“I know you wear glasses. What would you do about that if you had to fight?”
Dominick Mattero, 7/28/15
I require glasses for reading beyond 18 inches. I take them off to read a book and put them on to write or read on the computer. On the street they are only good for reading bus headers and street signs, and I often switch to sunglasses now since my brain is melting down and causing my most damaged eye to become sensitive to light.
I have been hit while not looking while wearing my glasses and they did not damage me and survived themselves as they flew from my face. An up jab or knee to the eye could turn the lens into an eye-injuring device. It is most likely that they would just fly from the face if hit by most strikes. There is also a chance that they could protect your eyes, from an eye poke, gouge, mace [just a reduction], thrown bleach, spit, hot coffee, or tossed grit, all of which have been used as weapons by and against friends of mine in Baltimore.
Tactically, the glasses are beneath consideration—with any concern for them being the kind of materialistic quibbling that a woman would engage in.
If I am ambushed the glasses, if they become a concern, become an immediate liability.
If I have decided to launch a preemptive strike and take my glasses off than I have just shown my hand.
Even if you are nearly blind without the glasses losing them is not a big deal. One of the best boxers I ever worked with just saw shadows and he was a monster. If he sees a human shadow he knows where the nose and the liver are. He’s human after all.
Keep in mind how vulnerable the eyes are. The toughest fighters in the world become babies in a split second when poked in the eye. Glasses will protect against most street fighting and survival situation eye abrasions. My oldest son just had both of his corneas burned on the job. A simple pair of glasses might have saved him.
There is a type of punch that will turn the glasses into an eye-shredding weapon. But if the dude can throw that punch and hits you with it, then it’s your fault for getting in a time machine and fighting Hen Pearce in the London Prize Ring.
Most of all, the pitfall of taking even a split second of combat thought and devoting it to your glasses, is that if your antagonist attacks at that moment you are at a tactical disadvantage. Your antagonist deserves all of your attention for at least so long as it takes to put him down. Give it to him. He’s earned it.
The Punishing Art
Fortunately nowadays the lens on most eyeglasses are made of some sort of shatterproof plastic rather than glass as they were in years past. webmd.com/eye-health/eyeglasses-eyes. Wearing protective eyewear is even mandatory for U.S. soldiers in combat now. They even make protective eyeglasses with little magnifying inserts for us old folks who need reading glasses now. Pretty handy!
Way back in the mid 70's I saw someone get seriously hurt in a karate tournament when he got kicked in the face while wearing eyeglasses. It was a black belt match, one competitor nailed the other squarely between the eyes with the instep of his right foot in a textbook roundhouse kick. The kick alone was enough to knock the daylights out of the unfortunate recipient and from where I stood I could see that the blow shattered one of the lens of his eyeglasses and had driven pieces into his eye. He staggered briefly with blood running down his face and then collapsed in a heap. The prostrate man was quickly swarmed by officials and medics and was taken off the mat. Naturally the 64,000 dollar question is why was this man, a black belt and presumably an experienced competitor, wearing glasses in a karate tournament? Well the rules mandated no contact to the face, so I must guess that he figured that would protect him. Oh well. Had the man been wearing eyeglasses with modern polycarbonate lenses, he could have been confident that not only would they not shatter from a blow, but that they could even stop birdshot fired from a shotgun at some distance.
That story is one for the archives. Thanks Jeremy.
To this day, facial contact is often forgiven in the black belt division at karate tournaments, as long as no blood is drawn.
"If he sees a human shadow he knows where the nose and the liver are. He’s human after all." That was probably the best thing I've read all month. I read an article yesterday about 2 new species of pseudoscorpions being discovered in the caves of the Grand Canyon. They adapted to cave dwelling so well that they no longer need eyes so they evolved without them and now hunt and strike vital areas of prey purely by 'ear' and instinct.
Oliver, I am very pleased that my Nobel Nominated article on fighting with glasses on has met with your approval.
What is more, imagine the thrill I felt when I discovered that my prize boxer, who I have touted as a possible MMA match for Bruce Lee in his prime, who has not been out to train for two weeks, is using that muscular posterior carved by the very hand of God from rarest ebony, to sit on while he watches films about scorpions!