An Easy and Effective Eye Attack for Women's Self-Defense

We've found an easy eye gouge that everyone interested in women's self-defense can integrate into their bag of tricks. 

Normally I am not a big fan of eye attacks.  The most common reaction of the person being attacked is to simply duck their head and turn away.  There is also the common reaction of the bad guy of where he easily reaches up and captures your wrists.  The high failure rate is probably due to the fact the most of the eye attacks taught out there are direct and frontal in nature.  The bad guy can recognize them effortlessly and is almost always quick enough to avoid them.

However, having said that, I have interviewed women who have used eye gouges successfully in defending themselves against a sexual assault.  And, I have had personal success in the field with a type of eye attack that can best be described as a "finger flick" (it's an open-hand technique that whips out like you are snapping a towel and strikes at the eyes using the backs of your fingers or fingernails).  So you should keep eye attacks in your arsenal.

From a classic sexual assault scenario where the attacker is between your thighs and rape is imminent, you can use the basic "rape escape" technique.

Start the escape with your hands on his shoulders and lock out your elbows to give you something to push against and to allow you to begin moving your body out from under him, getting some room to put your feet on his hips.  Then, you can use your legs to control his hips, thereby preventing penetration and also to mechanically move him backwards.  As you move him backwards, you gain the space necessary to kick him in the stomach, chest and face with alternating kicks.

From the starting position of this scenario, is it very easy to simply lift your hands off his shoulders and place your palms on the side of his face. Your  thumbs are now directly over his eyes. Press in and gouge!

This gouge seems to work well with a high degree of success because it is very sneaky. The guy doesn't see it coming as you are bringing your hands from outside his field of vision. We have found that the "bad guys" don't instinctively react to the eye gouge like normal (ducking and turning their head) because they are apparently used to you having your hands up by their shoulders and by the time you grab the sides of their face they can't react.

If you need to get him to let go of you or to stop undressing you, attack his eyes with this technique. Expect him to pull away and/or to knock your arms away. That's okay, now he has let go of you and has given you enough room to bring in your kicks.