Today several fellow Martial arts students and I helped our instructor teach a woman’s self defense class. I was working on the usefulness of knees with one woman, and she wasn’t really kneeing high or hard at all. I showed her how to grab the back of my head and pull it down while at the same time bringing her knee way up like this so that the marriage of force would be doubly effective against an attacker. “You mean like this?” she asks and suddenly jerks my head down and rams her knee right into my mouth. (Why didn’t I block? I know how to block that, what was I thinking?) SMASH! (Batman style sound effect) Mashed my lower lip into my teeth (mouthpiece? What is this mouthpiece of which you speak? Would it help in that situation?) taking a huge chunk out of my inner lip. I’m staggering back, hand to mouth, leaking blood all over the place. Head to the restroom, rinse/spit a dozen or so times, pack my lip with gauze and then head back to class, reminded again that inexperienced students are often MORE dangerous than those that know what they are doing.
Anyhow, I think she’s got that technique down pretty well now.
Ouch!
Oh yes, I learned that well when I studied kendo. One of the instructors had a newbie get the tip of the “sword” under his throat guard and strike him with a firm thrust in the adam’s apple. Another had a newbie whose sword dipped low and came up under the front “skirt”, hitting him right in the balls. I preferred to fight the experienced instructors; you’d get bruised to hell but at least you knew those bruises were more or less confined to your forearms and maybe a couple on the front of your shoulders.