Self Defense Techniques
Self defense techniques are what you will utilize when you are faced with a situation requiring you to defend yourself. Most of us do not routinely carry guns, knives, tasers or other weapons with us. Just doing so puts us at higher risk if the attacker manages to wrestle them away from us. A
personal alarm,
on the other hand, can be a helpful tool without the risk of becoming a weapon to be used against us. If, despite your best
personal safety
efforts, you find yourself in need of
self defense
many parts of our bodies can be used for self defense techniques. My personal favorite is the elbow. Obviously you have to be pretty close to use your elbows effectively. Elbows can be deployed forward or reverse, assisted or unassisted. To assist an elbow strike, simply make a fist with the same hand as elbow and grasp the fist with your other hand. This is really effective is someone is against your back, perhaps crowding/trapping you or preparing to grab you around your waist. Of course, once the waist grab is completed an elbow strike will not longer be the technique of choice. Most of the hand and foot techniques demonstrated on this website were moves I learned in
TaeKwonDo.
Use you entire torso to “throw” your elbow. Twist at the waist and pivot your shoulders as you strike with your elbow. Throw your elbow back and up if your attacker is your same height or smaller, to connect with the head/face/throat. Throw it straight back if taller to connect with the ribs/belly.
Click here to learn more on Elbow Strikes.
Another part of your body that can be used as a weapon would be your foot-either one, of course- kicking would be the best deployment of the foot. There are many decent targets on your attacker to aim for which I cover in
pressure points.
My advise- keep it low. I have no doubt some of you are flexible enough to kick to the face, but it takes too long and if he grabs your foot on the way up, well, YIKES! Kicking to the front or sides of the knees will disable the bad guy. There’s always the perennial favorite, the groin. Horse kicking to the rear to either of these areas can also be effective, but try not to kick blindly- again your leg could be grabbed and, again, YIKES! Your hands can also perform self defense techniques. A tightly rolled fist or a palm thrust to the face/nose or throat. Fingers can gouge eyes, pull ears and hair and twist pinky fingers.Here are some techniques for
escaping choke holds click here.
Click here to read more on Hand Grab Escapes
Click here to read more about Joint Locks.
Click here learn how to execute Knife Hand Strikes.
Click here to learn how to execute Palm Strikes.
Click here to learn how to execute Roundhouse Kicks.
Click here to learn how to execute a Front Snap Kick.
Click here to learn to execute a Side Kick.
Click here to learn how to escape holds from behind with a Shin Scrape/Foot Stomp.
Click here to return to the home page from Self Defense Techniques.


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