Yes, of course there are worse scenarios. Being incarcerated in a Thai prison for twenty years for smuggling marijuana and having to eat cockroaches to survive, that’s one. Not that that ever happened to me.

Still, if you ever find yourself on the ground with two or more people kicking you viciously, you’re in a very bad spot. And it happens. In fact, I’m writing this post because I just read of such an incident in Melbourne, Australia. Two young men got into a verbal altercation with a suited businessman inside a McDonald’s. The businessman left the restaurant, and the two thugs followed him, knocked him to the ground, kicked him in the head, and ran off. The man died.

He died. That’s how serious this scenario is. You can’t count on people to exercise common decency, or to fight fair, or to be governed by a fear of legal consequences.

If you find yourself in this situation, you cannot curl into a ball and wait for the attackers to be done. You must fight.

In Hapkido class next week we’ll look at some possibilities for defending yourself in this situation. They include:

• Pivot so that your feet are toward the attackers, and kick their knees. Do not try to sit up prematurely, as you make your head an easy target for punches or weapon strikes.
• Grab an attacker’s leg and lock his knee to throw him.
• Block the kicks with your elbows or knees.
• Strike the attackers’ legs or groins.
• Try to create enough breathing room to roll or recover to your feet.

Maybe you can fight off the attackers until help arrives. Or maybe you can recover to your feet where you stand a fighting chance, so to speak. The important thing is to fight with every ounce of energy and every atom of ferocity you can muster.

Wael Abdelgawad, Founder
Hammerhead Hapkido