Self-defense: groin kick effects, a real story
Striking: what are the effects of a groin area hit?
In the article Self-defense: why/when groin kicks do not work, we discussed if, why and when groin attacks are effective, let’s now see, through a real happening, what happens when we effectively reach this target.
Note – This article has been asked by one of our Core Course practitioners on Patreon (see how to attend our home study classes here Learn Kung Fu online: a beginner-to-expert course).
The premises
What we are going to describe is an atypical self-defense scenario and even though it may appear just like a sort of “funny accident”, there are a few aspects that may interest us; in fact as in many real situations:
- Everything starts as a joke
- The joke evolves into involuntary damage
- The reaction to the damage ends then in a potentially very bad outcome
A few important details before continuing:
- What we are going to share is a common male reaction to a groin kick but it comes from a normally extremely calm person (completely not inclined to violence)
- I (Kongling, read About Master Kongling) am one of the protagonists of this vicissitudes; at that time I was a Jeet Kune Do practitioner (read Master Kongling: my experience with Jeet Kune Do)
- Our JKD instructor had taught us to react with instinctive aggressivity even before understanding what was happening (a very wrong and dangerous attitude in a self-defense context, read Self-defense: why 90% of martial arts does not work)
The self-defense scenario: what happened
The joke
My two classmates and I stayed at school to eat while waiting for an afternoon remedial math class (we were alone in a secondary classroom).
That day I was wearing some tracksuit bottoms with buttons down the side of the legs and jokingly, one of my friends had the bad idea of unbuttoning them: “Come on, let’s take him, let’s undo his buttons!” – He said.
Laughing, I run towards the teacher’s desk but they chase me, arriving at me from left and right.
My reaction
Finding myself surrounded, I decided without thinking to lean my hands on the desk and extend my legs with a sort of “flying split” to push them both away.
I would like to underline that we were all laughing: my aim wasn’t to kick but just to push them away (or at least keep them at a distance).
Unfortunately, the result was that one friend was hit delicately on the thigh, the other with devastating precision on the testicles.
The effect was devastating, he fell to the ground crying, screaming at the top of his lungs and rolling on himself in pain while we remained stunned watching him; when we realized that he wasn’t joking at all we approached to help him but he completely ignored us continuing to scream for about a minute.
None of us ever expected what happened next.
The consequence
When he slowly got up, I tried to apologize in every way but he was literally furious.
He was one of the most calm and good-natured people I had ever met but at that moment his anger had completely blinded him: he threw himself towards the (large) knife that we had used to cut the pizzas we had eaten (during lunch break) and started running towards me.
He was totally out of control. His eyes were bloodshot and at that moment he had the full intention of stabbing me.
The conclusion
My reaction was to literally run away with wings on my feet. He tried to chase me but being less fit, at a certain point, along the corridors of the school he had to stop.
The chase lasted almost 1 minute.
The other friend reached him and finding him confused and trembling tried to get closer to take the knife from his hand. As I got closer I signaled him not to do it but fortunately, the danger had already passed.
Those few seconds of running were enough to let his anger cool down and to reconsider the consequences of such an extreme gesture.
In the end, he had not suffered any damage but having never suffered such suffocating pain he feared he had been seriously damaged. Shortly afterward we made peace.
A note by Master Kongling – Regardless of the fact that my strike was unintentional, luckily, at that time: I had no idea what a muscle chain really was (read The Muscle Chain (for martial arts) [MINI-GUIDE] and How to release the maximum power of a punch or a kick), my muscle memory (read The right way to develop muscle memory) was much less conditioned and I didn’t know how to cause the maximum damage (read How to release the maximum power of a punch or a kick). I say this because our JKD teacher forced us to have explosive and instantaneous physical reactions (read also the anecdote inside Being tall: advantages and disadvantages).
What we can learn from this story
These are the lessons we can extrapolate:
- The violation of personal space – It is always wrong to violate someone’s personal space against his / her will, first, because it is disrespectful (even if it is just for fun) and second because we cannot know how they might react
- Instinctive reactions – Until we come face to face with reality, being hyper-reactive and able to attack at the first hint of a threat may seem like a positive factor but it is not at all (it took years to reprogram that kind of incorrect conditioning); in self-defense, such an habit is the ideal way to get into big trouble (from legal problems to triggering an avoidable physical confrontation in which someone could even lose his / her life, no matter who is stronger, read Best martial arts for self-defense)
- The presence of a weapon – As a rule, the presence of a weapon in a self-defense scenario, automatically raises exponentially the level of potential damage causable (to our opponents but also to us) and should always be well ponderated; as a general rule, anyone who is not willing and trained to use a weapon is better off not introducing it into a dynamic self-defense scenario in any way (the risks outweigh the benefits)
- Time is our friend – What would have happened if I had not had the presence of mind to escape or if I had tried to apologize / justify myself? Anger can make us do literally atrocious and disproportionate things but it has a very short expiration date; in such circumstances, finding a way to let the time pass allows a person to reactivate the rational part of the mind and this may be a life-saving happening (it is for this reason that our self-defense method teaches how to instantly choose the right approach, read Personal defense: the S.A.F.E. method)
- Targeting the groin – If we find ourselves forced by circumstances to aim for the genitals, let’s try to do it with the certainty to reach the target correctly or let’s avoid it at all (and after, no matter if the strike has a partial or complete effect, let’s move away immediately); attacking the genitals is a gesture that exponentially increases the fury of a male aggressor; the aspect that is worth focusing on in relation to this story is not so much the intense pain that a kick to the male genitals can cause (this is well-known) but rather the disruptive effect of the anger caused by the hypothesis of having been damaged in such an important part of the body
Final notes
A few conclusive thoughts:
- Concerning what are the physical (and especially psychological) effects of a groin attack, this story should be read especially by female people; during my martial career I listened to too many false myths about groin strikes (spread by incompetent “self-defense instructors”, read Self-defense courses: how to recognize scammers)
- Despite what I said, I want to stress that I do not condemn my Jeet Kune Do teacher nor the martial art itself (I learned a lot of things from them that were then poured into 6 Dragons Kung Fu, read /// Subscribe (it's free!) or Login to see this content ///), it’s just a matter of being realistic and admit that each experience has parts to make ours and others to discard
- Last but not least, confirming that the victim of this accident remained unharmed there is the fact that only a few years later he had a child; right or wrong, I could never forgive myself for hurting a dear friend
- …
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In-depth articles
- How to punch (simple explanation) – The short version of how to throw a punch
- How to kick (simple explanation) – The short version of how to throw a kick
Questions
Reply in the comments and share your experience:
- Have you ever been hit in the genitals? How did it affect you?
Author: Master Kongling
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