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Finger Strikes For Street Fighting

Author: Dean Walsh
Date Posted: April 17, 2009

When you step out of the gym, or the dojo, and into the street; when you have to protect yourself or your friends and loved ones from violent assault by a thug, then you have to be willing to fight dirty. Throughout my martial arts career my attitude has always been that you should do everything you possibly can to avoid fighting, but once that invisible line has been crossed by an attacker, and there is nothing that you can do to avoid violence, then you are justified in doing whatever is necessary to ensure your safety and to end the confrontation as soon as possible.

Some of the easiest to learn, and also most effective, techniques for fighting dirty are finger strikes. There are a number of different hand-forms that you can use, but the simplest is to just keep your hand flat with your fingers pressed together, and then use the middle finger for striking.

The whole point in finger strikes is to concentrate the force of a strike onto a small area on a soft vital area of the body. When doing this choosing a target and being accurate is very important, whereas the power of your strike in not important. If you end up hitting a solid part of the body with your fingers then you will just end up hurting yourself more than your attacker, but you can mitigate against this by moving more slowly, only hitting out at full speed just before you make contact. Being slower and more careful will reduce the power of your strike, but if you hit the right place then this won't matter at all. If you want to you can give yourself an extra bit of confidence for this kind of technique by using finger-tip push ups to strengthen the tendons and ligaments of your fingers; a few months of this kind of training and you shouldn't have to worry about hurting yourself.

The most obvious target to aim for is the eye. Not only is this very painful and distressing but even without causing serious damage you can have a big temporary impact on your attacker's sight, making it much harder for them to be a serious threat to you. This is a very effective technique to use in a street fight if someone is trying to grab or strangle you.

A less obvious target, but still very effective, is the armpit. Obviously this does depend somewhat on what your attacker is wearing - striking through a t-shirt or sweatshirt is no problem, but a thick winter coat is something else. This can be a very effective counter against someone trying to punch you, and can give them a 'dead arm' with a temporarily reduced strength and range of movement, as well as being surprisingly painful.

Another effective target is the 'jugular notch'. This is the soft area above the v shape in the center of your collar bone at the base of your neck. The effect of being struck here is very similar to being winded.

Ultimately finger strikes can be used against any soft area of the body, as well as against pressure points, and are a highly effective way to defend yourself on street fighting.

About The Author

Dean Walsh, a long time student of several martial arts, writes a street self defense blog where you can learn more dirty fighting techniques.

Article Source: JKD Street Combat - online collection of Street Fighting articles.

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