Teen sees girl being accosted in a parking lot by 4 older boys, fights, and:
can't avoid the punch, so he takes it ... on the forehead, which breaks the attackers hand
Teen sees girl being accosted in a parking lot by 4 older boys, fights, and:
can't avoid the punch, so he takes it ... on the forehead, which breaks the attackers hand
I agree, but I just went to check.
Destiny's Road starts with two guys assaulting the girl and the protagonist easily takes them out. Three more guys show up, which is when he narrates/ explains that he has been studying Krav Maga for years, but has never been in a real fight. He takes a punch to his forehead, breaking the attackers hand. Protagonist keeps fighting until the whole thing is noticed and the attackers run off.
So probably it. The details that are different are the sort of thing that's easy to forget.
Been awhile since I read it, but IIRC a similar scene may be in EB's Finding Home/Al Adams story.
Yeah, I KNEW I remembered it from somewhere!!!
Ya gotta admit, tho, I've had almost 8 years to forget!
LOLOL!!!
Also, please don't remind me that much time has past. I already feel old enough. I started writing last year. I'm sure of it.
You think you feel old, think of this, the oldest human in the world, a French nun, just passed a week or so ago at 118 yrs old!! Makes me feel like a kid again, until my arthritis kicks in again lol
The new "oldest human" is a mere 115, born in California but her family went back to NE Spain when she was 8. She has a large family so I seriously doubt that she was ever a nun.
Wasn't he working for the Harriman Trust trying to get to the moon or Mars at about this time?
You are probably right. I will have to go back and look up that short story.
I was wondering how many would recognize the name and respond. Heinlein doesn't seem to be very mainstream anymore. Pity.
I read my first Heinlein nearly 60 years ago. It was either The Star Beast or Have Space Suit, Will Travel.
The Star Beast or Have Space Suit, Will Travel.
Star Beast was 1954, Have Space Suit (etc) was 1958.
I read my first Heinlein in about '62 at the age of 9. By 14 I'd read almost everything published by him to that date. Plus all the Doc Smith, Van Vogt, Dickson, Bradbury, and the Foundation series. And every Ace Double that I could find. I still spend a few hundred a year on dead trees.
Yep! So, you need to write one MORE book in Caspian's saga. I've read these before, of course, but after this little reminder, I spent the weekend rereading it.
'Growing Up in a Spy Family' by Tangorian. Teenage boy gets advanced martial arts and spycraft training. Along the way becomes a model as well. Enjoyable read requiring some suspension of disbelief. Unfortunately unfinished.
https://storiesonline.net/s/18402/growing-up-in-a-spy-family
'Growing Up in a Spy Family' by Tangorian.
I know I read this before but for some reason didn't save it. It's long enough to be a good read even though it is incomplete.
can't avoid the punch, so he takes it ... on the forehead, which breaks the attackers hand
Hit the strongest and hardest bone in the body with the weakest and most fragile bones in the body.
Hit the strongest and hardest bone in the body with the weakest and most fragile bones in the body.
This.
I saw something online recently about why the stance of bare knuckle boxers seems so odd.
In modern boxing with gloves there are a lot of head shots and concussion injuries.
But those kinds of injuries weren't common back in the days of bare knuckle boxing.
That didn't happen with bare knuckle boxing because head shots were rare, because with no protection for the hand, a head punch risked more damage to the puncher's hand than to the opponent's head.
This leads to a need to protect the torso more so than the head and so the stance was one hand out to keep the opponent at a distance and one hand against the body both to protect the torso and to keep it in position for stronger strikes.
There's a scene with that in Todd_d172's "an Unreasonable Man",
I had just the right angle to step in and drive my fist into his temple with every bit of my weight behind it
That hurts when I read it, don't try this at home folks.
I had just the right angle to step in and drive my fist into his temple with every bit of my weight behind it
That hurts when I read it, don't try this at home folks.
OTOH, the temple is a very weak part of the head.
Oyster50 has a scene in one of the Smart Girls stories where one of the girls attacks a rapist with a ballpoint pen made of titanium which penetrates the temple and kills the rapist.
It's in Community (Chapter 42):
It looks like a BIC pen. It's neatly clipped to a loop on the shoulder strap of my backpack. It's not a BIC. It's what Dan calls a 'tactical' pen. Takes standard refills. Writes like a regular pen. Has a titanium barrel, though. He bought two. Gave me one.
I pulled it and dropped my backpack. And I charged. Didn't yell. Didn't scream. And the guy was struggling with Susan, trying to get her pants down when I hit him.
That pen will easily pierce a quarter inch of plywood. I know. I've done it. Now I know that it will pierce a human skull at the temple. And if you stick a pen into a guy's temple, he drops. Twitches a lot. Lets my Susan go.
HM.
Hit the strongest and hardest bone in the body with the weakest and most fragile bones in the body.
You absolutely want to avoid that, but a strike to the nose is particularly debilitating and is a good way to deter someone who is attacking you if evasion is impossible and blocking their attacks has not caused them to break off the assault.
Yeah, but even then you're better off using the heal of your hand.
A proper strike, with the second knuckle (i.e bent at that point) with the thumb not curled under the palm, does not usually result in damage to one's finger bones. That said, a strike with finger in the same position with the heel of the hand is even safer, as you note.
That can easily be a killing blow
It could, though with proper control by the practitioner it's a reasonably sure way to stop someone bent on harming you. Note well only if evasion/escape is impossible, you've blocked attacks, and warned the attacker you intend to hurt him if he fails to stop.
Pretty much any kind of blow like that, ie; blow to the nose, throat punch, solid kick to the groin, would be a killing blow. With the right training a heart punch will kill, but you're right, there has to be fair warning.
Pretty much any kind of blow like that, ie; blow to the nose, throat punch, solid kick to the groin, would be a killing blow. With the right training a heart punch will kill, but you're right, there has to be fair warning.
As for the blow to the chest, even a modest blow at the right point in the T-wave (between onset and peak) can cause dysrhythmia or cardiac arrest.
It's a condition called commotio cordis, and we saw a likely occurrence in gridiron football a few weeks ago.
can't avoid the punch, so he takes it ... on the forehead, which breaks the attackers hand
This also happens in Stupid Boy, when he is modeling in California playing beach volleyball.