404 - Mailbox: Finger strikes to the eyes
A female reader questions the appropriateness, safety and effectiveness of targeting an aggressor's eyes...
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“Hi Jeth,
Really enjoying the journal at the moment, great content as always.
I have a question about finger strikes specifically a hand flick at the eyes/face: is the risk for this low when flicking your fingers at the eye area as it had occurred to me this could possibly break your fingers? Would you say this is more of a last resort option or a reliable attack to the eyes?
I've seen that questions remain anonymous but just double checking that my name remains off the question as I would prefer my identity not to be on the blog.
Thanks
(Removed)”
Jeth - Thank you for the question(s).
One way rather than, “The Way”
Finger attacks to the eyes (there are several different versions) are a great tactic to have as PART of your personal repertoire of survival fighting skills.
They are NEVER shared by me as “fight enders” per say (they can be , just don’t bet on it, learn everything) - but they’re fast, disruptive and great set ups for other damaging tactics or escapes too.
Safety
In terms of safety, as a general rule, having the fingers slightly flexed for thrusting strikes will keep them safer as they can absorb some of the impact through the joints without hyperextending.
Hooking, wiping and whipping strikes, again can dampen the impact through the joints by flexing whether you use the palm side, back hand or sides of the fingers.
In the chaos of a physical confrontation there should never be ideas of absolute safety sold to you as advice but if you train these sensibly using suitable impact targets like mitts, practice often and in a broad range of situation types, they will be very useful especially for smaller trainees that feel that they lack striking power.
Effectiveness
I’ve had corneal scratches from a thumb nail and can tell you that from personal experience - it wouldn’t have stopped me in a fight for my life - but would have severely disrupted my ability to fight though - the immediate reaction was to buckle my legs and the scratch across my eye was very difficult to endure pain-wise, almost panic inducing as it doesn’t stop even if you close your eyes.
I know that some insist in saying that eye attacks won’t work, but I can tell you that I never want to experience it again.
The effects that you see in the MMA videos below is probably a mixture of real effect, self pity and also play acting for a DQ win. I just put the videos as general examples of elite level combat athletes who are held up as the pinnacle of combative ability, being disrupted from fighting by a touch / impact to the eye. Make your own mind as to whether this would work on an average aggressor.
For some women’s self defence contexts and smaller trainees in general? Eye attacks are a fast, effective disruptor.
The inability to callous these areas (!!??) or whether the aggressor is pissed, high, enraged, big, deranged? Pretty much, it’s all the same. Only the sphincter reaction of the eye lids for protection is a problem for single strikes, raking (repeated clawing) may well open the eyes… forcibly though and bypass this.
The disruption could be enough to create space for either a second tactic or even a brief pause to enable escape.
Justifiable?
You are very correct to ask if this is a last ditch tactic and I do not share this strategy with people lightly.
The idea that it is ok in any way to go around scratching people’s eyes over just any old insult is simply not the case, there will be legal ramifications for someone if they were this dumb.
In the context that I share it in workshops though as a possible defence against extreme violence, stabbing, rape and so on, it may well be something that aids the chances of survival.
It can also be quite instinctive, quickly learned and importantly, performed by a range people irrespective of their age or size. If they have hands and can move them, they have an attack and that’s where I often start from.
Anonymity
I anonymise all questions, so no worries and you’re smart to ask.
My comment/ question emails have gone up noticeably too since I took away the public comments option and started making this a clear policy, so that readers would feel more secure in asking stuff, so thanks for the feedback.
I know it goes against the social media idea of showing the world what you do all the time but that’s not the best idea given the subject matter of this journal and the changing times we have entered.
Videos
Got a comment or question?
You don’t need to create public accounts, just drop me an email at info(at)forcenecessary(dot)co(dot)uk
Anything I answer here for you and other readers will be anonymised.
Thanks, Jeth