Women & The Sweet Spots

Some of you may have heard the phrase sweet spot used to mean the spot on the jaw where hit would almost automatically knock out the person being hit. When I use the term sweet spot it has a similar context, but not specific to that area. When I state sweet spot it means any part of the body that is particularly vunerable to a quick and painful attack with minimal effort. While these points on the body can be utilized regardless of gender I specifically keep them in mind for females because they don't require a lot of strength to give results. This short list is of easily accesible sweet spots that can aid in your self defense.

EYES & EARS -
The eyes are very sensitive as it is. Enough pressure to them and you are going to get someone to loosen up. They aren't always the easiest to get to, but if they are in range like this scenario here I highly suggest keeping them in mind. Women tend to have nails and even if you don't it only takes a little pressure to bring on massive pain.

In the same video you will also see the technique called "boxing the ears." I did this once to my husband playing around. Let's just say I thought his eyes were going to pop out of his head and he clearly lost focus since it hurt his head so much. It's an instant headache and all you are doing is using your palms as a striking force that end up working almost like a suction cup so it hurts just as much when your hands are coming off as when your hands make contact with the head.

GROIN -
Okay, we all know this one. As kids I'm sure we tested it out once or twice on our male friends or our brothers. A good square hit to the nutsack and the male hits the floor. This isn't always true and with how many men sag their pants today it can be a lot harder to get a good clean hit to the genitals, but used in conjunction with other techniques makes this a very good area to keep in mind.

PHILTRUM -
I'll tell you this is what got me wanting to write this short section. I had never seen this until I found this video. What was the first thing I did when I got home? Tested it on my 300 pound husband. I love him. He has a cup
especially for me.

I will say that I don't believe everything in the video is completely accurate. When the woman puts her finger under his nose and it appears that he can't get past it, maybe I wasn't doing it right. While my husband may have had issues walking forward, he was not completely stopped from doing so. It only slowed him down.

The headlock demonstration, however was spot on. All I had to do was get my finger(s) under his nose and he couldn't fight his head tilting back that in turn loosened his grip. Once I got his head back his throat was wide open to a palm strike or right hook. If you have a partner to try this with, I highly recommend adding this to your ass kicking defense list.

KNEE -
This area is also a good place to aim. Imagine you are on the ground and your attacker is above you. Keep a leg up and keep kicking. In the provided demonstration she stays on one side kicking out with one foot. As long as you have that one foot out you are keeping a distance from your attacker. Aim for the leg, the knee and groin. If you get a good connect to the knee cap you could do some serious damage. I say aim for it, but never rely on one sweet spot. Always keep kicking and hitting where ever you can, but keep the sweet spots in mind.

THROAT -
You might type in neck strike (or any variation there of) in youtube and you'll get any number of videos on how to "properly" do it. Here is the great part of this area being used for defense, as long as you can get a good hit center of the throat (aim for the adam's apple area as best you can) you are going to hurt them. Hit it hard enough and you could potentially collapse their windpipe. Regardless, this doesn't require a lot of striking power to have stopping power.

THUMBS -
As I have shown in previous blogs, I am a strong supporter of teaching the thumb pluck. Your size and strength levels are irrelevant. If you can get a hold of any man's thumbs as they are wrapped around your neck you can free yourself from a choke. Once free from the choke any of these vulnerable spots are potential targets.

UTERUS -
If your attacker happens to be another female, a good hard knock to the uteral area can leave them completely out. While I knew as a kid this area was pretty much a fight ender it had been a very long time since I had actually been hit there. My son decided to remind me how painful it was by jumping on me landing his bony two year old butt right onto my uterus. I would imagine that it would be the closest equivalent for women to getting kicked in the groin. I couldn't move and I felt the pain through my entire body. Remember, don't aim for the stomach as you could end up getting resistance from a woman with tight abs. Aim for just above the pelvic bone.

Unfortunately I don't have any cool acronyms like Sandra Bullock teaches in Miss Congeniality, but I think these are all pretty easy places to remember. With the exception of the awesomeness that is the philtrum, these are all body parts that any female with very little self defense training should be familiar with. And as always, be loud, be mad and keep striking until you can get away. The goal in self defense is to fight until you don't have to anymore then run like hell.

185 pounds