Secret Street Fighting Combinations From Beginner To Advanced Level
How to Take a Punch
How to Take a Punch - Never Wait for It!
How to Take a Punch - Act Before It's Too Late!
How to Take a Punch - Blocking Techniques?
How to Take a Punch - The 4 Best Ways
Two More Pointers on How to Take a Punch
How to Take a Punch - Human Nature
How to Take a Punch - Never Wait for It!
You strike first. Period. Ideally you don't take any punches in a self defense situation. We are not going to discuss slipping, ducking and fancy blocking techniques here because there is no balance between offense and defense in a self defense situation. A street fight is 90% offense and 10% defense. The real defense is when you are able to handle the situation and leave the scene without applying any physical force. However, when violence seems to be inevitable, NEVER wait for your assailant to strike first! Some stupid martial arts and self defense schools teach to wait for the attack, block it and then counter-strike. Let me stress it again: Never wait for him to strike first! Your best defense is to attack first. In order to know when to launch your preemptive strike, you have to examine your attacker carefully during the dispute. His hands are particularly important.
How to Take a Punch - Act Before It's Too Late!
You always have to act (either use a preemptive strike or run away) when your attacker:
- clenches his fists
- comes too close to you (within punching range)
- is about to grab something that can harm you (a chair, a bottle, a stick, a pipe, a baseball bat)
- touches you
- pushes you
- calls for his buddies
- pulls out a knife or a gun
These are triggers of inevitable violence. Train yourself to recognize these signs of danger in time. If you freeze and do nothing when any of the above mentioned actions happen, your chances of survival decrease significantly. The bottom line is: if you want to protect yourself or a loved one from being hurt, you have to strike first at the right time. If you don't know how to launch a devastating preemptive strike, please take a look at my tutorials on Palm Heel Strike or How to Knock Someone Out in One Punch.
How to Take a Punch - Blocking Techniques?
Martial arts and self defense systems teach you numerous ways to block a punch. Most of those techniques are ridiculous and will NEVER work against someone who REALLY wants to hurt you. Don't think so? Then turn on the TV please and check out some boxing, MMA, or K-1 fights. Those guys WOULD use arm sweeps, inside punch defenses and sliding blocks if any of those moves worked. What they do is they keep their guard up and chin tucked. Also their elbows are kept close to the body to protect the lower torso. This is the best you can do on the street too. Although professional fighters complement their defense with ducks and slips, you are not recommended to do that in a street fight.
How to Take a Punch - The 4 Best Ways
You can do 4 things to protect yourself from a punch:
- How to take a punch in general: Keep your guard up and make sure your chin is tucked.
- How to take a punch with your forearm: If you can see a haymaker or sucker punch coming from a mile away, you can block it with your forearm and counter immediately with a palm heel strike to the bridge of the nose. To block the punch, your elbow should be bent at about 120 degrees and your whole arm should be very stiff so that it can stop the incoming blow. Also remember, the sooner you block the less power the punch will have. As for the palm heel strike, you can check out: Palm Heel Strike.
- How to take a punch with your palms: You can protect your head by trying to catch and absorb the incoming punches with both of your palms. This is not very effective but comes instinctively. You can see this defensive reaction in many amateur street fighting videos.
- How to take a punch with your elbows: If your adversary is attacking your ribs or solar plexus, use your elbows to protect them!
Two More Pointers on How to Take a Punch
- Always keep your eyes on your attacker! It doesn't matter how hard he punches, you never take your eyes off him. If you are scared and close your eyes while receiving those powerful blows, you are dead meat. You have lost the fight and your life depends on the mercy of your adversary.
- Do not try to lay back from the blows! You will only make your attacker more confident on knocking you out.
How to Take a Punch - Human Nature
Everybody looks at tunnel vision as a bad thing and tell you that you must avoid it. In fact, you don't need to avoid it. In a very stressful situation like a street fight, you will always have tunnel vision because it is a natural response to danger. You need it just like you need the temporary higher blood pressure and adrenaline surge. Mother nature gave these things to you to enhance your chances of survival. Tunnel vision is a natural phenomena which is meant to help you focus your attention to one thing: to survive. Another smart advice almost every self defense guru will give you is to stay calm and use your head. Here is the truth; when someone punches you or a loved one in the face, you WON'T stay calm and you WON'T be able use your head. You'll do what any animal would do: ATTACK!
