Watch this incredible clip of one of the most effective head butts ever caught on tape.   With the head-butt, it doesn’t matter how young or how old you think you are.  If you can head butt, you can destroy any aggressor!

The clip is a real surveillance video and is therefore a little grainy, but notice the white arrow of the thumbnail photo which points to the foot of the head butting girl.

An Interview with Christopher “Bob” Roberts on The Head Butt!

Charles Prosper - In this article, Christopher “Bob” Roberts, expert reality-based combat instructor, ex-soldier, bouncer, body guard and police trainer is going to give us insights on one of his favorite techniques that he has used in real street fighting combat – the head butt.  So, Bob, help us out.  Give us 3 reasons why the head butt is so effective in a real street fight.

Christopher “Bob” Roberts -  Alright, well -

The 1st Reason Why The Head Butt Is So Effective Is Because The Hardness and The Weight of The Human Head Is Basically Similar To A Bowling Ball - If want to have an idea how effective a good head butt is, go home tonight, lay in your bed, and have your wife drop your bowling ball on your face.

Charles Prosper – (Laughter.)

Christopher “Bob” Roberts – And that is basically what it feels to be hit by a head butt.

Charles Prosper – Wow!

Christopher “Bob” Roberts – Okay, now -

The 2nd Thing Is Kind of Interesting in That You Don’t Need To Use Your Hands or Your Feet To Head Butt Somebody - That basically means that if we’re in a situation where you’re grabbing both my of my arms, when somebody is grabbing my arms, I can still effectively head butt.

If we’re in a situation where we’re grappling up against the wall or on the ground, I can still even though my hands are being used to hold you down or to push you away, I can still head butt you because I don’t need my arms or my legs.  It’s all head.

I know a lot of people not used to the head butt will only look for the arms or the legs.

The 3rd Thing Is If You Do It Properly, You Can Launch It Without Any Preparation Whatsoever - This basically means, people will talk about preemptive strikes, you do not have to prepare yourself;  you do not have to wind up.

You basically go from talking to a person – and then immediately launch into a head butt  that he will not see coming because you didn’t prepare for it.  You didn’t wind up.  You didn’t get ready.  And -

Charles Prosper – Now, Bob, I have one quick question before we wrap up because this is a confusion with a lot of people.  Where is the spot on your head that you strike with?  Is it the forehead, or is it the top of the head, where the forehead meets the hairline is?

Christopher “Bob” Roberts – It is right around where the hairline would be.  And if you’re basically going to come too high or too low, make sure you come too high.

It’s not anywhere near the eyebrows.  And it is not in the middle of your forehead.  It’s basically around where the hairline is, or about a half of an inch lower than the hairline.  Because other than that, if you go any lower than that, you risk the chance of cutting your own forehead, your own eyebrows and bleeding a lot into your eyes.

Charles Prosper – Okay, that is a very important bit of information, and with that we’re wrapping it up.  And again, thank you so much, Bob for these insights.

Bob – Alright, thanks a lot, Charles.

What is your experience or your take on the head butt?  Leave A Reply and Comment  below.  Thanks.

Respectively,

Charles Prosper

Done wrong, the thumb gouge to the eye is almost useless . . . but done right, it is one of the most dangerous and effective self defense techniques that street fighting or WWII combative training has to offer. Read on, to learn the five simple guidelines to the effective use of thumb gouges to the eyes:

1. Don’t “poke” the eyes, gouge past them–Regardless of whether you are trying to control someone through the use of pressure against his eyes or are actually trying to destroy the eyeball, don’t ever just poke at the eye itself like a little kid. Rather you should try to force your thumb between the eye socket and the eyeball into the skull.

This will cause more pain, more fear and continued, increasing pressure will either destroy the eyeball or pop it out of the skull.

2. Thumb the eyes from the inside–If you were to place your thumb between the eyeball and eye socket on the outside of his eye, near his temple and he were to push your hand away, that would be the end of your thumb gouge.

If you had chosen to gouge the eye between the eye and the nose, on the inside of his face and he were to force your hand to the side, he would have to rake your thumb across the entire surface of his own eyeball, causing pain and damage to himself.

3. Don’t gouge with one hand, keylock around his head or neck–I hate it when I see pictures of inexperienced trainers just grabbing a person’s head and forcing their thumbs into his eyes. If you were to do that, he could easily just push or pull your hands away.

