How do you fight a taller person?

[SimonM]

The outer thigh may not be the best of targets unless you have a godawfully powerful kick. I have a tendency to walk straight through kicks to the outer thigh. Hip joint, knee joint and kidney are my choice of roundhouse targets... Depending on angle and availability.

[Zaharia]

True. However, if one can get inside the opponent and make contact with the upper forearm, e.g. by blocking a punch, the effect of kicking the outer thigh will be devastating. This is taken from Chinese accupuncture - they believe that the meridians in the upper forearm are the element *metal*, and the meridians in the outer thigh are *wood*. Metal cuts wood, and therefore the effect is greater. Trust me, it works.

By the way, to roundhouse kick someone directly to the kidneys is practically suicide, as your opponent can easily grab your leg. This would be good for a progressive/follow up attack, though.

Also, one has to be careful when roundhousing the hip joint, as one must use the shin to collide with the target.

[GunnedDownAtrocity]

i hate to give you tall ****ers any more of an advantage on us short guys, but i would also warn for shorter people to watch overhead.

well see how i do now in a month or so, but before i used to always get clobbered by anything that came from over my head no matter what the target was. id tuck my chin a lil and start targeting their ribs or chin then blam ... id get nailed with a nazi punch to the bridge of the nose.

maybe its just me though.

[SimonM]

Who me? A head hunter? No...

[green_willow]

Who me? A head hunter? No...

What about using TKD and lots of high kicks. you could use that to KO the taller guy. If your legs can't reach - use the jumping reverse turning kick. The shorter guy can always jump to get the height advantage

[Zaharia]

That's all good and well, assuming that your opponent has the reactions of a sloth, and you can pull of the kick with maximum proficiency. Besides, you could never pull of such a move if you were in close range, as is the case in most street-fights. Also, such moves are 'fine-motor skills', so the chances are, no matter how proficient a TKD man/woman one is, adrenaline is going to prevent one from performing such a skill, unless of course one has been in many fights, and no longer feels the effects of the adrenaline. The best attacks one can use are 'gross-motor skills', such as headbut's, knee's, and elbow's, (in the close quarter range, that is).

[green_willow]

That's all good and well, assuming that your opponent has the reactions of a sloth, and you can pull of the kick with maximum proficiency. Besides, you could never pull of such a move if you were in close range, as is the case in most street-fights. Also, such moves are 'fine-motor skills', so the chances are, no matter how proficient a TKD man/woman one is, adrenaline is going to prevent one from performing such a skill, unless of course one has been in many fights, and no longer feels the effects of the adrenaline. The best attacks one can use are 'gross-motor skills', such as headbut's, knee's, and elbow's, (in the close quarter range, that is).

Fortunately big and tall people are generally slower. you must stop them from getting into close range and getting you in a bear hug. In that case, your best hope is that the big guys gets over confident and monologues before trying for a big finish. if you're on the ground and kick their knee caps you fall them like an oak tree.

[SimonM]

What about using TKD and lots of high kicks. you could use that to KO the taller guy. If your legs can't reach - use the jumping reverse turning kick. The shorter guy can always jump to get the height advantage

I love it when twerps try stuff like that. I call it: Simon puts some dumb TKD point sparrer on their a$$.

[green_willow]

I love it when twerps try stuff like that. I call it: Simon puts some dumb TKD point sparrer on their a$$.

The TKD sparrer will remind you that you don't get points for this.

[SimonM]

I'd imagine that head butts, elbows to the face and the good, old-fashioned, jab to the nose don't get you points in TKD tournaments. I'll still keep on using them though...

[Zaharia]

Fortunately big and tall people are generally slower. you must stop them from getting into close range and getting you in a bear hug. In that case, your best hope is that the big guys gets over confident and monologues before trying for a big finish. if you're on the ground and kick their knee caps you fall them like an oak tree.

That is just a generalisation: of course, if your opponent is fat, he will be sluggish, bit if he is muscular, his strikes will be very powerful. The bigger the muscle mass, the greater the potential for power and speed.
Also, most of the time, one is not able to control the opening range of a fight, esspecially by trying 'fine-motor attacks'.
And a bear hug is probably the easiest submission to get out of: elbow's to the head, biting, knee's to the balls, outer palm chops to the kidney's, etc; these all work in getting out of such a submission.
There's one thing that everyone should remember: planning a defence against any situation is pointless, as the situation may, and inevitably will vary. Therefore, one must learn a variety of possibilities of how to defend oneself in such a situation.

