Please forgive me...but I'm curious...[Why isn't a knee to the groin a more common fighting tactic?]

Factual Questions
101

Original OP here -

Thanks for all of the info on this “General Question.”

After reading two pages of information I have the answer.

Males learn from a very early age to ‘protect their junk.’

Yes, if hit in the precisely ‘right’ spot - and assumebly without notice - it can knock a large man to the floor and incapacitate him.

But… most males are prepared to protect themselves … because they have been ‘trained’ to expect it and defend against it. (As in “turning aside” - etc. )

Have also learned, however, that females in vulnerable positions should not forget this option for defense.

Thanks for all of your input.

I love “General Questions” !

102

The one we can be sure will never appear is “Son of Nutcrusher”.

Regards,
Shodan

103

I think that there is a tacit agreement between males because if you do it and miss then he’s going to do it back and could f**k you up bad. There is also a limit that most male fights won’t go beyond because it is more about Alpha Male dominance. You usually don’t see a guy keep stomping someone he has knocked out in a fight. If he does, there is a point where the other males will step in and stop it.

I am much older than the average person on this site and I grew up in a different era. In that era if you even kicked a guy in any way at all you were considered a ‘dirty fighter’. That carried a stigma with it that you couldn’t fight like a man. The only way you could win a fight was to cheat by fighting dirty.

104

Another oldster here . . . and I’m thinking you’re right. In certain contexts, kicking or kneeing someone doesn’t come off as particularly “manly.” Same for slapping. But it does change over generations. In movies of the 30s, there are instances of a guy slapping another guy’s face. Not today.

105

But “Real Men” only slapped simpering wimps and homosexuals in the face 'cause they didn’t deserve to see knuckles. See The Maltese Falcon for examples.

Again, Monkey Dance or ego fights isn’t about hurting the opponents; it is about making him look weak and ineffectual. Even John Wayne would double over if unexpectedly kicked in the nuts, but Real Men are supposed to be able to take a punch to the face or abdomen without doing anything more than grimace.

Stranger

106

“Zombie Nutcrusher”?

107

I have some more info on this. My nephew stopped to visit last night and I asked him about strikes to the balls. He is 23 years old, and was a wrestler (state champ) throughout high school. He likes to fight when he gets drunk. Basically, he will taunt someone, insult their woman, whatever, then let them take the first swing, then kick their ass. He has had >30 fights and has not lost (although he has had some broken bones and lacerations).

According to him:
[ol]
[li]It just aint done. He would rather take a beating then stoop that low[/li][li]Once the ball-strike line is crossed, the fight escalates. Pool cues, bottles, etc are all ok.[/li][li]It is a small, difficult to hit target area.[/li][li]The effect is overstated, especially if you are drunk.[/li][/ol]

I asked him why he doesn’t fight in an organized league setting (think UFC) but he said he lacks the discipline to train daily. He’d rather be a barroom brawling champion than a so-so UFC fighter.

108

You must be very proud.

109

No, anything but. :rolleyes:

110

Sorry, I know you posted to provide information, but that’s sickening.

111

Tell him someday he’s going to pick a fight with someone who does.

112

In my book your smilie means nothing. Please explain why you feel the need to single out Jews.

113

Krav Maga

114

We call this evolution in action.

Stranger

115

I have studied a few martial arts, for a few years each. I’m not an expert, but here are my notes on this topic.

The first ones I studied were sports Judo and sports Karate. These seem to be the common form of these arts taught where I live, and are geared towards competition, rather than real fighting. In those, we were forbidden from being too brutal, and that included things like groin/eye strikes. The aim wasn’t to hospitalize the guy, it was to earn points in a refereed fight.

After those I moved onto Wing Chun. This was very different from the sports styles I had done before. There weren’t belts/costumes/padding/gloves/mats/etc. It was much more geared towards ‘real’ fighting, to the point of what you would do when the possibility of hospitalization or even death were involved. In this style, we were taught that eye strikes, groin strikes, gauging, and all the other attacks like this are fair game.

However, groin strikes where still not a big part of the teaching for a few reasons. The attacks we were taught involved mainly punching/open hand/lower arm strikes to the upper body and head. Kicking was used very little, and it was strongly discouraged to kick much higher than the shins, due to the likelihood of them grabbing your leg and taking you down that way. Another consideration was that trained fighters tend to use stances that make groin attacks less effective or more difficult. However, groin strikes were taught as part of the ‘emergency training’, which is the part of the style where the normal strict rules are relaxed, in the event of an ‘emergency’, anything that will work is considered fair game.

In the few real fights I’ve been involved in, it depended a lot on the situation whether or not I used groin attacks. A couple of fights were of the ‘honor’ variety. In those fights I didn’t use groin strikes, as it was one on one fighting, and it would be considered socially unacceptable to use those kind of techniques. It would be considered much less honorable and ungentlemanly to win in this manner.

However in fights were I was attacked for no reason or by a few people, I used those kind of attacks freely, they had dishonorably attacked me either for no real reason, or by using multiple people, so I considered there to be no social pressure to act honorably myself.

116

In high school a couple bullies got into a fight. They kicked each other in the crotch about 10 times each and they kept coming. Every boy watching was amazed and crossed their legs in sympathy. But the kicks were all home runs . It did not stop them at all. I made damn sure I didn’t piss one of them off.

117

Bas Rutten (former UFC HW champ, former King of Pancrase, former bouncer, creator of self defense DVDs and books, fighting legend):

“Everybody underestimates the kick in the groin.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3K-mrlYG7Y

Of course, if you do this, as noted above, you have taken all rules off the table, and you will get no sympathy later if you take a thrown tumbler off the jaw.

118

If someone wants to hurt me and actually attacks me I will do whatever I can to protect myself. That includes kicking him in the nuts.

Here’s a timely news item…

http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/news_details/article/27/2009/september/02/man-fends-off-would-be-carjacker-1.html

119

It is a common fighting tactic, however it is not an “Opening move”. The reason that Men just don’t “Go for It” is that it is a more complicated target to reach without softening up your opponent first. All males learn early on that a blow to the testicles can be quite painful; they therefore go to great lengths to protect that area.

Trained fighters learn to incorporate that blow into a series of strikes used to disable an attacker. As many others have already told you, a punch to that area leaves you terribly open to a devastating counter attack should you miss, (And you probably will). A kick necessitates that you give your opponent a full leg extension and leave a nice, stable, safe balance point. A knee strike is the same.

The point is that while Yes it can be an effective move, it is prone to failure more often than not, and using it directly is an obvious escalation of aggression. This isn’t a big deal if you intend to beat your opponent senseless or dead, but most people are trained to simply end the altercation as soon as possible. THAT IS WHY men are not trained to “go for it”. Because if you fail, and you most likely will, you will probably get beaten badly and/ or killed.

120

When I had hand-to-hand combat at Army basic, we were taught to go for the groin… not preferentially, but if possible.

I suspect part of the reason is that it’s a non-lethal blow that invites retaliation. If you aren’t going to follow up the groin shot with a swift decapitation, you can count on getting hit in the balls yourself. This is why you don’t see guys in non-lethal fights (football, hockey, martial arts, etc) going for the groin (IMO).