When you are in the middle of a fight for your life, this is not the time to decide which vital areas of your adversary to attack. This decision must be made well in advance. A great acronym to remember four specific striking areas is BEATBEAT, short for Brain, Eyes, Abdomen and Testicles. These attack areas should be used to distract your opponent long enough for you to move out of the threat zone. Disabling blows should not be considered. It is possible that they will, but most likely they will create a very short period of time in which your adversary is not thinking about you, but about pain. That is your window of opportunity. RUN!
I was first introduced to the BEAT model in Frank Albert’s great book One-Strike Stopping Power – How to Win Street Confrontations with Speed and Skill. This book is available at http://www.paladin-press.com.
BRAIN – Move the brain and restart the computer. Hitting the side of your opponent’s head will usually get their attention and cause a distraction. If the distraction works, run. The best self defense technique is to run away from the threat. Remember that slapping someone is just a distraction; follow-up attacks are obviously necessary if the distraction doesn’t work and you plan on winning this matchup. Always have a follow-up plan. Preprogram Murphy’s Law into the equation. Plan for the worst and when it doesn’t happen, great!
EYES – If they can’t see, it’s very hard to find you. We should all be able to agree that sticking your fingers in the eyes of someone who is attacking you will probably annoy them. It will also usually cause them to drop or let go of whatever they are holding and draw their hands back towards their eyes. Again, this is the golden moment for you to get out of the threat zone. Don’t stay admiring your work, RUN!
ABDOMEN – Have you ever been out of breath? A good direct hit or better yet, a knee thrown to the abdominal region should do the trick. Where do you want to hit? Well keep it simple and hit them around the belly button region. Drive your punch through the navel; don’t just hit the surface. Here’s something to think about: Melchor Menor, a former two-time Muay Thai world champion, was tested on the power of his knee strike. Minor kneed a monitored test dummy, and the power of his knee strike was equal to the power of a 35-mph car crash. That would certainly cause some destruction!
TESTICLES: Ok, so nobody really wants to talk about this, but grabbing the soft area of the testicles and trying to rip them off will certainly get the attention of any would-be rapist. This is obviously a bit more difficult if you still have your pants on. You will have to grab a lot of fabric. The only problem is that the testicles are well protected by the large muscles of the legs and it is difficult to take a direct hit. A simple flick or movement of the fingers in or towards the groin region will make almost any man take a step back, or at least flinch. That certainly doesn’t knock him out; however, don’t be discouraged. He aims low and hits hard. If he lands a direct hit, chances are he’s made it to payday. Stun and RUN!
So, there is the BEAT model. Train it, practice it and get ready for battle.
