My wife and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary this weekend and one of the things we did was watch UFC 193. If you don’t know, UFC is the Ultimate Fighting Championship where people fight in a cage using several different styles and disciplines.
In one of the fights, Jędrzejczyk vs. Létourneau, it went 5 rounds to a decision. According to the announcer at the end of the fight, Jedrzejczyk landed 200 hits on Letourneau’s head. 200! And they were a combination of punches, elbows, and kicks.
The very combinations of punches, elbows, and kicks that are taught in self-defense classes every day from coast to coast. It was a very visual reminder that the head, in general, can be a poor target in a self-defense situation. In a self-defense situation, strikes like this…even to the head…depend on your attacker CHOOSING to quit in order for you to win. They also depend on your un-protected hand not getting broken at some point during the fight.
Fast forward to Rousey vs. Holm…
Something truly spectacular, yet predictable, happened in this fight and the announcers completely missed it…and so has every article that I’ve seen on the fight.
Holm knocked out Rousey by executing a Vagus nerve strike with a kick, triggering a vasovagal response and turning Rousey’s light’s out instantly.
There’s a beautiful area on both sides of the neck where the Vagus nerve runs. Get a good hit on it, and it’s light’s out…instantly.
When the vagus nerve is hit with sufficient force (a few PSI…not very much), the brain panics and responds with vaso-dilation…essentially relaxing the circulatory system so that the “size of the pipes” increases. When the “size of the pipes” goes up without an increase in blood volume, pressure drops. When the pressure drops, the person faints or passes out.
This is important, because while everyone and their Cousin Bob is training to punch an attacker’s head (like Jedrzejczyk did 200+ times) you can practice striking higher leverage targets that will actually stop the threat, like the vagus nerve (like Holm did 1 time and ended the fight).
Keep in mind, the vagus nerve strike is no play toy. It’s something you’d use if you were justified in using a firearm, but couldn’t, for whatever reason.
If you’re interested in learning more about the vagus nerve strike and other high leverage strikes that actually work in real-life self-defense situations against bigger, stronger, faster attackers, click >HERE<.
Questions? Comments? sound off below…
