Head Butts
By W. Hock Hochheim

"Hock I am writing to you, because you have made a case against head butts. I am a certified instructor under ____ _____ and his Filipino Concepts. As you know from personal experience, ____ emphasizes head butts. I am also a police officer in _______, Indiana. One night I interrupted a burglary of a pharmacy. A crew was at work and they posted a lookout on the street. I questioned the lookout. He had no answers for my questions and I attempted to arrest him him. A fight ensued. We grappled each others arms. I got his his head and had a clear head butt and tried to drive my head into his nose...

When I woke up. I was down on the sidewalk. Hock, both my pistol and badge were taken from my body. The burglars escaped. They did not finish the burglary, but they got away with my badge and gun. I realize that I had knocked myself out when trying to use my head to hit his head.

This has been a joke at my department. Once at a pistol qualification the guys taped a helmet to my target. Like I would use a head butt instead of a bullet. I could have been killed! I had practiced and simulated head butts for years, never really doing one. Now I know what happens when I really do one! Never again ! We have never recovered my gear."

*******

Two students charged and wrapped arms in the classic “fighters clinch.” They crashed and both, independently, decided to simulate head butts-just sudden, simulated forehead smashes that were meant for the opposition’s nose. The bad news was…they did them simultaneously and for the first time in their lives actually cracked their head against something. One wavered, while the other dropped to one knee! I weaved my way through the battling groups in my 1989 Texas martial class over to the duo.

“Y’all alright?” I asked, and being young and tough, they shook it off and continued. Both however, had lost a few precious seconds. At session’s end, the topic came around in our parking lot gossip session.

“Is that what can happen to you if you do a real head butt?” he asked. “Possibly,” was my answer, but now years later, I have a medical/scientific answer to that very question. What I discovered many martial artists are just not going to like to hear. That answer is a very big, real “yes!”

If indeed dangerous, why is the head butt so prolific in the martial arts? Why, recently did a major, martial arts magazine run an article with a woman attacked by a man and in the photo demonstrations, she did no less than five head butts? First, came the usual groin kick, but next came the series of head hammerings, which of course the acting criminal reacted with dramatic, thespian devastation. She turned to run, but wait! Time for one more head butt! She stopped and without even looking, knocked her head sideways into the side of the attacker’s head, then she ran off. She was swinging her head around as though it were an impact weapon! With articles like this, it is easy to see why so many are simulated head butts in training. I myself can fake a darn good one, but honestly at times when doing so, I often feel a second or two of dizziness. That is without any contact!

Why the head butt craze? The head butt is often promoted as some kind of easy, secret, dirty, tough-guy weapon. Observing a simulated head butt is a very seductive motion to the novice student seeking street creds. Simulated! But vets tell a different tale. Worldwide, very few military close battle manuals even mention head butts. Most soldiers are wearing helmets anyway, but special operation personnel may not. One British commando manual warned,

“The practice of striking the enemy with your head in a butting fashion can be foolish, as you could well be stunned or fall unconscious, either way subject to considerable enemy attack.”

For your files...
A neurologist is a medical doctor who has trained in the diagnosis and treatment of nervous system disorders, including diseases of the brain, spinal cord, nerves, and muscles. Neurologists perform neurological examinations of the nerves of the head and neck; muscle strength and movement; balance, ambulation, and reflexes; and sensation, memory, speech, language, and other cognitive abilities.

The New England Journal of Medicine recently reported a warning to all active people to wear helmets in their activities, mentioning the light tap of a soccer ball should be avoided. If the skull is so tough and resistant, how did football players like Dallas Cowboy Troy Aikman, their heads ensconced in the latest padded, high-tech helmets, suffer repeated knockouts and concussions? Because their soft brains inside the hard skull, inside the helmet still, freely splash and twist against the inside of the cranium.

“Never do a head butt.” Cautioned Dr. William Baker, a noted neurosurgeon.

"Never," say Dr. Leiman one of the top five Brain doctors in Texas.

