by N. Mashiro
16-4: A brighter than average opponent may try to kick you instead of attacking you with his hands. He may even try to kick your calf muscles to cramp them and cripple your defense. Your response to this tactic is to roll slightly to one side and use a side-thrust kick against his incoming shin.
This means that you wait until he cocks his legs for the kick, and then you intercept it by thrusting the outer edge of the sole of your shoe at his shin. Hold your foot horizontally to maximize your chances of intercepting his swinging leg. From his end it will feel like slamming his shin into the edge of a coffee table. One application of this block and he'll abruptly stop trying to kick you.
16-5: The next two techniques are takedowns, or throws, with which you can drop your opponent flat on the floor even though you are lying on your back and he is standing up. The throws work best if you have already succeeded in hurting him with a couple of shin and knee kicks, but if executed skillfully they will bring even an uninjured opponent into sudden and violent contact with the floor.
Assume that your opponent turns his right side toward you as he approaches, presenting the outside of his right leg to you. Roll on to your right hip and hook the top of his right foot (at the point where it meets the shin) with the back of your right heel. Use the top of your left foot to kick hard into the back of his knee. This will fold his leg. Roll violently a complete turn to your right, maintaining your holds on his knee and ankle as you roll. The combined effect is to buckle his leg and bend his ankle up behind his thigh. He'll either fall flat on his face or he'll drop heavily on his kneecap, either of which would be a welcome development.
This throw is best performed in a single, snappy rolling motion which rolls up the opponent's leg and also propels him forward off balance into the fall. If he lands on his belly and you still have his leg under control, this identical hold can be used to subdue him. Use your right ankle to keep the pressure on, forcing his heel down toward the back of his thigh. Since your other foot is caught in the fold of his knee, this pressure produces a nutcracker effect where your left ankle is the nut. In this case, however, the nut is far harder and bonier than the cracker. He'll yell for mercy. (See Figure 29.)
Of course this technique, like many others in this book, can also be used on the other side of the body. If he presents you with the side of his left leg you can just roll to the left and proceed from there.
16-6: There is another throw which works even better than the last one. It is used when the opponent steps in directly toward you, not when he is facing to the side as before.
Assume that he has taken a step toward you with his left foot. Roll to the right and hook the top of your right foot around behind his left heel. Use your left foot to push firmly against his knee as you yank his heel toward you. This will drop him right on his butt with considerable force. He may not land on his back, but he'll be off his feet and badly shaken for several seconds.
Check back to technique 9-3 where this throw is performed using your hands instead of your feet.
16-7: Only after you have injured the attacker or dropped him on the ground can you attempt to get up again. This is essential. Unless you want him to go through the inconvenience of picking your teeth out of his shoelaces, you'd better hurt him enough to make him keep his distance before you rise.
When the time is right, turn your body so that your feet are pointed toward the attacker and then cautiously roll over on your hands and knees. Keep a weather eye out over your shoulder, and keep one foot cocked for a kick in case he tries to jump you. If the opponent does attack at this critical instant just lash out at his legs with your foot and roll over on your back again. Continue fighting on your back as before. Otherwise you may continue to rise. At this point I would strongly suggest a discreet retreat.
16-8: Another method of getting up is to half-face toward your wounded adversary as you sit up and carefully rise to your feet. Make sure that you are out of his reach, though. If he tries to rush you simply roll backward on to your back and fight as before.
ATTACK # 17
The techniques examined so far for fighting from the ground are not effective in two specific situations. The first is when you are fighting more than one person, and cannot possibly keep both at bay at the same time. The other situa tion is when your opponent is too close to kick, i.e., when he is sitting on your chest.
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Suppose you get knocked down in a fight with two opponents. You can keep your feet toward one of them but the other is perfectly free to circle around and attack from the side or rear.
BASIC DEFENSE *17
First of all, if you are fighting more than one opponent you must not fall. Once on the ground you will certainly be kicked into submission unless you can roll and immediately spring back on to your feet. This kind of tumbling becomes second nature to judo students (and to the better karate students) but self-defense people usually don't have the time or the agility to spare on it. If possible, it is a skill well worth cultivating. Speed is your salvation in this situation.
If they close in on you too quickly for you to regain your feet, try to protect your vital organs by lying on your back. Clasp your hands behind your neck, tuck your head down, pull your knees up to your chin, and cross your ankles over your genitals. Rock your body around wildly as they kick you in an attempt to spoil their aim. An absolutely essential point is to yell and scream as if in great pain. Not only will this summon aid, but your attackers may decide that they have punished you enough and quit before actually injuring you seriously.
Obviously this is a last-ditch defense, only to be used in desperation. In this situation your chances of "winning" are minimal, and your application of self-defense concentrates mostly on limiting the amount of damage the attackers can do to you. If you get the chance, however, don't hesitate to lash out with a foot and dislocate somebody's knee. If you can work the odds down to one-on-one you can go on the offensive and emerge victorious.
