Classic Street Fighter: Kiss the Fist
by on Feb.09, 2009, under General Principles
I’ve been racking my brains over the past few days to think of a single technique that I would describe as being a classic street fighting move, as opposed to something from traditional martial arts or modern combat sports. It had to be something which couldn’t or wouldn’t be used in an MMA competition, and which you would be unlikely to see in a traditional class of something like karate or kung fu.
What I settled on in the end ticks all these boxes and highlights an important difference between real life self-defense situations and fighting with gloves in a ring or cage.
You might think, quite naturally really, that getting hit in the face is always a bad thing that you want to avoid. But once you are in a violent confrontation this might not always be the case. Here’s the basic principle: Knuckles are relatively small and intricate joints, which are more delicate than larger more solid bones, and include ligaments and tendons that can be damaged. Your forehead, on the other hand, is a large plate of solid bone whose sole purpose is to protect your body’s most vital organ - the brain. It’s just simple common sense that in any collision between a fist and a forehead the fist will always come off worst. More often than not a strong punch which hits the forehead will lead to a broken hand and only the mildest of bruises on the person being hit.
As anyone who has been in a sparring match or full contact confrontation will know, moving quickly enough to dodge or block a strike is much easier said than done. And this leads to what I think is the classic street fighting technique - headbutting a fist. It sounds crazy but it is actually one of the single most effective techniques around. If someone swings a punch towards your face it only takes a small movement to tuck your chin in and put your forehead down onto the oncoming fist, so if you have the balls to try it, it isn’t difficult to do. When it connects they will be hurt much worse than you will be, by moving forwards into their attack you gain the initiative and momentum and set yourself up for a counter-attack, and you will definitely get a 10 out of 10 for the surprise and intimidation factors.
The only refinement of this ‘kiss the fist’ technique is to make the headbutt diagonal so that rather than just stopping the fist with your head you make it glance off to the side. Very simple, very reliable, very effective and pure street fighter.
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Welcome to the Street Self Defense Blog!
Catering for both trained martial artists and novices we aim to provide short, easy to learn lessons in how to defend yourself in a street fighting situation. Drawing on a wide variety of martial arts styles and traditions all of the fighting techniques described in this blog are specifically geared towards street self defense situations, and cover as many different real life scenarios as possible.
February 11th, 2009 on 6:48 pm
great site love reading your tips. keep up the good work. prof. steve guest. 7th degree black belt.
February 25th, 2009 on 11:39 am
[...] will reach you too quickly for most block and counter strike techniques, including this one. (see Classic Street Fighter: Kiss the Fist for an effective short range defense). 2) If your attacker steps forwards to grab hold of you, [...]
February 27th, 2009 on 7:06 am
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February 28th, 2009 on 2:41 pm
Interesting article, i have bookmarked your blog for future referrence
April 9th, 2009 on 4:17 pm
problem is MOST punches come in a round house fashon in a street fight and would hit you square on the temple or behind the ear, two KO shots,…..boxing yes…street fight no
April 10th, 2009 on 2:20 pm
Actually you only need to turn your head a little way to the side to make a hook punch (what you call round house fashion) hit the forehead, and the technique is actually even more effective for this kind of punch because it will glance of the forehead to the side more easily, allowing you to follow through into a counter attack.
It isn’t a technique used for boxing because unlike in a street fight having a second or to right up close to your opponent isn’t going to do you enough good for it to be worth taking the punch in a boxing match. In a steet fight it can be enough to do serious damage and win a fight.