w.i.D.t.h.6. Chapter 3: D...
Damage
“It’s not how hard you hit, it’s where you hit.”
Tim Larkin calls damage “Injury,” and he defines it as putting damage to either bodily structures or systems (senses or organs), without which a person cannot function when they're trying to hurt you. Damage is NOT pain, that is the most important thing to remember. People have different pain tolerances and pain effects people differently. Damage, however, works on everybody because everybody’s bodily systems and structures work the same way, regardless of a person’s strength or pain tolerance.
Where to hit varies by the type of tool you are using, whether it is your own body or an extension to your body will determine what you should aim for. Remember from the first chapter, your brain is the Weapon, the tool in your hand or your bare hands are simply extensions of that Weapon. Put simply, with your bare hands, you should target the head, spine, and especially the eyes. With your bare hands the best way to shut down an opponent is not to kick him in the groin, despite what legend says and despite the fact that it actually does hurt most men, but again that’s pain not Damage, and pain tolerance varies by person. There are some men who can just get kicked in the groin over and over again, and does nothing to stop them when adrenaline is pumping. Groin strikes are not causing significant injury to a structure or system of the body. Most martial arts train people to kick people in the testicles, but to effectively attack the groin, what you're actually trying to do is kick somebody in the pelvis and break their pelvis and if you happen to crush their testicles in between your foot and their pelvis that's just added bonus. This is harder than the simple groin strikes most martial arts schools teach; instead of attacking the groin in an unarmed fight, which may or may not work, instead attack the eyeballs, which always causes Damage. Getting a finger in your eyeballs is every bit as painful as getting your testicles crushed. And, it also does significantly more functional Damage because it is taking a way a sensory system from the bad guy. It is also propelling the head backwards, which is giving you control of it, and thus their body (one of the last principles of W.I.D.T.H.6.). There are other targets you can attack unarmed, but few will give you the same result as putting your thumbs into somebody's eye. If you've never been jabbed in the eye with a stick or an inadvertent finger during a sparring match, I can only say it ends a fight very quickly. If you want evidence of that look at any UFC match where somebody accidentally jabs the other guy in the eye; they are instantly on their knees and they have to stop the fight for several minutes while the fighter composes himself and gets his eyes to stop watering so he can see. That is only after incidental contact with the eyeball. If you deliberately shove a digit into an eyeball, especially with your full body weight, you are going to end that fight immediately and you will have taken the Initiative away from the bad guy, even if only temporarily incapacitating him, which gives you the opportunity to deploy a Weapon, or stomp his head in and render him non-functional.
With a knife, you should target the throat, as it will give you the most bang for your slice. With a handgun, you should target the high-center chest, meaning the rib cage. With a rifle, under twenty-five yards, or with a scope, also target the high-center chest. If you are armed with an iron-sighted rifle beyond twenty-five yards, you should aim for the “center of mass” of the target, basically the diaphragm muscle, as it gives you the greatest likelihood of hitting the torso, even if your marksmanship fundamentals are off. Exception is if you are in a hostage situation or certain “defense of others” situations, then you may want to take head shots with rifles, remembering your own limitations. Missing a hostage taker and hitting a hostage in the head with a rifle round is no different to the hostage than if the terrorist killed them. By the way, if you're
rescuing hostages for a living, you are reading the wrong blog, but that is one of two times I would advocate for taking a head shot. The other is if the bad guy is on his back or butt, but still presenting a threat, still shooting or still trying to aim a gun, then take the head shot as the earth is your backstop.
Knives: aiming for the throat for two reasons: One, it’s a softer target than the rib cage or skull, and it can do as much Damage as puncturing the rib cage or skull. The second reason is that typical carry knives are not effectively utilized on the torso. First, most legal carry knives, even if they do penetrate between ribs, are not long enough to do massive damage to internal organs like a hollow-point bullet. Further, stabbing/slashing the abdomen, while readily possible for the average carry blade, is not effective at causing the type of Damage needed to end a self-defense encounter. In other words you can stab somebody in the stomach or in the intestines many times and they're not necessarily going to be out of the fight as quickly as if you stabbed them in the Carotid artery or the jugular vein.
Caveat: If you are armed with a knife and can get behind a person, or turn a person around using the next principle we will discuss (“Torque”), then you have numerous targets with a knife that the opponent cannot effectively defend against. Neck, brain-stem, spine, kidneys, back of the knee, Achilles. If you can get to somebody’s back with a knife, they are in a very, very bad situation and you have won that engagement if you have any understanding of biology, targeting and Damage.
When it comes to Firearms or even knives you have to treat them just like getting into an unarmed combat fight, meaning you cannot rely on the one hit knockout. One bullet from a handgun is not going to stop a dedicated attacker trying to rape you, main you or kill you. One stab to the side of the neck is not going to immediately stop a dedicated attacker trying to rape you, main you or kill you, either. You have to keep going until they are out of the fight, that doesn't necessarily mean dead, but it means you have put them into a non-functional state, so they are no longer capable of hurting you. The best way to do that is quickly is to cause significant Damage to their sensory systems, their bodily functions or their bodily structures (bones, tendons and ligaments). Damage + Forward Movement secures the Initiative, and remember: the winner of a fight is the person who has the Initiative at the END. “It's not how hard you hit it's where you hit!”
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Soule
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