Q:

I am a 35 year old woman who is just starting taking self defense. I am concerned that, if necessary, I would not be able to kick an attacker in the face. I feel I would be able to kick him in the groin, but I just don't know if I could kick his face/head. Would there be legal ramifications if I kicked a man in the face? Could I kill him by kicking him there? May I ask if you have ever kicked a man in the face, if so, what happened to him?

A.

First of all, congratulations for beginning on the road to taking responsibility for your own safety. Studies have shown that 50 percent of all attackers will break off their assault if the woman even INDICATES that she is willing to resist.

As for kicking a man in the face, that is very much in line with the Rape Escape method:

1. In Rape Escape, we use our strongest weapons against a man’s weakest targets – targets that cannot be “hardened” or strengthened. That means face, throat, groin and knees.
2. In Rape Escape, we want to mechanically move the bad guy off of us. He will no doubt be on us, pinning us down or holding us in a position that allows him to assault us. We cannot rely only on techniques that generate pain, there is a good chance (at least 64%) that he is on some sort of intoxicant. It is axiomatic that where a person’s head goes, so does his body. So, if we can move his head with a kick, it helps increase our chances of moving him off of us. Even if we don’t connect with a kick, his natural flinch response will no doubt cause him to blink and/or pull his head away.
3. By using our kicks to his face, it allows us to strike him while staying out of range of his punches or slaps to our head – we want to protect our head at all costs.

Nice people worry about the legal and moral aspects of using force against others – even when those people are using force against us.

Det. Jon Pickett puts it nicely, “If we are allowed to use force, then we are allowed to use that force properly and to the full extent”. Without going into a full discourse on the use of force, generally you are allowed to use what a reasonable person would agree is the amount of force necessary to escape or defend yourself against his blows. If a man grabs a woman, it would be reasonable that she would have to hit or kick him to get him to let go. Generally, if a man asks a woman for a match, it would not be reasonable for her to hit him or kick him. However, if a woman is alone at a self-serve gas station and a man approaches her in a menacing fashion while glancing around for witnesses and one asks her for a match, it might be reasonable for her to hit or kick him to escape. Now, if a man has pinned you down to the ground I doubt that there is a cop, judge or jury in the country that would have a problem with a woman kicking a man in the face.

The bottom line is that if you are SO scared that you feel the need to kick a guy, then you are going to be justified.

As far as killing someone with a kick to the face…

There is an old martial arts myth (one of many) that says you can drive a person’s “nasal bone” back into their brain and kill them. False. There is no nasal bone on a human. The skull’s bony process ends at the very top of the bridge of your nose. The rest is cartilage. True, you can separate the cartilage from the bone, thereby “breaking” someone’s nose. Plus, the head is very mobile and gives quite a bit on the neck, so a blow to the face is often cushioned by the movement of the head.

A kick to the face MIGHT have the effect of:

1. Snapping someone’s head back, causing temporary disorientation or even unconsciousness;
2. The separation of the aforementioned cartilage of the nose;
3. Breaking his teeth or jaw;
4. Splitting skin over the protruding bones of the face, most notably the eyebrows and the cheeks.

In reality, you can’t count on any of the above results with a kick to the face.

I, personally, have kicked people in the face and have been kicked in the face. Being on the receiving end of kicks to the face is not fun. However, the most I have been injured is having been knocked unconscious. I have had a fat lip and I’ve had a couple of sore necks and headaches. It’s harder to injure someone with empty hand strikes or kicks than you’ve been lead to believe. No one can “guarantee” that a certain technique will work in a certain way. The human body is just too flexible and resilient.

I will let you in on the hidden secret about people who have died as a result of a blow or kick to the face/head – it was not the initial blow that killed them, it was the sickening crack of the person’s skull against the pavement or street AFTER they fell.

The bottom line is that you are justified in using kicks to the face morally, ethically and legally to defend yourself from a male attacker who will most certainly be bigger and stronger than you.

Training tip: To help you get over your concern, have your training partner wear an armored suit with protection on the face, throat, groin and knees. Then simply practice kicking to those padded spots. View them as padded targets that need to be kicked, rather than specific portions of a person’s anatomy.

Good luck.

Brad Parker