[Mr Punch]

I take it you're joking?

Fortunately big and tall people are generally slower.

To paraphrase Kungfu Cowboy, only if they graduated in Lumbering at Oafery University. Done any surveys to back this up? Of the four people I train with who are taller than me (I'm 6'1: they're 6'3, 6'5, 6'5, 6'6) only one is slower than me and I'm pretty **** fast. And of the others, we're pretty much even, and it doesn't make a lot of difference. One guy who's the same height as me at 25 kgs heavier (and it ain't all muscle) is only a tad slower, and his strength more than makes up for it.

you must stop them from getting into close range and getting you in a bear hug.

Now I know you're joking... If they're bigger than you and they've graduated in Lumbering at Oafery University before the Masters in Two Handed Bum's Rushes at the Scooby Doo Villains' School of Continuing Studies. Who the **** rushes in with a bear hug as their primary attack!?

In that case, your best hope is that the big guys gets over confident and monologues before trying for a big finish.

'Monologues'?! Yeah, if you're fighting a guy who's bigger than you, graduated in Lumbering at Oafery University, mastered in Two Handed Bum's Rushes at the Scooby Doo Villains' School of Continuing Studies and doctored in Melodrama at the James Bond School of Higher Education.

You do know what monologue means? I guess you've really got an advantage if the poor dumb moose suddenly stops and hits you with the Hamlet...

if you're on the ground and kick their knee caps you fall them like an oak tree.

That's definitely true. From experience, oak trees are ****ing hard to fell, and you have about as much chance just trying to kick their knee-caps from the ground as trying to fell an oak tree with the same tactics!

[Zaharia]

[QUOTE]if you're on the ground and kick their knee caps you fall them like an oak tree. [QUOTE]
"The bigger they are, the harder they fall.... on you".

[Matrix]

Done any surveys to back this up? Of the four people I train with who are taller than me (I'm 6'1: they're 6'3, 6'5, 6'5, 6'6) only one is slower than me and I'm pretty **** fast. And of the others, we're pretty much even, and it doesn't make a lot of difference. One guy who's the same height as me at 25 kgs heavier (and it ain't all muscle) is only a tad slower, and his strength more than makes up for it.

Hey Mat,
Great points all around.
So, how about sharing some of your insights and experience to answer the original question. You never know, there may be some Scooby Snacks in it for you.

Any pointers??

[Mr Punch]

Nah, not really.

Seven's on the thread: I get tired of following that c0cky suvabeech around saying 'What Seven said.'!

OK, so sometimes I disagree with him, but he seems to have this one all sown up. Apart from that YouKnowWho's 'knee seizing' sounds like a good idea from what I've seen of shuai chuao (sp?) but it isn't in my skill set.

If we're talking techs, I like a simple double leg shoot, but making sure you reap sideways, as opposed to going straight back. In wing chun I do the same as shooto: work combos to keep them busy, esp changing the height etc, as I try to work in to the inside and bounce tan into hook/uppercut/elbow off the inside of their arms if they're good at the close-up game.

I'm very happy very close, and quite good at working sweeps, trips and all that lovely chi gerk stuff into the clinches. I suck at getting there, and if they're bigger than me I expect to eat a big one on the way in. That's life!

One more thing to add. As I said I'm 6'1 myself so I can usually pressurize the head... I find that headhunting as part of a set of short kick combos is very effective... and I do like to bob and weave when neccessary even in wing chun (I find it an ideal vehicle for some of the principles from Biu Gee) and these things combined often lead to a good clear uppercut, and when I have that aiki head controls follow on like clockwork (eg, after the first percussive uppercut/bounce punch/elbow etc) a good palm-heel drive up centreline into the chin, angling the hand to roll the head around for the kuzushi.

It ain't foolproof but what is?! They do have a tendency to slip their head out of it, esp if you lose your footing (its difficult keeping that drive going through if they're really big) but... It does put a lot of pressure on, and get them off balance so even if you cant get a throw/takedown / sweep etc, it still takes them a while to recover.