Category: Let's talk
Hey guys. I was wondering what tips you all have for defending yourself in an attack should one happen. Luckily, I haven't had to be in this situation, but here are a few thoughts. Of course there is the prime target on a male and the obvious elbowing someone in the gut when they grab you from behind. I've also heard that you can grind your foot against someone's instep for maximum affect. Any other ideas would be welcomed.
Teeth can also work wonders if your attacker is right up in your face.
this is a great topic. it's an area where blind people seriously need to be taught.
at one time the national braille press had an excellent book on self defense for women. however, any man would certainly benefit from it. it is called something or other without fear. the author was a police officer from chicago who worked with blind people.
if you are really interested in persuing this, go to your local karate studio. tell them that you are blind, and ask if they can work with you. many are most welcoming and encouraging.
many police departments teach basic self defense classes. contact the one in your area to see if you can work something out.
Back in 1980, I was held up at gunpoint. This was an experience I never wanted to repeat. Although I've never taken a class, I've read a lot and talked to cops.
It is far easier to discourage someone before they get to the self defense stage. Here are a couple things to think about.
I always Walk quickly with my head up and a confident look on my face. Most purps pick people who look distracted or dazed.
I limit what I carry. Bad guys love to hit up people who are overburdened with a bunch of junk.
In the time it takes to decide if we want to run or throw down and ruin aunt petulah's birthday cake, they will be all over us.
If someone offers me help and they creep me out, I firmly and politely decline. It is better to be rude and wrong than polite and dead. A few months ago, some drunk guy with mental issues kept following me and insisted that I needed his help. When I told him nicely and then not so kindly to go play with someone else, I was criticized as being unkind. Excuse me but after I xplained my rationale, the people in question appologized.
If someone gets in my space, and grabs me without asking and starts dragging me where they think I want to go, I firmly and loudly say Unhand me!!!!! "what on earth do you think you are doing. Keep your hands to yourself!!!" This often happens at the metro. The resulting crowd usually convinces the ding dong that having me ring his bell is not so cool. If things get really bad I will make myself hard to move and simultanneously sstart screaming obscenities at a high volume. Many years ago, in a very swanky part of Washington, DC, some dude with a foreign accent came up to me and started dragging me toward his ruhnning car saying "I go home you come with me." I employed the described tactic. Oh by the way I'm very loud and due to my family history have an extensive and colorful vocabulary in diverse languages. Thankk God, he decided that even though I was blind, I was too hot to handle and he ran.
Hope this helps. Enjoy your day!!
These are some great tactics. I can say I've never been dragged anywhere. Grabbed yes, but not dragged. Usually the elbow in the stomach discourages people from going any further.
I know a lot of people who appreciate the elbow in the stomach tacitc. I've never had to use it myself, thankfully. Also, if people start grabbing your arm for no apparent reason, don't be afraid to shove them off, even if they seem helpful. They had no business grabbing your arm in the first place if you didn't ask them to.
oh gosh I can't believe I forgot this one. It is the most easy to do. Sorry for you politically correct folks. The nex paragraph may offend.
If I am in an area where I have absolutely no choice to be, besides the walking and not carrying junk, I will talk out loud to myself. Usually, I will act like i'm carrying on a one way comversation withsomeone. I have even gone so far as to look at the left or right like they may be answering me. No bad dude wants to mess with someone who appears to be crazier than are they.
I actually heard that's a bad idea to appear distracted. I read some basic articles about this stuff yesterday. I agree with Ocean Dream. Why does society say it's okay for a person to just come up and grab a blind individual but someone sighted would be looked at as totally justified if they employed the elbow in the stomach technique.
Great topic guys.
I concur with Turricane and other on this but here are my additional thoughts.
Keep your feet on the ground! Seriously! no hooyahs,no Bruce Lee's (ok I'm dating myself with that reference), keep your feet *on the ground*.
Chances of you actually kicking a man in the privates are slimmer anyway, than if you elbow or punch in the solar plexus (below the flat chest bone at the top of the gut). A man knows how to protect his privates and is often pretty good at preventing incomings.
