I have had some female self-defense enthusiasts and a few smaller men ask me how to best prepare to defend against big, powerful men.
I always say, “Take the eyes.”
Legally, you do not want to eye gouge, or do some fantasy kung fu eye-removal technique, as you can face up to 20 additional years on a maiming charge.
I am talking about finger jabbing or spearing.
Ancient Egyptian and Greek boxers did it.
I have done it.
You can do it.
The first step is to develop a good fist jab under a boxing coach
The second step is finger conditioning. Never finger jab at full finger extension, but with the fingers slightly coned with the longer middle finger stacked up in the middle. Be mindful to curl the pinkie and thumb slightly under the ring finger and pointing finger.
Make this finger cone or spear and shadow box.
Practice sliding your finger spear out from a fist and retracting the speared fingers back into a fist as you shadow box.
Target the eyes, not the throat. If the eyes are not open, target the chin with the fist. Don’t try to spear through hands.
If you watch MMA you will notice that many fights feature accidental eye pokes. These are accidents. Imagine if they tried to do this? Sparring with open finger gloves has taught me that eyes are easier targets than one would suppose as fingers [unlike fists] are actually funneled into the eye by the sunken nature of the socket. Glide in over the cheek, slide up beside the nose, or go right in.
You must be able to withstand spearing the forehead of a hard head, because that is what will happen two out of three times. Fill a bucket with rice or dried beans and practice pushing your finger spear into it. Also practice with fingers spaced at various widths.
Hang a piece of paper with a face drawn on it from a door jam or from a speed bag platform and practice jabbing the eyes while moving. You want to keep your fingernails trimmed to prevent splintering them, unless you’re into the whole Dracula thing. You want to practice flicking the eye and spearing it, the later being digitally and legally more risky. You want to be able to pop that paper and punch holes in it.
After your fingers are conditioned practice finger jabbing the speed bag and or the double-ended bag. Don’t do this with the reflex bag or heavy bag.
Eventually, move up to finger jabbing the focus patch on the focus mitts.
Finger jab sparring can be done asymmetrically, with the finger jabber wearing work gloves with suede tips and head gear. The other partner wears boxing gloves and goggles. The defense against the finger jab—and the straight spear hand with the rear hand—is to intercept the finger spear with a punch. This will cause a nice crunching sound if done properly.
Your weapons are:
1. The flicking finger jab
2. The spearing finger jab
3. The straight rear hand finger spear
4. The palm up finger spear with either hand. Do not arc this like an uppercut
5. The thumb rake in the clinch
6. The palm up finger dig to an aggressor grappling low with their head down
Don’t rip the eye out. Just scratch up the cornea to cause them to desist. If they are coked-up or methed-up then spear the eye to shock the brain.
Do not neglect the fist as you may injure your fingers and need to ball them up, or might be dealing with an open chin and closed highline. Feinting to the body with the fist and then shooting a raking spear hand across the cheek can be very effective.