“But Doc,” I have asked Baker and so many other MDs and EMTs, “what about using the harder parts of the skull to strike with, such as he crown-circling the top part of your head?” This is often high-lighted by martial experts as a so-called “safe” surface to head butt with. Then other artists will tell you if you should head butt, try to strike the nose of the enemy and there is much solace in the collapsible nose giving way under such a hit.

“When you are stunned or knocked unconscious, it is from your brain essentially splashing against the inside of your skull,” Dr Stephen Mendel told me. “If your brain smashes up against one side, it will in most cases splash back, injuring the opposite side to a lesser degree. Unconsciousness can also result from your brain twisting, even ever-so-slightly-inside your cranium. At times with this twist, connectors can stretch or even rip free. It has absolutely nothing to with what part of your skull is thicker or harder and everything to do with the force that moves the brain inside the skull.”



Another neurosurgeon, Dr Kenneth Chen reports, "Sometimes the simplest bump on the head or a
ding from a fall could take away your sense of taste for life, or your sense of smell, depending upon
where the injury occurs. You don’t want to risk these injuries.”


There are accelerated and decelerated brain injuries. If your head is hit from an outside force your brain is accelerated inside your skull, hitting the far side of your skull. If your head travels to hit something, you experience a sudden stopping or deceleration of the brain. SPLASH! At best, these splashes are also called-concussions! A concussion is a temporary loss of brain function. There are three kinds of concussions.

1) Mild- Confusion without amnesia. No loss of consciousness.

2) Moderate- Confusion with amnesia. No loss of consciousness.

3) Severe- Loss of consciousness. If you find yourself unconscious for more than about four minutes you really need to visit a doctor.

At near worst, on this list of brain injuries, next are contusions-the bruising of brain tissues and the worst, a hematoma-a collection of blood from a broken vessel. The brain will swell from injury and captured inside the rigid structure of the skull makes this a dangerous event. The nerve cells of the brain are unable to regenerate. Repeated hits to brain, even little ones, can cause a host of grave consequences. Repeated injuries, even very minor ones have been investigated. I found deeper medical studies reporting problems like drug addiction, crime and other social misfit activity.

Sure, everyone has an anecdotal story about some Joe who did a head butt one night and survived, or we know of a Neanderthal who has done several. Joe was lucky. And I want you to take a good look at Joe. Did he finish high school?

It is not really a question to me about long-term damage, but rather what the brain splash/impact might do at the second inside a fight. Some mighty big name martial artists have been carried out of the bar after knocking themselves out doing a head butt. Do not misunderstand me. I am not telling you that you should never, ever, under any circumstanced do a head butt. I just think sometimes there is no other choice. In some "do or die" situations, you may have to head butt! The only desperate solution is to steel yourself for the impact (like rolling with the punches) and talk yourself into surviving. There are rare times and positional situations when that may be all you can do. Steel yourself and do it! Tighten up your neck. But, If you are holding the enemy's head in your hands to try a nose smash? Then you could and should probably hammer-fist the nose instead.

Some of the biggest proponents of head butts have actually knocked themselves out when they have really done them! What I am warning you about is that you must not, cannot and should not build an entire fighting system around head butts. If you still disagree with these brain surgeons and Neural, you may already suffering from the effects of one too many head butts!

If you head butt my face? It will hurt me. If you punch my face. It will hurt me. That is not in question. How much will it hurt you? Will it break your hand or splash your brains? As an instructor of self-defense and survival, you ahve a responsibility to prolong your survival and minimize your damage. This does not include risky behavior. As for head butts being the main staple of an attack? Stand down on the head butts! God did not make your head to be an impact weapon!

W. Hock Hochheim

Got an opinion on this one? I'd like to hear it. Post it at www.HocksCombatForum.com. Or to read more articles like this one or learn more about Hock's Training Mission Book and DVD series, visit www.HocksCQC.com

Article Source: http://www.articleset.com