10 Principles of Fighting - Principle 5

Principle 5 – “Switch between attacking high and low targets. Don’t focus on or become blind to just one target”

Our system looks at using soft strikes (gouges, finger strikes, open hand strikes) to soft and vulnerable targets (eyes, throat and groin) as a means of overwhelming and “short circuiting” a person in order to open them up. This creates the opportunities that allow us to follow up with hard strikes, such as punches, elbows and knees as a means of finishing/ending the fight. The reason we initially attack this way, is that soft strikes require little accurate body positioning, unlike a punch which to be effective needs to have both the hips and shoulders engaged/lined up e.g. a poorly executed eye strike will provoke more of a response than a poorly thrown punch. Once the person has been psychologically overwhelmed by repeated strikes, gouges, slaps and rips, the “time” can be taken to deliver the hard strikes which will effectively put them out of commission (knees, elbows, head-butts and the like).

The idea of repetitive “soft” striking to vulnerable targets is not to cause maximum damage but to cause the maximum disruption to the aggressor’s attack, bypassing both their flinch/blink response and their pain management system(s). Just as we use the body’s natural flinch reflex for our 360 Blocking system, so we have to be aware that an untrained person will also naturally flinch and raise their arms up to protect themselves when we are attacking them, and this can be an issue. By throwing soft strikes that don’t require the body to engage fully, and use just the arms, our attacks can be that much faster and have the potential to beat the flinch and blink reflex. We call these strikes “Quarter Beat” as opposed to the metronomic and overlapping rhythms that we use to deliver our harder more powerful strikes.

The aim is to throw as many strikes in the shortest possible time into your aggressor’s soft and vulnerable areas (eyes, throat and groin) not just focusing on one but alternating between them. If a person has brought their hands up, by reflex, to protect an area you’re attacking, you need to move to another. As soon as you’ve attacked the eyes, move to the throat and then to the groin; working high and low. A repetitive strike to one area will allow a person to recognize and realize what they need to defend but by changing targets and heights this opportunity is denied them. If you are continually reigning strikes to the head a person will simply cover up their head – we see this all the time in wall and line drills – whilst if you keep changing the height of the targets you hone in on, you will soon see the hands drop, giving you the head.

The idea is to psychologically overwhelm your assailant. Most fights end with a person giving up/giving in, normally not through injury but rather due to becoming emotionally overwhelmed. One of the quickest ways to do that is to cause a variety of different pains and sensations to the person, in a variety of different bodily areas/targets.

The TV and Video footage of Dennis Hanover, working up and down the body with his “soft” quarter beat strikes never really captures the amazing speed of his hands, nor what it looks and feels like from the victim/target’s perspective. The first time I met him – as well as pulling a gun on me in a restaurant – he lightly attacked me and his hands beat my blink reflex: he had landed two or three strikes to my eyes and nose before I even registered what he was doing. Had each of those strikes actually “hit” I would have been completely disorientated. Whilst we were doing our young women’s course I demonstrated on Griffin, without telling him what I was doing, next time you see him ask him what his response and feelings were at the time.
Our methodology is to use soft strikes to soft targets to set up hard strikes to soft targets. These targets are primarily the eyes, throat and groin. Vary your use of them.