The Self Defense Effectiveness of Brutally BITING an Attacker in a Street Fight

In yesterday's blog post I listed the five simple guidelines to the effective use of thumb gouges to the eyes as taught in my video Street Fighting Self Defense. Today I will share five reasons why BITING AN ATTACKER can be so effective in a street self defense situation, another, even more brutal tactic taught in my video:

1. Biting works, period--I have a very high pain tolerance. I have trained myself to "notice" pain, but to accept it and fight on. I once broke my toe and didn't make a big deal about it because I was more worried that I may have damaged a tendon in my ankle, until an x-ray showed the break, BUT the one time that I was bitten in a street fight was so intensely painful that even I was shocked for a second or two. Now, take note that that much pain was caused "just" from a bite to my bicep, not one of the more damaging targets in the head and neck area that I teach in my video! To escape, I had to grab into the biter's eyes (as taught in Street Fighting Self Defense) and pull the guy's head back until he let go, but 99% of the people out there would have been combat-ineffective from the pain alone. Oh yeah, I also ended up bleeding, and receiving a huge black bruise that took weeks to heal, but who cares--biting is just for sissies, right?

2. Biting is primal, brutal and will supercharge your killer instinct--Have you seen those nature films of lions jumping on their prey and biting them to death? Do the lions look scared or worried that they will survive? Believe me, if you can bring yourself to be brutal enough to bite an attacker, you will experience such a boost in confidence and killer instinct that any fear will quickly fade away. It will suddenly become clear to you that you are the predator and the fool who attacked you is now your prey!

3. Biting is primal, brutal and will strike fear into an attacker--Be honest, have you ever been bitten? Have you ever seen someone being bitten? I sincerely doubt it. Now, what do you think your response would be to seeing someone being bitten? What do you think your response would be to being bitten yourself? When I teach street fighting tactics, very few people believe me when I teach biting . . . until I show them the scar on my arm . . . then the room gets really quiet and everyone tends to realize just how serious a hand to hand fight can be . . .

Now, what do you think an attacker would think if he gets bitten in one of the primary targets in the head and neck area using one of the biting techniques that I teach in Street Fighting Self Defense? My guess, as well as my experience is: fear, pain, panic and prolific use of "the F-word." Plus, he has a cool story to tell: "How did I get that scar on my face? Oh, I tried to rape this 90 lb chick and she kicked my ass."

4. Biting an attacker won't get you infected with a disease--Biting an attacker will not get you infected with Hepatitis or AIDS.

First of all, if you're in serious trouble and your only chance to survive is to bite an attacker instead of being stabbed, choked or raped and you don't because you are afraid of being infected with a disease, your thinking is flawed. I mean, do you seriously think that having unprotected sex with a rapist is less of a risk of infection than biting him?

Second, what would you rather do? What would be safer? A punch? When I was in basic training for the army, a guy threw one punch at another guy and cut his fist on his teeth. It got so infected that he needed a surgical treatment to remove the infection from his painfully swollen hand. And that was just because of the germs in the mouth, imagine if he had Hep or AIDS! Would you now advise against punching because of infection risk and recommend that people just allow themselves to be mugged, beaten and raped without fighting back?!?!

5. You can bite in any range and in any situation--You can bite from any range. I can cover up, rush in from kicking or boxing range and bite an attacker in the clinch. In the clinch, on the ground or if an attacker is grabbing me I can IMMEDIATELY bite without any preparation or telegraphing at all. Biting works even better if an attacker is holding my arms, because that means that both of his hands are occupied with holding me still and he can't stop me. If he does let go of me to try to stop me from biting him, then he let me go and the first part of my defense was successful.

Ok guys, the bottom line is this: Biting is easy, fast and effective. As a matter of fact, biting, along with headbutting is my litmus test for self defense "experts." If someone claims to know something about street fighting or self defense and then goes on to say that biting or headbutting is ineffective or that it is not necessary to learn to use or defend against those techniques, I immediately know that he's a fraud. Believe me, both of those techniques are taught in Street Fighting Self Defense for a reason.

Until next time, train smart and watch your back!

Christopher "Bob" Roberts