So what about auditory self defense?

[Thesemindz]

So, most of us who practice martial arts were taught to make some kind of noises while we fight. Personally, I grunt a lot, and sometime bark and yell at my opponent. No, not like a dog. Just short, clipped, sounds. Some of us would argue that these sounds help to focus the energy of our attacks, or at least that exhaling helps to tighten the abdomen and energizes our core for giving and receiving force.

And we can all understand the importance of making noise to draw attention to the attack. Screaming for help, or screaming fire, or for kids, "you're not my daddy!"

But what about using your voice as a weapon? What about grabbing a person and screaming in their ear? I know it causes pain, and disorientation, and an instinctual action of withdrawing and covering the ear. So do you think it has a place?

Do any of you specifically teach "auditory" self defense? Either offensively, defensively, or just as an important part of your training? Do you think it has a place? Would it be effective? Or would the opponent simply ignore it while in the midst of adrenal dump? I know that one of the effects of the fight or flight mechanism is the dilation of the bronchial tubes so that the mind can increase the amount of incoming sensory information. Would that make it hurt even more?

Or is it just silly, and have I had too much port tonight?

The iron curtain was neither iron, nor a curtain. Discuss.


-Rob

 

[Bill Mattocks]

But what about using your voice as a weapon? What about grabbing a person and screaming in their ear? I know it causes pain, and disorientation, and an instinctual action of withdrawing and covering the ear. So do you think it has a place?

Like this?

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/824492/voice_as_a_weapon/

Or the more science-fictiony "Dune" type of voice as weapon?

The military has experimented with sound, specifically focused sound waves, as a non-lethal weapon to be deployed in riot or civil-disturbance situations.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn1564

The problem with sound as a weapon is that typically it requires a sound generator to reach the decibel level required to disorient, the un-amplified human voice won't quite cut it.

In addition, unless one is wearing hearing protection, one is going to be absorbing a great deal of that sonic energy oneself.

Now, if you could train yourself to issue forth the 'brown note'...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_note

I have no doubt that yelling and screaming could be very useful in certain situations - bad people like to work in darkness and silence and do not really crave attention most times. I don't know about its actual use as a literal weapon, but it's an interesting thought.

 

[Rich Parsons]

So, most of us who practice martial arts were taught to make some kind of noises while we fight. Personally, I grunt a lot, and sometime bark and yell at my opponent. No, not like a dog. Just short, clipped, sounds. Some of us would argue that these sounds help to focus the energy of our attacks, or at least that exhaling helps to tighten the abdomen and energizes our core for giving and receiving force.

And we can all understand the importance of making noise to draw attention to the attack. Screaming for help, or screaming fire, or for kids, "you're not my daddy!"

But what about using your voice as a weapon? What about grabbing a person and screaming in their ear? I know it causes pain, and disorientation, and an instinctual action of withdrawing and covering the ear. So do you think it has a place?

Do any of you specifically teach "auditory" self defense? Either offensively, defensively, or just as an important part of your training? Do you think it has a place? Would it be effective? Or would the opponent simply ignore it while in the midst of adrenal dump? I know that one of the effects of the fight or flight mechanism is the dilation of the bronchial tubes so that the mind can increase the amount of incoming sensory information. Would that make it hurt even more?

Or is it just silly, and have I had too much port tonight?

The iron curtain was neither iron, nor a curtain. Discuss.


-Rob

I mention it to my students.

I explain the use of the voice to let people hear your intent. i.e. "I just want to go home. Let me go."

I have also explained projecting one's voice to get a louder volume and getting attention. But what I have found is that those with classical voice training or speech presentation skills (* unaided by electronic devices *) seem to catch on while others seem to just yell.

Yelling is loud and gets attention but also can take away a person's breath. But by projecting ones voice and increase volume as well it is not as tiring or breath consuming.

I have not done research on it as I have taught myself and used it myself in real life. But, I have found that many do look on it as silly and also do not wish to practice it.

 

[jarrod]

screaming in someone's ear is a good tactic, but just like biting, pinching, or any of that sort of thing i think it should be opportunistic & not something you go for or count on to win the day.

jf

 

[DavidCC]

You may be able to elicit the startle reflex, which can cause a physical but subtle misalignment, leading to a weakness in their posture.

 

[KenpoTex]

Something advocated/taught by one of the DT instructors my company used at one time was the use of simple, one syllable commands when fighting. His premise was that rather than using random sounds/words (kiai) or just merely exhaling sharply, one should shout something like "back" or "stop." His reasoning was that this accomplishes the same thing (tightening the muscles, etc.) but had the added benefit of "programming" any witnesses. In other words, they see/hear one person yelling "stop," it's fairly obvious that he/she is trying to get the other person to quit doing whatever it was that caused the incident.
Another reason is that you are communicating to the person what they need to do to get you to quit beating them

 

[Aiki Lee]

screaming in someone's ear is a good tactic, but just like biting, pinching, or any of that sort of thing i think it should be opportunistic & not something you go for or count on to win the day.

jf

I agree. And also, unless you have a paticuarly strong voice I think shouting in their ear would just get lost in the "adreanal dump" as you said. There could be some other applications for kiaijutsu though.