stance—if you are going to hit your opponent before he can react, you must give him no clue as to your intention. There must be no wind-up, no telegraphing your technique at all. This is much, much harder than it sounds, especially for people conditioned to deliver conventional martial arts blows.
Force is essential, but so is speed—if you can lash out with your most powerful shot from arm’s length before your opponent can start to react, you are half-way to winning a fight with just a single punch.
After your sniper shots, work on the follow-ups. Get your training partner behind a strike shield and follow up with a barrage of your most devastating shots to the face and body. I’m not talking about leisurely, three-minute rounds—I’m talking about as much as you can get in, in ten seconds! This requires great anaerobic fitness, more than most people would imagine.
Try to focus on your hands and elbows for these follow-ups. I’m not disrespecting the great art of kicking, but if you have your opponent disoriented from your first pre-emptive shot, you need to use that valuable window of opportunity—which may only last a few moments—to aggressively move forwards and finish him off. If your first shot was at arm’s length, it stands to reason that kicking involves backing off to gain space for a leg technique. Forget this. You should be all over your opponent.
Again, during follow-up training, your partner shouldn’t hold the shield static—he should move around, lurch back and forwards, as an opponent might. This type of motion will teach you how to combine your best follow-ups with practical footwork skills. It will also teach you to vary your techniques to accommodate different ranges. If you train alone, try to simulate these methods as best as you can on a swinging heavy bag.
Drill in these two areas—maximum power sniper shots and follow-up barrages—as often as you can. During intense stress, the mind has a tendency to just blank out, switch off. The goal is to make your techniques automatic, second nature, so that when you need them your reflexes will just take over. (More on this vital phenomenon—reflex channeling—can be found in chapter eight of The Urban Warrior’s Bible, in the section on control of negative emotions.)
A desperate attacker may very well rush you, so you should try your best to work in some grappling and groundwork, too. Just remember to keep it dirty—there are no rules on the streets. Rather than emphasizing clean, competition-style throws and holds, work with techniques that promote gouging, biting, joint-breaking, skin ripping and basically all the useful tricks that are banned from competition. This means that if you ever do encounter a serious grappler or wrestler, you’ll have a chance to throw something at him that he hasn’t prepared for.
Work on some good, powerful kicks, but emphasize kicking your opponent when he is already on the floor and you are standing. If you have a heavy bag in the gym, unhook it and put lay it on the floor to try your techniques. Again, go for the head and face if you can. This sounds vicious, but there are cases on record of victims initially knocking down attackers, only to have them quickly recover and follow them, enraged. People have died this way. Either defend yourself totally or hand over your money. If your attacker is armed—and you are not—this may actually be more strategic. The same may hold true in cases of multiple attackers. But what if your attacker wants more than just your wallet? Every year, law-abiding citizens are killed by scum for hardly any reason at all.
Don’t become one of these victims! If you are able to keep to these simple, practical areas in the course of your hand-to-hand training, you’ll be light years ahead of the average street scum.