Principle 2: “The nearest weapon should attack the nearest softest target (eyes, throat or groin). Use attacks, which bypass an attackers “pain management” system e.g. bite, slap, eye rake etc. Use strikes, which give you the most “bang for your buck” and are the easiest to pull off.”

The nearest weapon attacks the nearest softest target is an artillery principle that a gunner’s (artillery) officer once told me over a pint. I think this is both an obvious military principle and one that makes perfect sense from a self-defense/Krav Maga perspective. Imi Lichtenfeld, the founder of Krav Maga, talked about the need when facing multiple assailants (which he had to do when facing Anti-Semitic, fascist street gangs in his native Bratislava in the 1930’s) to strike and hit sensitive targets such as the groin, throat and knees to quickly debilitate and put somebody out of action. When dealing with multiple opponents, you don’t have either the space or time to try and employ a game-plan or strategy you just need to get each assailant out of the picture and way ASAP.

I can never emphasize or stress enough the difference between ring sports/cage martial arts. When you read about boxers, cage fighters etc they will talk about how they prepared for a particular fight – I was just reading Randy Couture’s book on Wrestling for Fighting/MMA and he talks about the game-plan and the way he trained before facing particular fighters (some great pointers demonstrated and brought out). In a real life fight you don’t know your opponent; you just need to dispatch them as quickly as possible before the next one appears, you really don’t have time to adopt a ring strategy etc. Using soft targets to quickly disrupt an attacker becomes essential.

For me the most obvious “soft” targets are the throat, eyes and groin, with secondary targets being the IT band/Quadriceps and nose. I am not a great believer in pressure points etc – I have been in too many confrontations that have turned into a shit show where there was no time to aim for some magical spot etc that made somebody collapse and then die on a rainy day in July (pardon my skepticism – I think the body is an amazing organism, but I really don’t believe some people’s – martial arts instructors - claims about their ability to control its functions and…destiny).

N.B. It is worth noting that just because we practice a lot of striking on the pads with a closed fist, it doesn’t mean those strikes are limited to closed fist striking; your hand can be shaped into any “tool” you require e.g. cradle strikes, eye pokes, thumb gouges etc.

The throat and groin are fantastic targets as they face forward and can’t easily be hidden, unlike the eyes, where a person can turn their head away to escape an attack – and are also the first bodily parts to first detect any assault and are equipped with a “blink” reflex to protect them.

It must be remembered that the groin being a sensitive area has certain reflex actions when it “perceives” a threat. Any upwards and forwards motion towards the lower/mid-section will see the hips pull back to protect these vulnerable areas. Any strike to the groin will have to beat this reflex action. This is where hand strikes are often more effective than kicks and knees (which are slower moving). In reality based situations the opportunity to knee/kick the groin may be denied both by the proximity of the assailant as well as the clothes the target/victim is wearing. All attackers will deny time and distance; something they do to both cause surprise and protect/defend themselves. If an assailant is close and you are wearing tight jeans, jeans with a low hanging crotch, pushed against a wall, in a pencil line skirt etc, the groin becomes an unavailable target for the legs/knees, but is still available to the faster and more adaptable hands. The great thing about groin strikes, is that even if they don’t cause a great deal of pain, the body will naturally pull the hips back to protect this vulnerable area. If the hips aren’t engaged there will be no power in a person strikes.

The throat is particularly vulnerable due to its lack of mobility – however much you turn your head it will still sticks forward to a greater extent. Instead of using a lead hand punch I’ll often substitute it for some form of throat strike e.g. a cradle strike. A poorly executed strike to a soft area will yield more than a badly executed punch/fist to the chin or the face etc.

Eyes are great, without them you can’t see. I’m not sure of the need to explain anything further…If you can hit them quickly do: little force is needed to effect a response. Rather than using rigid fingers, that may get stubbed if they hit the cheek bone or the forehead etc (which is a distinct possibility in the rough and tumble of a street-fight), flicking, brushing and gouging are much safer ways to attack the eyes. Thumbs are also extremely useful and fit quite nicely into the eye socket.

The nose and quadriceps are less obvious “soft targets” but part of what attracts my attention to them is not just the fact that they are great targets but the tools that can be used to affect them are large and significant. In the case of the Quads, they are a large muscle group/target that only needs to be hit with a single concentrated force for there to be a significant result. When I consider the nearest weapon to the Quads I am naturally drawn to shin kicks: the shin bone is long, with a single ridge. The shin connecting to the Quads if thrown with commitment will have a result, either as a sweep (if thrown early) or by deadening the leg if weight is loaded upon it, of making sure that person’s leg is out of action.

Hit the nose hard (which breaks easily) and you will cause the eyes to water etc. Taking away your assailants ability to see is an obvious and relatively low cost tactic. The nose, like the throat, is an obvious and relatively large target: aim for the center of the face and you’ll get there. Even without breaking the nose, minimum force is required to elicit the eyes to water… 

The Quads are a large muscle group which can quickly stop working when hit correctly. The IT band runs the length of the leg (on the outside – basically it mirrors the side seam of trousers or jeans, giving you a good target to aim for) of and is a muscle which spends much of its time “tight” – there is very little give in it. If you’ve ever tried to stretch it out using a foam roller at the gym, you will know how tender it is. A strong strike using the shin to the upper leg will certainly get you a result. The pain may not be as acute as a strike to the eyes or groin however if it freezes the leg, even just for a moment, it will give you an “in” to follow up with Retzef (continuous strikes).

 This is the key to striking soft targets, not to look for them as “finishing” moves but to see them as a way to initially disrupt an attacker and set your-self up for a continued barrage of strikes and kicks. If a groin strike etc has the effect of finishing then all well and good however just creating time and space is a net positive (and essential if dealing with multiple attackers).

 It is important to attack in such a way that the attacker’s pain management system is bypassed. An adrenalized attacker can gear themselves up to accept and take punches, especially if this is what they are expecting to deal with. The most painful thing in the world, is not an eye strike, or groin slap but a Thomas the Tank Engine model, stepped on at 1:30 in the morning, when you’ve just got out of bed. Why? Because the pain is unexpected and unanticipated. This is why strikes need to be mixed, pokes, gouges as well as punches. Putting all of these strikes, which elicit different types of pain, mean that you increase your chances of having an effect against an adrenalized assailant(s). Soft targets and strikes need to be mixed up into your Retzef, so not only do you overwhelm your assailant with strikes, you overwhelm their pain management system as well.