WHAT IS A THROAT STRIKE, AND WHY SHOULD YOU KNOW IT?
When faced by a violent criminal, focus on injuring rather than hurting the attacker. This is paramount in order to buy you time to escape the situation. A punch is an example of hurting. Causing severe breathing impairment is an example of injury.
Along with eye strikes, throat strikes are probably the biggest go-to technique in the self defence community. Most traditional martial arts styles teach some form of a throat strike technique.
This is because the throat is a very weak and an easy area to strike. BUT it should only be used as a last option. For example, if all else fails and you have come to realise that if you don’t do something, and fast, you won’t be doing anything ever again – you’ll be dead! Use it then.
The other time to use a throat strike is when you are being attacked by more than one person, and their intentions are clear – to kill you. You will never use this strike unless your life or the lives of your family are on the line. If you are in a situation like this, a throat strike is incredibly effective and not terribly hard to pull off.
Yes, there is a risk of death if you really nail it, but more likely the jerk will just be incapacitated for a minute or so because you’ll interrupt their breathing. The resulting trauma may debilitate your attacker for long enough to give you a chance to escape.
Remember, self defence is a legal term. Simply put it’s an act violence that is justified because:
1. Danger / harm to yourself or family was imminent 2. You used a reasonable amount of force that was proportional to the danger
If the above applies, a throat strike is an excellent tactic. An easy way to injure the throat (larynx) is to strike the throat with the web created between the thumb and index finger. Grab hold of the attacker and thrust that web into the throat in a sharp slightly upward fashion. At COBRA we call it a C-Strike. It is also commonly referred to as a throat punch.
We are sure you wouldn’t want anyone to punch you in the throat, but in self defence, you’d rather give a throat strike damage to an attacker than to end up in their car on your way to a secondary location.
Different self defence techniques work differently for different kinds of attackers and situations, so the more techniques you know, the better. We hope you never have to strike someone in the throat, but if you are in a dangerous situation, use this technique to get home safely to your family.
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