And as to the teeth? Don't bite - unless you know you cant get hit in the face. Anyone who's ever been punched in the face knows that's pretty debilitating, and you don't want to be debilitated. You don't have fangs, so your teeth can't do that much in the overall scheme of things anyway, unless his hand was already over your mouth.
If you can't punch, have someone show you how who's not afraid of being hit. I taught my daughter when she was younger, and made her punch me till I was sure she knew how. That's not a blind thing, she can see. It's something you actually have to learn. Aiming at the solar plexus is a general enough target, and reaps big dividends: they get the wind knocked out of them if done hard enough.
I have seen people on here write about using their cane. I wouldn't count on mine even though it is alluminum. Just my opinion, but any blow you strike with a fist or an elbow or a knee is going to strike true, and pay bigger dividends, far more often than what you might accomplish with a cane. A cane is more shaped like a spear than a sword or fencing weapon, in short, if it were sharp you could possibly throw it at a still target but swinging it at someone will do little more than sting. It's not even a decent club. And no, I'm not suggesting spear-throwing as defensive tactic.
Everything Turricane and OceanDream said about looking occupied is absolutely true. When we lived downtown, I told my daughter wherever she was going act like she's in a hurry to get there. Not panicked of course, but occupied. The screaming tactic with girls especially works.
The underlying principal is that predators aren't the magnificent hunters they're often painted to be in the media. By contrast they are cowardly opportunists and would rather hunt down something wounded, encumbered or scared, rather than fight something in its prime. The sooner you realize that, the sooner you have the upper hand. They (including those with guns) are cowards, wussies. He (or she) who keeps their head, wins the fight. So don't panic. You're scared? So is the predator.
And now I'm gonna be sexist so shoot me. The best tactic for teenage girls is to travel in at least pairs. My rule for my daughter and her friends is to stick together. Fortunately, for whatever reason they don't have the tendency to want to sulk, get mad, and split up anyway, but you never know. A cowardly predator is less likely to approach a gaggle of chattering teens than a group of frightened waifs so I just tell them to carry on like they usually do at sleepovers ... they're good at that anyway.
Anyway these are just advice from life, taking my share of knocks along the way and then some. I make no pretense at being a defense expert in any way.
Good point, Robozork. Knocking out their wind is probably your best bet, if you can manage it.
Is it legal to carry pepper spray with you?
It is legal to carry it, yes, but remember that pepper spray issues a mist more than a stream. What this means is you may get a good deal of the effects as well as your assailant. If you can spray from a distance you may be safe, provided the wind isn't blowing towards you, but it's not necessarily as effective against a human assailant as some may make it out to be. Generally cops in combat don't use it, not if they're in close quarters, except to further restrain an already-restrained individual.
Chances are, if self defence is necessary, you won't have the distance to use such a method.
If you are going to try and get at there face, go for the eyeballs. might as well pop them suckers out. How did you go blind?
oh I attacked a blind guy!
I hope that blind women don't get attacked and that men would hopefully be helpful over harmful. I don't feel however that being unpleasant if grabbed is good. Seems better to say I'm okay thank you for your help over getting mad, acting strangely and the sort. I have lived in some of the worst and best neighborhoods and no place is safe, but I find being nice generally goes a long way in your protection. I'm a big tough guy that has had to fight some, so it's different, but in all situations I have learned that attacking, or fighting is your last resort, so that elbow, before you know you are being attacked seems a bad move. People get mad they pick. I once explained to a girlfriend who was blind that nice works. You live in the worst area and you are good to the street people you can walk at any time of day or night, because they will take care of you period. The law of gangsters is that disabled, children, and older people are strickly off limits. If they like you they will kill for you. Believe it. Like when the person being dragged to someones car, if the street people liked her that would never happen. They dislike you they can care less what happens to you. Prostitutes for blind women are some of your best friends, so remember that nice as protection. Smile.
Good luck and that self defence class is a great idea for when you must, but the first lesson you'll learn is if you can get away do and fight another day.
Oh I think you're correct. My only references were for when something has already gotten started.
