You’re out in public…perhaps at an outdoor concert or shopping downtown. Suddenly, you are attacked. You have to defend yourself. If your mind isn’t frozen with fear, then you may have time for a few brief thoughts as you respond (and react) to the attack.
Punches, strikes, kicks, wrist locks, and maybe even pressure points. But would a pressure point work in a fight with flying punches?
And that’s a key criterion: would pressure on a nerve while you and you throw punches at it work?
Good…
Pressure Point Timing
Will you have a time with the flurry of blows to press on someone’s sensitive spot, near a nerve? Remember, all the action happens very fast.
We are not talking about nerve blows, but about pressure points. Apply pressure to a point, say an inch or two above the elbow, on the triceps, to cause pain.
In between hits, you won’t have time to slowly find the exact spot and then apply pressure. I’m not saying pressure points are useless. It’s just better to tie a pressure point to the “control” phase of a fight, rather than trying to find a pressure point in the middle of speed bumps.
Accuracy of the pressure point in the fight
Pressure points really do require some precision. You have to press in the right place, with the right amount of pressure, in the right way.
Could you do this in the middle of a fight? While dealing with a barrage of punches and kicks?
While you’re nervous beyond belief… with adrenaline coursing through your body?
It may be more careful for you to punch and kick, until you are already in control.
Do pressure points work on a berserker?
Forget about your adrenaline, what about the adrenaline running through your attacker’s body? Will he (or she) even feel a pressure point?
My answer is that it depends on what pressure point you are talking about and also how much “red” your attacker sees.
For example, the nose check from Wrist Locks: From Protecting Yourself to Becoming an Expert will work no matter how angry your attacker is. Your opponent will feel the pain, it is a sensitive and controlling point.
On the other hand, the pressure point to bend the wrist on the inside of the wrist never seems to work “for me”, when I “really” have to use it.
Pressure points are great, when used properly. I get worried when a novice thinks it’s easy to stop a punching attack with a little pressure at one point.