According to Lori Hartman Gervasi, in her seminal book, Fight Like a Girl–and Win, EVERY attack against women starts with the element of surprise. Although I might argue that some attacks are highly predictable, mayhap even expected by the victim (consider domestic violence, for one), for the sake of brevity and time, let’s concede the point. Fact is, the male (and sometimes, female) attacker understands the cogency of the element of surprise in first charming, then disarming, and finally destroying the victim with as little fight as possible.
In my Fighting Arts for Women classes the theme is always this: Reverse the Predator/Prey Principle. Simply put, I advocate taking the attacker’s mind set and expectations and totally flipping the mentality upside down by invoking the Element of Surprise on our part!
In any “life or death fight” where one side is dramatically overmatched, I say, Surprise is probably the only thing that can change the game in the woman’s (or child or teen facing a predator, bully, etc) favor! Think of this: when a woman is attacked, more often than not, her attacker is larger, stronger, faster, armed, in the company of an accomplice, plus, is often prepared with an attack plan. Not only that, the bad guy has often tracked his prey for minutes, hours, days, sometimes months. He has given this attack a lot of thought, even to the point of waiting to assault you in an environment with poor lighting, poor footing, and in a space where his victim has little room to escape or fight.
OKAY, ALREADY. WE GOT THE IDEA: WE’RE SCREWED! SO, WHAT THE HECK TO WE DO?
Good question. A little tempremental, but, still, good question. What you do – what you must do – is do the unexpected. Believe it or not, you have an edge. Not a big one, but an edge nevertheless. And what is that Edge you have?
The Bad Guy’s Expectations.
In 97 to 98% of the attack scenarios, the bad guy expects you to be meek, to surrender without a fight, to beg for your life. He often gets off on your fear, on the look of terror in your eyes. That look of “recognition” that you are the prey about to be dragged into an isolated corner of the world so the predator can torment and torture you until he finally rapes, robs and murders you.
INVOKE S.N.E.A.K.!
Open up a big can of Whoop-Ass on the monster by using the element of surprise. Sensei Michael Pace used the acronym “SNEAK” to describe the process.
Surprise is the first and most important element. Surprise is activated by fulfilling the bad guy’s expectations initially, and, then, suddenly exploding in his face!
Non-Violent is the 2nd element. Before counter-attacking, you must appear non-violent.
Explode is the 3rd element. You must “explode” from non-violent to ultra-violent in a split second. When you explode, go nuts, liberate the beast. You are all over his ass!
Aggressive: Incorporate an aggressive attitude. No longer a nice girl.
Knock the Bad Guy out of the fight.
Okay, you might be saying, that’s nice, but how the hell do I do this? In the next few posts I will be going over a few strategems, but, how about trying this one on for size?
The Bad Guy approaches with that “look” in his eyes. Despite your protests he steps into your space. Your gut instincts are screaming at you to get the hell out of there, but when you try to move he blocks your exit. You know for sure you are about to be attacked in some way. Put both hands up in front of your face, palms facing the guy’s face – the universal “Compliance Stance” – and you even “beg” him to let you go.
Then, suddenly, you bend your knees for power and drive both hands hard and fast into his head, driving up as if trying to knock his head off of his shoulders. Before he knows what is happening, his head snaps back and he is off-balance and all his Primary Targets are open for a follow-up strike! There are no apologies or excuses in self defense: Show No Mercy and hit those open targets with everything you have until it is safe for you to escape.
Even if the Bad Guy has one of your hands under control. Use your free hand and go for his head. No head can withstand the power of your entire body.
This will work.
Until the next post, stay safe.
The Hammer