I do think, though that one needs to protect - albeit you don't have to kill to do so, - your own space. You could be grabbed and pickpocketed in short order. However, I'm guessing you will get grabbed less the more you take control of the situation, albeit with civility.
Hadley School for the Blind has a correspondence course on this self-defense. Visit www.hadley.edu for more info.
Now keep in mind I'm giving suggestions for actually being attacked, not just for when an overly zelous sighted person is trying to help you in an unhelpful way. For actually being attacked, like someone else said, go for the eyeballs if you can. I know it sounds gross, but don't be afraid to get your fingers in there and push them in. Also a good punch to the nose if you can manage it. I think most attackers are expecting a woman to try to kick them in the groin and are ready for that and will just grab your leg and make you lose your balance and end up on the ground which is exactly where you don't want to be.
I never thought of the eyeball trick. Good idea.
I can draw on some of the wrestling training i've learned over the years, granted they might get closer than you'd really want but if you know how to use someone's strength and force against them they may be the one on the ground before long. also to the person who said a cane isn't a good defence weapon, used in the right way and depending on the cane it can be helpful. breaking a grip for example. take a heavier cane and slam it in to the rist. trust me, it hurts a great deal.
i take karate, have for years, will be going for my blackbelt in the fall, and the one thing people wonder, is it a scholol for the blind, no, i get just as rough as everyone else, i go througgh all the same training as everyone else, no holding back, no nancy poo stuff. you learn how to fight, not to kill, but how to survive, how to rool, how to fall with out getting hurt, how to defend yourself and control the situation, biting is a no no, because if someone is that close, you'd be stupid to get them that close to you in the first place, there is a lot to explain, and i can't do it in 8000 chars. go look up the art of hapkeido. we have everything, kicks, punches, throws, takedowns, sparing, and defense. it's in my oppinion the best martial arts out there. civility can only get you so far, if someone wants to take you, being as nice as u want they'll do it anyway,
The book that NBP offered was called Safe Without Sight. I have it somewhere.
Well, of course, you're nice when you can be. Self-defence should always be a last resort.
You are nice allways. Smile. Even when you are spanking ass you smile. Anger is your worst friend and has no place in the street.
Nice isn't going to get you too far if someone has a knife to your throat, or something of the sort where your life is threatened.
thanks to the person who thought of the name of the NBP book. I couldn't agree more about making the aquaintance of street people. The reason they didn't help me when I was being dragged, was that it was an area where they don't hang.
When I was pregnant with my son, I used to have to take the train in an extremely unsavory area of my city. Every morning the homeless guys were lined up on the benches outside the station. I always spoke to them. After I cam back from maternity leave. I got off the bus. Suddenly, they all start3ed clapping and saying "hey littla mama was it a boy or a girl."
I'm a totally blind female. I've been in different martial arts off and on for a little over 15 years. I have a brown belt in shotokan karate. I want to work on getting my black belt when and if my health permits it because I have chronic pain, and muscle weakness currently. I have a criminology degree. I took the rape aggressive defense course with the police department, and I've been totally blind since birth. My advice is to explore the martial arts and find the right one for you, and find the right instructor and school for you. I say this because I’ve had instructors that didn’t want to teach a blind person because they thought that a blind person could get hurt or just couldn’t do the martial arts. I also had one instructor that just wanted me for publicity. I say find the right martial arts because some people benefit from wrestling type martial arts like judo, jujitsu, and aikido and some people benefit from hitting martial arts like karate, kung fu, taekwondo, etc. If you like punching do some type of karate and if you like kicking then do some type of taekwondo or Korean martial art. I don’t think that any martial art is better than another is. I think it’s whatever martial art works for you. If you are attacked, scream and fight like hell and try to stay calm because you have to think and be aware of everything that is happening. Whoever said go for the eyeballs that's great. The cane does help if it is closed. At that point, be an animal because the niceness has to go at that point and the way I think about it is that because we are blind its kill or be killed and I’m not implying that killing is our only option I’m just saying to have that mentality at that moment. Whoever said use your teeth, well I don’t recommend that because you could get aids or some other disease from your attacker from cutting them when you bite them. The police don’t even recommend biting and they don’t even bite. Oh and if you kicked or grab the groin and he is high then it won’t even hurt him it will just enrage him. I agree with everything that forereel said in post fourteen. I probably could think of more because the martial arts are my passion but it only allows 8000 characters.
persevere i love your name!!! it is extremely cool.
I in my opinion, every kid should take some form of self defense. it is a great confidence builder, we have a better idea of how our body works, and know our relationship to space.
I wonder, if you have a tassor on you and someone is up in your face, would that work? I mean, all the tips given above are really good, but if you have a tassor...stun the mindless son of a bitch if your a female and the heartless bitch if your a male. Just saying.
Also, one thing you could try, if you've got the strength, is to clap your hands on the temples, or pinch the nurve clusters at the base of the kneck.
Thanks turricane. I agree with you that all kids should take some form of martial arts.
remember, that any weapon, be it a taser, pepper spray or a gun can be grabed and turned from a defensive to an offensive weapon. This is why the hands and the brain are much better and safer.
exactly that's why I don't carry any weapons because I'm scared it will be used against me.
Martial arts are great things, I know the basics of a few of them. However, they have several drawbacks, and even cops will tell you this. First, martial arts do not teach how to do most of those moves when your not on a mat, facing a guy who isn't doing the same moves, and there are absolutely no rules. Martial arts, no matter the movies and the masters, are worthless against a weapon. if a guy has a knife, he will most likely beat you. Most of us are not Walker texas Ranger here. Remember, if your on the street, there is no referee saying go, there is no warning, there are no rules, there is no one to end the fight except you and your attacker.
Also, if an attacker is high, especially on angel dust or some drug like it, he will not feel any of your kicks or punches. I have seen a man on angel dust put his fist through a plate-glass window while on a ride along with a police officer. If he didn't feel the glass slicing his arm to ribbons, he isn't going to feel your kicks. In order to defeat an attacker like that, you must shut down body mechanics. No matter the drugs, you cannot grip with cut tendons, your lungs cannot work with a bullet hole in them, take your pick.
Next, call me sexist here, but most girls are not very big, and most guys are. Face facts, most girls are not as physically strong as men, its just how our bodies were designed. So most likely, unless you are very well trained, you will not be able to overpower someone who is much larger than you.
I personally carry weapons. for the moment I carry a knife and I know how to use it, I also know how not to get it taken away from me. When I get licensed, I will carry a gun, I also know how to use those, and how to not get them taken away from me.
that is just my choice, there is no right or wrong way to do it. It is all personal preference.
As for the question on tazers. If your going to use a tazer, hope that there is only one attacker, he isn't wearing thick clothing, he isn't too close, he isn't touching you, that the tazer actually works, and that you don't miss. tazers only have one shot, and that's it. Pepper spray has some of the same drawbacks.
If any of you have any questions about how I use weapons as a totally blind person, message me and I'll answer anything you want to know.
SilverLightning, I agree with you that there are no rules when someone attacks you but that’s why I don't really believe in tournaments. To me tournaments are just a way to entertain and get a trophy and feel good for a little while because there is always someone better than you and in a real fight, rules go out the window. However, I disagree with you that the martial arts can't defend against a weapon. If a person has a knife and you are stronger than the attacker is then yes you can grapple the knife away. I agree that if the attacker is high that he won't feel your kicks or punches but that doesn't mean that your kick or punch didn't do any damage. I know that men are stronger than women are because I'm a woman, I took judo, jujitsu, and aikido, and I was not good at getting out of holds and kept landing on the mat. That is why I quit those three martial arts. No martial arts is a full defense against an attacker, you know to martial arts to build confidence and have an idea of what could happened and have an idea of things you could attempt to do. Just because you know martial arts don’t mean at all that, you will win the fight or get out alive. That’s great that you carry and are willing to use a knife and gun but you can't say 100% that it won't be taken away from you and be used against you. If you actually believe that then that's your ego talking. I would like to know how you use the gun being totally blind. I will message you.
PW, finally, someone else who studies martial arts. i will be getting my blackbelt in hapkeido in the fall. and unlike other arts, this is good to use your attacker's energy against them. so a patet woman can take down for example a 6ft tall guy. i have seen it done and done it myself.
most martial arts don't show you what to do with a knife, well, at blackbelt level, which i am very close to being, they study the knife, not how to use it as much as how to get away from it, hurt the person with it, and a lot of other weapons, staffs, and other things that i can't wait to learn.
but you'd never see me with a actual knife, cuz i would be no better then the people attacking me. there are pleanty of ways to subdue a drunken uncle as we call it. you can take them down and keep them down, you may not feel your arm torn to shreeds, but you will deffenatly know if you have a dislocated shoulder or two.
Darkwing, it's nice to meet another blind martial artist as it is rare. I've heard of hapkido but have never studied it. I seem to like original martial arts and not modern ones. I've never trained for the self defense aspect. I just love training in the martial arts, old movies that have martial arts pholosophy, and I like reading martial arts things that have the martial arts pholosophy. I will be working on getting my black belt in shotokan karate whenever my health issue goes away and I can train again. I have a brown belt in shotokan karate and I'd like to teach the martial arts one day. I always was told that I could use the attackers energy against him when I took, judo, jujitsu, and iakido but it never worked for me. They told me that I should weight lift but I never did do that. I finally quit and figured that the using the energy against the attacker was like wrestling and that's why I always lost because the attacker was stronger than me. Yes I know that the martial arts teach you how to get a knife away which was what I was trying to tell SilverLightning. . I learned that in judo, jujitsu, and iakido from the beginning and I know that other martial arts teach that later when the student is a black belt. Just like you you'd never see me with a actual knife, cuz i would be no better then the people attacking me too. I have a bachelor's in criminology and carrying a knife is illegal.
Well, first, I have to say, carrying a knife isn't illegal everywhere, wepon laws change from state to state. I don't know what state you live in, so I don't know if its illegal or not.
Second, nothing, not weapons, or screaming, or martial arts, or sticking a cop in a backpack and carrying them around with you wherever you go, is 100 percent garranteed to work. I would never believe that just because I have a weapon or know how to fight, that I will survive the fight. However, I am sure that it changes the odds of it.
HI, just as a note, tournament fighting isn't just for show, it too, takes discipline, and it does get you to practice your speed, power, and all of that good stuff. Yes, it is not the same as having a brawl with a mugger, but it is fighting. You can train for self defense, which is different than practicing a martial art.
Also, nerve pinching on the neck, and all of that is better left for situations when your life is not in danger, to ward off a bully, or to keep someone who is drunk from getting too close, not to protect your life.
It's good to know there are more than a couple martial arts practitioners on here.
One of the teachers at my old high school could knock a person out with his pinky finger. I don't know which Marshal arts he studied, but he could do it.
i do have my wrestling training, but i've considered from time to time on expanding that. however, i'm not sure which form i should take as i don't do well at distance kind of things.
none of us knows how we will act until we are experiencing the actual situation. the big thing to always remember is make our fear molecules march in line and not race ahead as panic parasites.
back in 1981, i was held up at gunpoint. i was in baltimore with a friend. we were leaving the preakness and couldn't find our car. my friend who was a woman with normal sight totally freaked out.
the guys jumped us from an alley. they gstuck a 22 in her stomach and demanded her bag. then they came to me and said "may i have your purse please?" I was like sure. I remember as clearly as yesterday the thought came in to my head "a well mannered thug. your mom must be so proud."
Anyway, she was so afraid that her husband would be mad because the bad guys got her master card that she went tearing down the street screaming "give me back my bag!!!!! I want my credit card now!!!!" I just stood there and watched and was totally flabbergasted. Losing her life over a piece of plastic seemed totally foolish to me. Then she ran back and threw herself down in the middle of the sidewalk kicking and screaming. This croud of like fifty people gathered and were surrounding her. finally some lady looked at me and said "honey were you a witness?" I said "they got my bag too." the police arrived and i was totally thrilled that I got to get in to a cop car. i was looking around in it and asking him a million questions. my friend was a total basket case.
