Admit it—you’ve dreamed about blasting a bad guy with a big, superhero knockout punch. Me, too!
Well, grow up. Fighting is not that simple. Let me share some advice on a more practical approach to landing a knockout shot in a real-world self-defense situation.
Enjoy the video or read the summary below. Stay safe!
Knockout Tips for Martial Arts
WARNING:
Knocking someone out is just a fun way of saying inflicting brain trauma. It’s serious and dangerous! So, don’t try to knock out your friends or training partners… and don’t let them knock you out, either. Protect your brain.
The secret to a knockout in the real world is a simple formula I call “The 3 Ts.” That stands for Target, Technique, and Timing.
Hit the right spot with the right strike at the right time and you might just get that knockout you’ve been dreaming about. Let’s break down the formula.
Target.
When we talk about knockouts, we’re talking about strikes to the head and the neck. Yes, you may have seen videos with martial artists putting on a demonstration and knocking people out with strikes to the arms or legs… but those are demonstrations.
I’m not saying the study of kyusho or dim mak is a waste of time—far from it. But I will tell you that I’ve taken my fair share of hits to the arm and leg—some of them so hard I wish I had been knocked out!—but I have never blacked out or woken up in a pool of drool because of them. Not yet anyway.
Targeting the head for a knockout is not rocket science. Hit anywhere on the head hard enough and there’s a chance you’re going to get a knockout!
That said, there are certain spots that have proven to require a little less effort to get the knockout effect. I’m not a doctor, so I’m not going to take time to explain to you WHY these targets are more effective, just make the note that they are.
Where are those spots?
- The chin or “the button”
- The jawline
- The temple region
- Behind the ear
- The back of the head
No secrets here. I’ll bet you knew all those spots already! However, knowing where to hit me is completely worthless if you can’t hit me.
Which brings us to the second T…
Technique.
Good news! Any strike has the potential to knock someone out. Punches, palms, elbows, knees, kicks… whatever.
Your job as a martial artist is to figure out which strikes you like, then make sure that each one of them is solid. By solid, I mean that you can hit a target with enough speed and power that the bad guy feels it, doesn’t like it, and you don’t hurt yourself in the process.
So, practice, practice, practice. if you love a left hook, drill it. If you love a slap upside the head, drill it. If you love a spinning, flying headbutt, drill it. (Then send me a video because that one’s pure crazy!)
Timing.
The Third T is for timing. Yes, you want to be able to strike with speed and power, but being fast and strong is not the secret to a knockout! That’s caveman thinking.
As you evolve as a martial artist—and by evolve I mean, grow older—you’re going to discover that you can’t always rely on speed and power. When your hair starts turning gray, the whole project of self-defense shifts from being a physical project to a strategic project.
It’s not just learning how to strike, it’s learning how to set up your strikes.
Think about it. If you watch boxing, you don’t see guys getting knocked out by some new punch that nobody’s ever heard of before. Guys aren’t waking up on the canvas asking, “What do you call that? An uppercut? Where’d you learn that?”
It’s not the punch that’s surprising, it’s the set up. That’s why I would rather throw medium speed, medium power punches that the bad guy doesn’t see coming than full speed, full power punches that the bad guy does see coming.
FACT: It doesn’t matter how fast and strong I am… if I give the bad guy a chance to shell up, slip, bob, weave, or roll, I’m never going to knock him out.
Now, the bad news is you can’t practice set ups on your own. Correction—you CAN, but you’ll be buying a ticket to Fantasy Land.
If you want to develop your timing for the real world, you have to work out with partners who are trying to tag you and take you down. That is the ONLY way you will ever figure out how to put the right target together with the right technique at the right time.
Two more important points…
First, a word on strategy. If you want to knock out a bad guy in a self-defense situation, then don’t think about knocking out the bad guy! Just keep striking.
If one of your strikes leads to a knockout, great! Say thank you and run to safety.
But if you go into a self-defense situation expecting a knockout, you’ll be in trouble. If you throw a punch and stop to watch him fall, you’ll be in deep trouble!
So, in your training, don’t think about knockout punches. Don’t think, “Jab… jab… ZING! Knockout!” Instead, focus on throwing your punches in bunches.
Throwing a combination is a better strategy than trying to land one, big, superhero knockout punch.
For more tips on landing punches,
check out, How To Land More Punches!
Second, remember that it’s not just the strike that can knock someone out, it can also be the reaction to the strike.
If I take a hit, then stumble back and slam my head into a wall, or if I take a fall and smash my head into the ground, I might not just knocked out, I could be crippled or even killed! It doesn’t matter if that was your intention or not.
That’s why we should all avoid fighting whenever possible. You’ve got to accept the fact that you don’t control as much as you think you do and you certainly can’t predict everything that’s going to happen in a fight.
So, if you can talk or run to avoid a fight, talk or run!
Remember—if you want to land one, big knockout punch in a self-defense situation, then focus your training on The 3 Ts: smart targets, solid techniques, and above all else, slick timing.
Do all that and who knows? Maybe you really can fight like a superhero!
No, go make your life a knockout!
