Self Defense Techniques and Tactics

7 min readDec 9, 2020

To survive a truly violent attack, you need to injure your attacker, not just cause pain. Aim for the parts of the body where you can do the most damage easily (eyes, nose, ears, neck, throat, groin, joints, feet…) Use targeted strikes to injure the attacker so you can get away. Bite, stomp, strike, rupture, crush, tear, break, dislocate… whatever it takes. Until he is incapacitated.

Answer your attacker’s violence with violence of your own. It’s gonna get “ugly” and you’ll experience pain. Push through it. You are fighting for your life! He will injure you in a heartbeat if he can. To stop him, turn the tables on him. Injure him. Then injure him some more. Until he is incapacitated.

If you try to fight fair, you will lose. There are no rules when it comes to defending your life. You must be ready and willing to “fight dirty” until your attacker is incapacitated.

You need to incapacitate your attacker so he can’t hurt you anymore.

It’ll most likely take more than one strike to do the job. It’s possible he might be shocked at a victim fighting back and take off after one strike. But I wouldn’t count on it.

And remember… your goal is not to kill him. Although that may happen accidentally. Your goal is to incapacitate him so you can get away.

Keep Your Feet on the Ground

If you are attacked, do everything you can to stay on your feet. If the attacker tries to take you to the ground, do everything you can not to go down with him. If you do end up on the ground, do everything you can to get back up. When you are on your feet, it’s easier to fight back. It’s easier to injure your attacker. It’s easier to run away.

Keep in Mind

Some of the following techniques are considered lethal force. They will injure the attacker and could actually kill him. So these moves should only be used if you fear for your life.
You need to use all of your strength when doing these techniques. All of your might. Think of it as becoming the attacker. Use violence to put your attacker on the defensive.
I have never claimed to be an artist.

Eye Gouge

Place your hands on each side of his head. If you can grab on to his ears, it’ll give you a better grip. Push your thumbs deep into his eye sockets (at the inner corners of the eyes). Form a hook with your thumbs and pull them to the outside corner of the eyes.

Just poking the eyes may not stop him. But the eye gouge will cause injury and probably blindness.

If you can’t reach both eyes, one eye gouge will still injure and probably blind him in at least one eye.

Sound icky? It is. But it’s far better than losing your life.

Ear Cup/Slap

Cup your hands and slam them both against the attacker’s ears as hard as you can. Slap hard and fast and aim so that you completely cover each ear. This can cause injury to the attacker’s ear drums, if done right. Other strikes will probably be more effective, but it’s something to keep in your self defense toolbox. (I used to think this wasn’t much of a defensive move until one I heard a mosquito by my ear and slapped my ear to kill the bug. I missed the bug of course. My ear drum wasn’t damaged, luckily.)

Ear Pull

Grip the back of your attacker’s ear with all four fingers and clench it with a fist. Make sure you have a good grip on the back of his year. Yank forward as hard as you can. Your objective is to tear the ear and cause injury.

Heel Hand to the Nose

Use the heel of your hand to strike up under his nose. Put the full weight of your body into it. Your goal is to break his nose.

Nose or Throat Strike with Elbow

If the attacker is behind you and you have an arm free, rotate your torso and drive your elbow into his throat or nose with all of your might. Put your body weight behind the strike. Your goal is to damage the windpipe or break his nose.

Throat Strike with Forearm

Move into your attacker and strike him in his throat with your forearm. Put ALL of your body weight into it. Push through to crush his throat.

Trachea Squeeze

Grab your attacker’s windpipe with your hand. Think about trying to bring your thumb and fingers together at the back of his windpipe. Squeeze hard.

Squeezing the trachea can damage the sensitive tracheal rings of your attacker’s windpipe, making him choke and gasp for air. If he can’t breathe, he will let go of you.

Groin Kick

This one is tricky because most men are already used to protecting that area. But, if you can get to it, you can’t just kick him and expect it to work. You have to use your full force, your full body weight and ram your knee or foot so hard that you rupture his testicles. As Tim Larken says, there’s only one way to kick an attacker in his groin… “as hard as you can.”

Knee Stomp

Stomp the side or front of the attacker’s knee. Drive your foot through his knee. Your goal is to break the joint so he will be unable to chase you.

Shin Scrape and Foot Stomp

If held from behind, don’t struggle forward. You’ll only tire yourself out. Instead, throw yourself backwards to surprise the attacker. Scrape your heal down his shin and/or stomp hard on his foot. Aim for the foot, not the toes. Your goal is to break his foot so he can’t run after you. Depending on your height, compared to the attacker, you could also injure his nose by throwing your head back into his face.

Finger Break

Grab one (or two) of your attacker’s fingers and bend it backward. Snap it back with full power until you feel and/or hear it break.

You can grab all of the fingers, but you really just need to grab one or two. The objective is to snap the fingers completely back with all your strength to cause injury.

Biting

Because biting is unsanitary, do it only if you cannot do anything else. Bite down hard on a sensitive area or any area you can reach. Bite a small area with the front of your teeth in a “pinch” as this causes far more pain and damage than a full mouth bite. Bite hard and ferociously until the attacker lets you go or loosens his grip enough for you to use another technique.

What’s the best target to choose on an attacker?

Whichever one you can reach. It doesn’t matter which target you choose. Just choose one and go for it. Then choose another. And another. And another. Until the attacker is incapacitated.

To be able to effectively defend yourself against a violent attack…

You must not feel any sympathy for the thug who is attacking you. Any sensitivities you may have about becoming violent toward a human being must be suppressed. He certainly won’t be feeling any sympathy toward you. To him, you are just a thing that is in the way of what he wants.

In other words, you can’t be squeamish about injuring your attacker in order to save yourself.

If you don’t think you are able (mentally) to injure another human being, ask yourself this: “Would I rather be raped, hospitalized or beaten to death instead of fighting violently for my life?”

Do whatever you can to incapacitate him. Turn his violence back on him and become the attacker, to save your own life.

~Shereen

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