The whole point of this rambling tale is that I've always been accused of being a wimp. This girl ran with a really rough crowd, had a tatoo, and appeared to be the ultimate amazon woman. When the rubber hit the road, I was a lot more in control then was she. To be honest I am kind of proud of myself.
PW, hapkeido is a koriean art, from, a long time ago. it's not all that modern, 100 years or more old i thinks.
hapkeido MMA aka mixed martial arts is the modern stuff,
what my instructer teaches is the ancient stuff, as i said, aat least 100 years old. they teach you to fight and to defend. and in oct once i get my blackbelt is when i start learning weapons, which compaired to everything to this point will be the hardest to learn...
SilverLightning thank you for saying your not invincible because that’s how you were coming across to me in that other post. A cop in a backpack lol.
Ok Sure, yes I know tournament fighting takes discipline. I’m not denying that. I used to participate in tournament kata when I was training but tournament fighting and kata is just for show and not true self-defense just as you said.
Rat since you like wrestling you should try judo, jujitsu, or aikido.
Darkwing, no according to what I know Hapkido is only around sixty years old and it wasn’t brought to the west until the mid 1980s, so it’s a modern traditional style and there are many styles of Hapkido. I hope this doesn’t start controversy between us and if you have a book that says different from what I know then please tell me the name so that I can read it. I also like styles that have katas and Hapkido doesn’t have katas. Oh and please don’t get me started on mix martial arts, I hate the fact that mma ever got started. That ruined the traditional of learning one martial art and sticking with it. Mix martial arts are not traditional at all. In addition, Hapkido is not a mix martial art and I’m glad for that.
there is hapkeido MMA, but not what i do... it's a korean martial art, so... and, no, it won't start anything. i'll have to do something like that in a year or two, drewl, once you hit blackbelt, you start learning how to use staffs, short sticks, knife defense, and shaniis, sry, can't spell, in short, you start to learn swords, drewl, swords! i likes swords.
and we have self defense, you learn to use the attacker's own energy against them. we have kicks, punches, all encoporated into defense, one step sparing, free sparing, please pardon me while i beat up this guy he... usually getting my ass kicked in the process...
no PW, we are perfectly fine...
When I took aikido, I did learn a little how to use a wood sword and I knocked a black belt out accidently by hitting him on the side of the head. I got scared of the sword for a while after that but got over it. I learned how to use a staff, and short stick when I was taking kung fu. It was cool. In kung fu they learn weapons from the beginning and in ikido they learn the wood sword from the beginning to. They have a mix martial art for hapkeido. No why do people want to ruin a perfectly good martial art with taking things out of a style and mixing the style with other styles. As far as free sparring, that’s usually how it works for the blind we try to hold our own in sparring while usually getting our ass kicked in the process. Oh that reminds me of a time when there was this teen one day that couldn’t get a hit on me at all one day. He was frustrated and inside I was laughing because that day one thing was giving him away and I was using it fully to my advantage. After class he went over an asked me why he couldn’t get a hit in but other people could that day. I smiled and said I don’t know if I should tell you because then I won’t have the advantage. I didn’t tell him that day. The next day everything went back to normal as far as sparring. He was very confused and asked me after class what was up with yesterday. I said your uniform smelled like pancake syrup yesterday so I knew where you were every time in sparring and today it’s clean so it’s back to I don’t know where you always are in sparring. We both laughed. His uniform never smelled like pancake syrup again so that was to bad for me.
I’m glad we are perfectly fine Darkwing.
swords from the beginning, sweet!! i can't wait, and yes i agree, y someone would corupt a perfectly good art with other things...
so to my fellow female warrior, may we both reach our goals... may we both become blackbelts one day.
then we'll talk over tea,
well, someday, that would be nice...
Osu! Darkwing if you don't know what that means ask me on messenger or look it up on the internet. We use it in Japanese karate but I'm not sure if Korean karate has a similar word.
to answer your question PW, we don't.. at least not to my knowledge...
yay,