Trapped in a dark alley...

In My Humble Opinion
41

This has happened to me, twice so far. As background, I’m 5’9", and weigh about 170 lbs. I am male. And although it is of course not apparent from looking at me, I’ve practiced martial arts, of various forms, for many many years.

Neither of my attackers were particularly muscular- street assailants often seem to rely on surprise rather than true intimidation. One of my assailants was quite simply grossly obese. Knowing that a body blow to him would do little good, and that he probably had week knees already as the result of his absurd weight, I left him in the alley with a dislocated knee. The second assailant was a youth, smaller than myself, who brandished a knife at me. I used a technique similar to that described above by bippy to deprive him of that knife and use of that hand, and introduce him forcefully to the ground.

In either case, after the action, I quickly assesed the surroundings, and backed away. After reaching a safe location, I called the police. Neither attacker was ever apprehended.

BUT- each confronation is unique. There is never a set way to deal with any incident. The key to succesful self defense is awareness. It begins with avoiding dangerous situations like this, and continues with the rapid assesment of the situation and the on-the spot planning to end the situation as soon as possible.

For this case, with the person hypothetically bigger/stronger than me, I’d consider a range of techniques, coming down to using his grab/punch momentum to break an arm or wrist, and following with a strike to the classis hurt-em-quick points- knees, shins, groin, solar plexii, neck/larynx, or eyes. Knee kicks are taught as gospel in so many one-day self defense courses, they’re becoming expected, leading to the risk of a block. I may avoid them in the future if this ever happens again. The goal would of course be to end the confrontation in one strike, rendering the attacker unable to continue or pursue. Then back away, escaping asap to a safe location. If one strike cannot put him out well enough to let me escape, then things get nasty and I may have to do permanent harm.

The most important thing, though- THINK. As Mr Adams teaches us, DON’T PANIC. 90% of the time, alleyway assailants are after a quick buck, and putting up any fight at all will send them running (or crawling or limping) on to the next victim. And don’t use any more force than neccesary- thanks to our justice system, this turns you into the criminal.

42

as someone who (several years back) wandered around, alone, through northern DC at midnight while trying to find where to reclaim her towed vehicle, i’m probably insane enough to find myself in a situation like that. maybe it’s the way i carry myself, since i’m not a particularly intimidating physical specimen in the size department, or the marching pace i normally assume when walking, but i’ve rarely been bothered or accosted.

my planned response would run a bit like Feynn’s, with a bit of Greywolf’s approach for added spice: first the maniacal grin, followed quickly by patented “crazy eyes” narrowing, lips lifting to expose teeth and loud growl issuing from my throat. also hunching forward slightly and curling fingers backwards a bit, giving a somewhat “clawed” appearance to hands. (yes, my finger joints have a slightly peculiar range of motion.) if the appearance of a total whack-job wanting to do a werewolf doesn’t phase my would-be attacker, then he can expect me to go for anything vulnerable that i can reach. this includes kicking already-mentioned targets, biting arms, hands, neck, you-name-it. (yep, that too. especially. ain’t messin’ around if it’s my butt in danger.)

my concious decision was made long ago. if it’s a “him or me” situation, i intend to be the one still able to walk away. anything and everything is fair game. anything i can put hand to as a weapon, would become one: pen, haircomb, hairstick (makes wonderful weapon for aiming at the face and eyes), stick, bottle…

lachesis

p.s. interesting observation from actual experience: without actually punching someone, you can physically throw them off-balance (and maybe give yourself some breathing room) by putting your hands on their chin and shoving hard. if the head goes back, the body tends to follow, just to maintain balance. and i believe i detected a notable degree of surprise in the recipient, since he was busy trying to dominate and intimidate me physically. being shoved away by someone smaller/lighter/“vulnerable” gender apparently had nevered occurred to him.

43

Run like all hell, as a practical matter.

44

One of my friends who has been the object of several muggings and had this happen to him (at gunpoint mind you), shouted NO! as loud as he could and ran into a heavy trafficked road (trying to keep parked cars between him and the assailant) when the guy tried to drag him into the alley. The mugger already had his wallet and was likely going to murder and/or rape him there. I think he did the right thing, since the mugger/shooter isn’t likely to shoot someone in middle of traffic with tons of witnesses. I had never thought about it until then, but I think he did the right thing, he got out of the immediate danger and was only out a couple of bucks and the fright of having one’s life threatened.

45

Thanks for the responses guys and gals this has made very interesting reading…as a matter of curiosity, of those who have practised martial arts, how closely linked do you think your martial arts and “self defence” are?

46
  1. Not be alone in a dark alley, because that’s not too smart for a 5-foot, 110 lb. teenage girl.
  2. Give him my wallet/purse if he wants. Don’t have anything much in it anyway, most valuable thing being my Palm Pilot, which is locked (had it snatched at school once) by password and not that valuable. At least attempt to be calm - don’t sound hysterically scared, don’t sound too confident. I’d be afraid that screaming would cause him to get pissed off.
  3. If, for some reason, some lowlife wants a fight with a teenage girl and not my money - try and run like hell.
  4. If prevented from running like hell - Grab the front of his shirt, knee to the groin, heel of the palm to the adam’s apple. Hopefully, that would stun him enough to let me run like hell.

If he still insists on screwing with me, probably a strong front kick to the kneecap, which I can say from experience, hurts like nothing else. If that still doesn’t work, I second the ‘fight dirty’ option (anyone who tries to mess with someone like me deserves it, 'cuz it’s NOT a fair fight). Punch to the solar plexus with middle knuckle sticking out and/or punch like that under the bottom ribs. Jab at his ribs. Scream like hell, preferably in his ear.

I do practice TKD (six years now, getting close to 2nd dan), and I’m not going to say it’s the most practical method of self-defense (I think a bottle of pepper spray and not walking down dark alleys is). However, I do think it’s something of a benefit, since A: I’m a lot stronger than I would be if I didn’t train. B: I can throw a good punch and kick, unlike many girls my age. C: I know (some from experience) where certain nerve centers are, therefore, know where to target. D: I’ve been in (controlled) stressful situations - at my black belt testing, had to spar the 2-on-1 match from hell: me against 2 instructors, both 2nd dan, one who outweighed me by a good 100lbs, and one who is quite possibly the fastest guy I’ve ever met. I know how to take a punch, and how to not just give in and panic when attacked. (Yeah, I know it wasn’t real, however, it was not a nice, easy match.) Additionally…some of my closest friends (ex, people who I might be walking the streets of Philly with at night) are pretty big, strong guys, some of whom happen to hold mulitple black belts and can come across as damn scary if they want.

47

Drop-knee ippon seoinage followed by Ude-hishigi-juji-gatame which I would hopefully follow through on until completion. Then I might think about breaking his other arm. Then his skull. Then taking his valuables.

48

Not very. I studied shotokan karate, which never seemed to take into account all that messy “rolling around on the ground” stuff that happens in real life, and seemed pretty centred around the idea that I’d eventually be able to use a knife hand to break a collar bone.

Good stuff if you can do it, but a pint mug and steel toed boots don’t require quite that much training to actually work.

49

Truthfully green, you might want to start a new thread if you are serious about wanting the info. A lot of the folks above might not come back to see your 2nd ?

As for me, I study martial arts that focus on the ‘martial’ not so much the ‘art’, so what I practice is what I’d do.

-Tcat

50

thanks for the advice TC new thread on it’s way just as soon as I get back :slight_smile: