Self Defense - The Most Effective Body Parts to Hit 

If you find yourself in a confrontation, you don’t have more than a couple of seconds and handful of moves before the attacker gains the upper hand. Before your attacker is able to gain control over you, you need to do save your energy while inflicting as much injury as possible, so you can make your escape. Self defense is key in attack, because either you will be hurt or you will do the hurting. You need to aim for the body parts where you will be able to do the most damage quickly – the nose, eyes, knee, and groin.

Where you strike will depend on the position of your attacker and how close he is to you. Don’t step closer so you can strike his eye, when you can strike the knee from where you are. When you are targeting the upper body, you are going to be using your hand. You can have an effective strike using the outer edge of your hand in a knife hand position, a tightly curled fist, or for softer targets a knuckle blow or palm strike is good. 

Nose – If your attacker is in front of you and close to you, using the heel of your palm strike up under your attacker’s nose, throwing your entire body weight into the move. This will cause the most pain and almost always cause him to loosen his grip. If your attacker is behind you, use your elbow to strike his nose from the front or side, aiming for the nasal bones.

Eyes – Poke, scratch, or gouge the attacker’s eyes using your fingers or knuckles is very effective. It causes a great deal of pain and your attacker’s vision will be temporarily affected allowing you to make an escape. 

Knee – Self defense instructors say the knee is a perfect target because it is vulnerable from all angles and can be easily kicked without fear of your foot being grabbed. Kicking the side of the knee causes injury and can knock your attacker off balance. Kicking the front of the knee can cause greater injury; however, it isn’t as likely to knock your attacker off balance.

Neck – The side of the attacker’s neck is a nice big target, where both the jugular vein and carotid artery are found. You can temporarily stun your attacker using a knife hand strike – this is when all your fingers are held straight and tight together with your thumb tucked. For more damage, you can thrust your elbow into your attacker’s throat while at the same time putting all your body weight into it.

