In previous articles, I’ve explained how my charity (The Scottish Centre for Personal Safety) was asked to provide our empowering Personal Safety/self defence courses to groups of female runners in Aberfoyle, Milngavie, Glasgow and Cumbernauld following incidents where they have been stalked, chased and flashed.

I’ve explained how you could avoid this happening to you, how you’ll know if you’re about to be attacked by recognising Warning signs and Danger signs, how to use your voice as a first line of defence, and now I’d like to tell you where to strike an attacker if you have to resort to self defence.

This article is about the T zone.

If anyone is coming towards you menacingly, picture a giant capital letter “T” drawn over their body.

The top horizontal line goes from one ear, across the eyes, to the other ear. The vertical line goes from the bridge of their nose to their groin. This is the T zone.

So let’s start with the ears. A Power Slap to the ears may be all you need to give your attacker a burst eardrum or at the very least, intense pain.

As your attacker’s balance will be affected, you will have the perfect opportunity to run away while he tries to remain standing.

When it comes to the eyes, you have to be fairly close. Cat clawing or scratching the eye area will cause pain and temporary blindness, potentially allowing you to escape.

Or if you’ve been grabbed, stick your thumbs into your attacker’s eyes. Ideally, you would double up the ear slap with the thumbs in the eyes in one, swift movement to disable your attacker and run away.

Moving down the “T” you come to the nose. A Hammer Fist or Open Palm Strike to the bridge of the nose could cause severe watering of the eyes or worse, resulting in disorientation.

You may be able to run away at this point or follow through with another strike to a different part of the T zone.

A solid blow to your attacker’s jaw could force the jawbone back into the cranial nerves resulting in unconsciousness.

The throat is extremely dangerous to strike as it could have lethal consequences but striking with the soft part between your index finger and thumb will cause minimal damage but will result in your attacker wheezing and coughing on the floor.

This is a favourite technique of bodyguards protecting a VIP.

The solar plexus is found just above the stomach and below the sternum. A solid hammer fist to this area will cause extreme pain and loss of breath which could easily floor your attacker.

In both males and females, a knee or hammer fist to the groin will cause loss of breath with severe pain and nausea. But to a male, it could also rupture the testes which also induces vomiting and unconsciousness.

That, my friends, is the T Zone. Any strike outwith this zone and chances are it won’t do much damage to your attacker. Remember, we aim to hit them one or two times to disable them and to then run away.

Raining multiple blows on a potential attacker may seem like a good idea but it probably won’t be accepted as self defence in a court of law. Do enough to negate the threat of attack and run away.

If you want to learn more about the T zone, hammer blows, open palm strikes, knee and elbow strikes, etc. why not pop into our weekly Females and under 18s Krav Maga self defence class.

It’s on every Thursday from 6pm – 7pm and only costs £3.

Or visit our website, www.ScotCPS.org.uk or search for ScotCPS on your social media pages for videos regarding how to stay safe.

Next time, I’ll tell you about improvised weapons but until then, stay safe.