ATTACK # 18
This is that familiar playground situation in which you have been knocked on your back and the attacker is trying to hold you down by sitting on your chest. Although this holddown is crude and unsophisticated, it is also very common. The utility of this hold-down in an attempted rape is too obvious to require comment.
For the purposes of discussion, we'll assume that the attacker may be trying to choke you with his hands as well as simply hold you down. If he is choking you, your response must be immediate. On the other hand, if he is just trying to hold you down you may have additional time to get your wits together and launch a more coordinated counteroffensive.
BASIC DEFENSE #18
In this case the basic defense is extremely simple. There will be a moment, perhaps as much as two or three seconds, during which the attacker will be busy trying to grab your arms and get on top of you. You should have ample opportunity to cock your leg and reposition his nose back between his ears. The kick could as easily be directed into his ribs, abdomen, or groin, and don't overlook a good solid stomp into the center of his thigh. In other words, the best defense is a pre-emptive kick wherever it will do the most good. Two or three of these will make him lose all interest in holding on to you.
If for some reason you can't employ this defense (maybe you're being tickled instead of raped) you'll have to rely on one of the following escapes or counterattacks. But be advised. None of them works quite as well as that boot heel in the eye.
COUNTERATTACKS FOR SITUATION # 18
18-1: You are lying flat on your back and the attacker is straddling your abdomen, possibly intent on rape (if your gender is appropriate, or even if it isn't!). Draw your knees up until they touch his back, then dig in your heels, arch your back, and thrust yourself violently along the floor in the direction your head is pointing (out from under him). You may not make much progress on the first try so be ready to repeat the effort over and over
as rapidly as you can. You'll find with a little practice that you can scoot yourself along on your back considerably faster than he can stump after you on his knees.
It will be an awkward contest, but at some point you'll get far enough ahead to get a foot free. At that point, without even a split second of hesitation, you must place the ball of your foot on his abdomen and viciously rip the soul of your shoe down his belly, between his legs, and out behind him. His heart and mind will follow.
18-2: This technique is a little less destructive than the last one. Pull your knees up as far as you can while keeping your feet flat on the floor. Plant your left foot firmly and let your right leg extend slightly. At the critical moment, use your left foot to heave your body off the ground, arching your back to lift and tilt the attacker forward. At the top of his rise slam your right thigh as hard as you can into his butt. It will also be helpful if you can strike him up under the armpits with your hands at the same instant.
The net effect is to catapult the opponent over your head (and slightly to your left). A naive, surprised enemy can find himself thrown a good eight or ten feet by this technique. I've seen it happen. Usually, though, you'll be doing well to knock him off at all. If you do succeed in spilling him to your left don't miss the opportunity to get in a kick or two. If you have time scramble to your feet and run.
18-3: The attacker is sitting on your chest choking you. Grasp the hair at the back of his head with your left hand (so that he cannot pull away). Then drive your right thumb into his left eye, pressing the thumb toward your left hand. He will try to pull his head away from the thumb. By pulling his hair to the left as your thumb explores his eye socket you can roll him off your chest. You'll find that this technique works even better if you use your thumbnail instead of the ball of your thumb.
18-4: Break the choke with a forearm wedge (basic defense # 10). It works almost as well when you are lying down as well as standing up. Then grab his head (hair, ears, neck, shoulders, collar, or lapels) and yank his face down as you tuck in your chin and drive your bony forehead up to meet him. Sure, you'll cut your forehead, but a couple of stitches will fix you right up. The guy on top, however, is going to have some difficulty adjusting to his missing teeth, cut lips, and broken nose. Smack him in the face again just for luck, being sure to take the blow in the center of your forehead, and if he hasn't gotten the idea by then stick your thumb in his eye and roll him off as described in the previous technique.
18-5: This one is very satisfying because of its stunning speed. The attacker is sitting on your chest and choking you with both hands. Cross your wrists in front of your face and break the hold by pushing his hands out sideways from your neck. This requires a pair of snappy palm-heel strikes against the inside of his wrists. Note that this is not a slapping motion, but a short, sharp thrust with the heel of the hand. Do it with conviction and his hands will rip off your neck with no difficulty.
At this point your neck is free and your arms are crossed above your chest. The opponent's face is about two feet away, but is descending in response to having his arms knocked out of position. Uncross your forearms suddenly in a scissoring motion (one forearm sliding along the other like a pair of scissors blades) until your fists come to a jarring halt on opposite sides of his neck. For added power make the strike by spreading your elbows apart rather than by lashing out with your hands.
This strike to the neck can be made even more damaging by using a double knife-hand strike (chop) instead of your fists. The fist strike jars the nerves of the neck (see Black Medicine Volume I) but the knife-hand attack also injures the organs of the throat. Envision the knife-edge of your right hand smearing the top half of the opponent's larynx to the right, while your left hand in a scissoring motion drives the bottom half of his larynx violently to the left. The resulting anatomical shearing of the fellow's windpipe and vocal cords is left as an exercise for the reader's imagination.