Now imagine holding his head in a sort of headlock, keylocking your arms (a keylock is a way to cross both forearms to control a part of an opponent’s body and simultaneously combine the strength of both arms on a hold) and then thumb gouging his eye. Its hard to explain a keylock in words, but, if an aggressor were to try to push you away from him, a keylock will automatically force your thumb even more forcefully into his eye.

4. Aim your thumb gouges with your palms and fingertips–If you were to try to shoot your thumb directly out into an aggressor’s eye, you would miss much more often than not. Instead, first make contact somewhere on your attacker’s body with the palm of your hand.

As soon as you have made contact with your palm, you should be able to run you hand along his body and find his head, even with your eyes close or in the dark. When your palm is on the side of his head, find his ears with the tips of your fingers, which will bring your thumbs automatically into position to gouge the eyes.

Try it on yourself right now:

• Put the palm of your right hand on the right side of your face and touch your right ear with your fingertips.
• Now circle your thumb around and it will automatically go between your nose and eyeball, as when using a thumb gouge to get out of a choke from behind.
• Put your right palm on the left side of your face, fingertips on your left ear and your thumb automatically goes into position to gouge the eye, like a thumb gouge to someone standing in front of you.

5. Make hooks with your thumbs–As you can imagine, the optimal body weapon for causing pain to and / or damaging the eyes is a small or pointy one. Therefore, you need to be sure that you are always using the tip of your thumb and not the wide and soft pad to apply pressure.

A very simple way to make sure that you do this is to make a hook with your thumb. In other words, curl your thumb in so that contact with your opponents head is only made with your palms and the tip, not the flat pad of your finger. This holds true regardless of whether you are attacking with your thumb or the other fingers.

Christopher “Bob” Roberts is an ex-soldier who relocated to Europe and now earns his living as a tactics and close-combat instructor for military, police and private security companies.  He is also a regular contributor to Real Street Fighting Moves and is one of our faculty fighting members and instructors.

For more information about armed and unarmed self-protection, subscribe to his free newsletters at http://www.extreme-measures-institute.com and receive access to an exclusive video interview series where he explains the fundamentals of truly effective self defense.

What is your opinion of the thumb gouge to the eye?  Leave your comment below.  Thanks.

Respectfully,

Charles Prosper

[See post to watch Flash video]

An effective street fighting move for a police officer who needs to control an aggressor who is attacking his partner or trying to go for his partner’s gun is shown here in this “Martial Art Minute” by one of our fighting faculty, Christopher “Bob” Roberts.

Our Topic for Today:  The 4 Best Targets for A First-Strike Attack

Street fighting secrets are given by no one more skilled the reality-based fighting instructor and part-time bouncer, Christopher “Bob” Roberts.

Charles: Now our subject  in this interview post is on the 4 best targets for the first strike.  What are those 4 best targets that you can tell us about and can you go over them one-by-one for us?

Bob:  Yes.  Yes.  I can do that.

The Number One Target Is Probably The Nose

It doesn’t matter how strong, how much muscle, how much fat someone has, the nose is always the thing to attack, and if you attack high enough on the nose, you’ll cause blood to go into the sinus passages which will interfere with breathing and eyesight.

Charles: Humm.  Excellent.  And which would be the second best target for the first strike?

Bob:

The Second Best Target Is The Windpipe

The second best target is the windpipe because you can strike it, or you can grab it and close it off, and if you grab it, you can use it to control a person.  And with the windpipe, if you do strike the windpipe, the person will immediately start coughing and become unable to continue fighting.

Charles: Wow!  And what would be the third best target to strike?

Bob:

The Third Best Target Would Be The Eyes
It’s not as applicable to strike as a lot of people think and a lot of people teach.  If you could just lay your hands anywhere on someone’s face, you can find his eyes, and once you lay your fingers on his eyes, you can use that to push and pull him anywhere you want or to set him up for other strikes.

Charles: Wow!  And what would be the fourth best target for the first strike?

Bob:

The Fourth Best Target Would Be The Point of The Jaw
The point of the jaw is basically the lever or the button to use to hit, to turn the person’s head, shake around his brain and cause a knockout.  The reason why I didn’t put the jaw higher on this list is that is someone is extremely strong in the neck area, you might have more problems in knocking him out, but it is still definitely one of the four best strikes and the easiest way to knock somebody out.

Charles: Wow!  Thank you so much, Bob.  This has really been an eye-opener for the four best targets for the first strike.

Please leave me your comments.  Let me know that I am reaching and helping someone.  Thanks.