Combatives And The Use Of Foul Tactics -Part 2 -Fish Hooking

Back in November of 2018 I started writing a series of Blog Posts on the subject of "Foul Tactics". However life got in the way and I was badly sidetracked. However assorted issues have now been resolved and it's time to get back to what I started. As the title of this Blog Post says, today I'll cover the subject of 'Fish Hooking'.

To begin with, for a brief description and applications I will takes some short quotes from the book 'Karate's Grappling Methods' by Iain Abernethy;

https://www.amazon.com/Karates-Grappling-Methods-Iain-Abernethy-ebook/dp/B00A79UCSY/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?keywords=katare%27s+grappling+methods&qid=1560799216&s=gateway&sr=8-1-fkmr0

'Fish-Hooking'

“By placing a hooked finger inside your opponent's mouth and pulling, it
is possible to cause great pain and to control the opponent's head. The danger of
using the fish-hook is that it can leave the finger very vulnerable to being bitten.
One way to avoid this is to place the tip of your finger at the corner of the
opponent's mouth (Your left-hand to the left-hand side of their face such that you
are reaching behind their head). You should then pull backwards and slightly out
to produce a gap between the teeth and the cheek. Once the hooked finger is inside
the mouth, keep pulling to ensure sufficient tension in the cheek....”

“The fish-hook can be effective when properly applied but should only be used as
a last resort due to the high cost of failure.”

This is your most recognized use for Fish-hooking, going into the cheek of your attackers mouth. You can also use it by jamming one or two your fingers into the nostrils of your attacker. Again, this description is from Iain Abernethy.

The nose is a sensory organ and as such it is loaded with nerves.
Manipulating the nose can be very effective. The nose can be attacked in a
number of different ways...........The fingers can be inserted into the nostrils
and then hooked, pulled or pushed (depending on the opponent's position in
relation to yourself) to cause pain and to position the opponent's head for a
follow up Technique.

Now a lot of people who follow an MMA/BJJ based program of self defense will blow off this dirty fighting tactic as no more than an unproven gimmick. On the other hand there are people who follow a Combatives or a 'Reality Based Self Defense' (RBSD for short) program who will say that when caught in a bad situation will "just poke him in the eye" or "bite a chunk out of him" or "fish-hook him" in the belief that it will just end the fight right there.

And as usual, the truth lies somewhere in-between.

Finding videos of fights involving fish-hooking on Youtube is not easy. Biting, eye attacks, etc., are pretty numerous. Fortunately I was able to find several examples to present for this Blog Post.

This first video shows two teenagers going at it. Not a criminal assault but not exactly fooling around or some non-compliant stage theatrics either. You can hear people in the background at what I can only assume was supposed to be a friendly party being shocked by the one guy fish-hooking the other. In fact the guy doing it was being called out for it.





Now in this case we have an example of the fish-hook technique being unsuccessful. The guy who used it pretty much got his ass handed to him when, after finding himself pinned by his opponent, he attempted the technique. Initially he appeared to be getting somewhere but his opponent was either resistant to the pain (possibly drunk or maybe just a high threshold of pain tolerance) or else the the other teenager had never actually used the technique before or maybe wasn't committed enough to make it work. This goes to the argument from the skeptics of the technique that if you can't train it on a resisting opponent in class, you'll never be able to make it work when it counts.

The next video again shows a fight between a couple of teenagers who seem to be more serious about whatever it was that triggered the altercation.





Now in this case the technique was initiated by the teenager who already had the dominant position. Also, instead of the classic fish-hooking of the cheek, we have an example of inserting the fingers in the nostrils. in this particular case the success of the technique was pretty definitive and also looked extremely painful if the look on the losers face was any indication.

The second video also brings up an issue that was presented by Tony Cecchine on one of his Catch Wrestling videos. He emphasized that while using fish-hooking, as well as other dirty fighting techniques, to escape from a bad situation, it was always going to be harder than using them if you were already in the dominant position.

In this final video, which lasts all of 7 seconds, we have a clip two professional MMA fighters in a match where the one fighter fish-hooks the other in order to gain the advantage and get himself into a better position to defeat his opponent. In this case we have a classic case of fish-hooking where the cheek is caught and yanked to the side in order to rotate the head of the unfortunate fighter.




This video brings up the issue of MMA/BJJ proponents and the question that is always asked about their method of training. Simply put, if these techniques won't ever work, why are they banned from professional MMA events?

So now we come to the end of this Blog Post and, as with my previous Post on Biting we are left with a split decision on this technique as well. We have seen the technique use both successfully and unsuccessfully. It's validity as a Self Defense technique is not assured just because you use it, but neither is it negated. If you're going to use fish-hooking in a serious fight with a criminal predator, you had better try to be in a superior, or at least an equal, position with your attacker. You must use be quick and use surprise and violent intent, especially if your life is on the line.