wall did he fire a .45 caliber slug into the assailant’s chest.
As if in a nightmare, the man ignored the hit and continued to slash the air as he advanced toward the officer. With no other choice, the policeman, who was also a member of SWAT, fired a second shot into the man’s chest. Again, he only twitched and then continued his advance. So the officer shot a third time, bending the man toward the gaping wound. Again, he straightened and slashed at the officer. So the cop fired a fourth and fifth time. Only then did the man drop dead into the grass.
Round after round into critical targets and all the subject did was twitch each time he was hit. Do you have a technique that’s more powerful than a .45 slug? I don’t either.
KEY CONCEPT
Pain Receptors
Whether you’re applying a wristlock or raking your fingers across an assailant’s eyeballs, his brain receives “ouch” signals by a type of pain receptor called nociceptors. Some parts of the human body have many of these, while other parts have only a few. The eye, for example, has more than the chest, wrist or back. Case in point, a person suffering a heart attack complains of a dull ache in the chest while a person whose pointy finger is suddenly wrenched in a direction it isn’t supposed to go, screams and utters every blue word in the Book of Swearing. (Don’t bother looking, it doesn’t exist.)
Anytime you deliver force over a relatively large area, a kick to the assailant’s back, for example, fewer pain receptors are activated than when you apply that same force to a smaller area, such as a heel kick to his gums. Some people under the influence of alcohol and drugs experience a dulling of the consciousness, and some people in a state of extreme rage or mental illness experience an over-riding of the consciousness. This means that there are some in both groups who might not feel broad-surface pain but will feel acute pain signals.
Does it Work?
Pepper Spray
Regardless of what the ads claim, pepper spray doesn’t always work on the street, and never is this truer than when the threat is violent with rage, mental illness, or high on booze or drugs. I’ve seen sprayed people shake their head like a wet dog and then continue fighting.
Pepper spray is only a tool. Don’t count on it as the end-all defense, especially against pain-resistant people.
There is no guarantee when applying pain to a violent person whose mind is altered by one of the mental conditions being discussed here. Additionally, consider that by the time you’re forced to defend yourself, the person is likely at the peak of his rage, intoxication, drug high, or psychotic behavior.
What is important when dealing with people impervious to pain is the same thing that is important when dealing with any hostile person: When something isn’t working for you, you need to switch tactics. Logical? Not always. Perhaps you’ve heard the stories of panicked people in a burning building pushing against a locked door over and over until it’s too late to take another avenue of escape. The same thing can happen when an adrenaline surge takes over your rational thinking. You hit a violent person, say, in the chest. When that doesn’t get the desired effect, you keep hitting him there, over and over. Of course, you might eventually wear the guy down, but since he isn’t feeling the blows, the window of opportunity is wide open for him to attack you in some fashion.
There are many reasons why a person will grimace and smile as you give him your best shot. He might be smiling simply because he is drunk or high and doesn’t feel it, he might have had a violent past and is conditioned to pain, or it could be some sort of sexual issue with him. It might even be a blend of all these things.
Does it Work?
Consider the Groin
When a student gets whacked in the groin in class, he drops into fetal position and begins channeling Nancy Kerrigan: “Whyyyy? Whyyyy?” But in the street, striking an aggressor in the groin gets mixed results. Sometimes he curls to the sidewalk in agony and sometimes he doesn’t give the hit a passing thought. The problem is that there is no way to tell by looking at someone as to how he will react to a groin hit.
The groin is a good target; just don’t stop to watch for a reaction. It’s better to flow into a second, third, or however many techniques it takes to stop the threat.
It’s important to train in such a fashion that you don’t become unnerved when someone doesn’t react to your best joint lock, palm-heel strike, or roundhouse kick. Here is why. Say you apply a joint lock on a nasty drunk, the same technique that made your classmate dance funny-like on his tiptoes. Not only does the intoxicated man not react, he looks puzzled, as if he isn’t sure what you’re doing and what you want from him. You look puzzled, too, as you wonder why the technique isn’t eliciting the usual yelp and chest slap. Then, because you allowed half a dozen seconds to pass during your confusion, the drunk smashes you in your puzzled face.
When a radio talk show host doesn’t say anything for a few seconds, it’s known as “dead air,” and considered a bad thing. When you pause or hesitate in a physical confrontation while the threat is still, well, a threat, that too can be a bad thing.
To prevent this, you must train physically as well as mentally to keep on the offense until the seemingly invulnerable person is under control. Say you kick the man in the thigh twice, neither blow drawing so much as a grimace. Although you see his lack of reaction, don’t pause to wonder what went wrong. Instead, immediately hit targets where there are more pain receptors, targets that shock the brain, or targets where an injury greatly reduces the recipient’s ability to attack.
Dealing with any combative person is seldom easy and always dangerous. This truth is magnified many times over when the attacker is impervious to pain, when he neither reacts nor acknowledges your techniques. Happily, you don’t run into these types of people often, but when you do, it can be a real challenge.
The following pages present techniques and fighting concepts that have worked for me and for others who have dealt with these formidable people.
When I first began working on this book, I asked a high-ranking jujitsu instructor about the mechanics of a particular technique. He answered my question and then added, “When done correctly, this hurts everyone.”
Out of politeness, I didn’t respond. But I will here.
No, that technique doesn’t hurt everyone. There are people out there who will eat it, smile and keep coming at you. And that is what the rest of this book is about.
CHAPTER 2 BACK OF THE HEAD, TEMPLE, MASTOID AND EARDRUM
I once broke my hand on a guy’s head, although he wasn’t affected at all. On another occasion, I hit an armed robbery suspect with a no-big-deal snap punch and the blow fractured his cheekbone, released a geyser of blood, and sent him to the ER.
Most readers probably have a story about seeing someone take a head shot only to go on about their business as if nothing happened. Perhaps you have seen a person take a seemingly light hit to the face but go down like the proverbial lead balloon. In the world of MMA fighting, there is always a competitor who gets his nose smeared