Figure 30: People tend to overlook the most obvious solutions to simple problems. Here no elaborate escape is necessary because the attacker's groin is within easy reach of the victim's fist!
If you take advantage of the coil-recoil motion implied here you can execute the whole technique, choke release and neck strike, in about half of one second. He'll never see it coming.
18-6: The attacker is sitting on your chest choking you as before, except that in the rictus of his frenzy he has hunched his shoulders and straightened his arms until the elbows locked. If you can see that his arms are held unnaturally straight, you can break the choke hold by clapping your hands sharply on the backs of his elbows. Hammer-fist blows work even better.
18-7: This technique is especially elegant, simple, unexpected, and effective. Use a fist blow or a palm-heel attack to his groin. It's right there within reach and he's not thinking about defending it. One lightning blow will take his mind off worldly affairs for a long time. (See Figure 30.)
18-8: Since your legs are free, you might as well see if you can use them. If you are limber you can pick up your right foot and dent his skull with the back of your heel. Try it and experiment a little to see what you can do. Remember, he'll never see it coming.
Figure 31: Here's a simple way to mash a masher. Reach behind his head and yank his hair straight down. Then, if you really want to hurt him, use your other hand to hammer on his windpipe.
The techniques in this section are especially appropriate for women since it is rare that a man falls victim to a masher or a rapist. Male self-defense students study these techniques so that they can teach them to their female friends, and also in case of a confrontation with a bear-hugging lumberjack who likes to hear vertebrae popping.
I am using the term embrace to indicate a far-from-tender encircling of your body by the opponent's arms, in this case exclusively from the front. (Rear embraces are handled differently in a later section.) The nature of this situation dictates that the attacker will grab you in one of two ways. He'll either reach over your arms and pin them to your sides, or he'll grab you around the waist and leave your arms free. In the odd case where only one arm is pinned suitable variations of "arms free" techniques will prove effective.
ATTACK # 19
The attacker embraces you from in front (belly to belly), leaving your arms free. This position could represent anything from a drunk trying to steal a kiss from a winsome lass to a carnival weightlifter trying to see how many of your ribs he can snap (because you tried to steal a kiss from his winsome lass ...).
BASIC DEFENSE #19
This may not seem like much of a basic defense, but the essential key in this situation is simply to keep your wits together. Consider-the idiot left your hands free. There's his head not more than a foot away and you have two free hands. The basic defense is to remember to use them.
COUNTERATTACKS FOR SITUATION #19
19-1: This is the point in my class where I like to underline the differences among karate, judo, and self-defense. Here you are locked in an unwelcome embrace. To escape, a karate student would break the attacker's pelvis with his knee and crack the man's skull with the edge of his hand. A judo student would twist to the side and throw the attacker on the floor, possibly dislocating the man's shoulder or elbow for good measure. But what would a self-defense student do to get loose? What kind of devastatingly effective technique can a poorly trained, out-of-shape self-defense student use to break free from this hold?
Simple. Take your index finger and ram it up his nose. If he doesn't let you go, curl your finger into a hook and yank it out again. He'll let go, all right.
19-2: An option which is far more destructive is to clap your palms smartly over his ears, breaking his eardrums. This must be a very sudden, very forceful double blow which cups the palms directly over the openings of the ear canals. The pain inflicted is so severe that the attacker may actually pass out right before your very eyes. Be aware that you are doing irreparable damage to his ears, so it wouldn't be a tactic to use in fun. Also, it is possible to caus
e a concussion if your hands meet his head with sufficient force. It isn't much more than a hearty slap, but hitting both sides of the brain case at the same instant puts the blows in opposition to one another and magnifies the effective impact.
19-3: Attack the opponent's eyes. Stick your thumbs in them. Claw at them with your fingernails. Spit in his eyes. Slap your open palms hard over his eyes. Pound on them with your fists. Just remember, it will be sufficient to force him to release his grip in order to protect his eyes. Blinding a man by popping his eyeball with your thumb is an act reserved for times of the greatest desperation.
19-4: If you would like to assault his face with a few really powerful, clublike blows bring your elbows into play. Snap the front of your bony right elbow across his face (from your right to left), and then smack him with the back of the same elbow on the return trip. Alternate with the left elbow. The odds are that he'll drop you after the first blow when he finds his teeth rattling around inside his mouth like dice in a cup.
19-5: The following technique comes in two flavors, hard and soft. Reach around behind the opponent's head and grasp the hair at the back of his head with your left hand. Yank his hair straight down. This will rock his face back and put his chin in a vulnerable protruding position.
For the soft version, place your right palm under his chin and start to push his head backwards. You will find that your finger tips just about reach his eyes when the heel of your palm is braced under his chin, so why not poke around a little and give him something more to think about? He'll find it a painful and embarrassing position to maintain, and will release you fairly quickly. If he doesn't, use your knee.