How many strikes is lethal?

[Johnlogic121]

Suppose you got into a situation in which you really had to use martial arts to defend yourself against multiple attackers and the only possible way out seems to be to strike rapidly and forcefully with everything you have until you literally kill all the guys attacking you. I am supposing that this is truly genuine self-defense, of coarse, and not just a bar fight in which you start going berserk and commit manslaughter on everybody. Suppose you have to take out three guys. How many strikes is lethal? Also, how long would it take in seconds to execute that number of strikes? For the purposes of this question, let's suppose that you can engage each person individually and no grappling holds or throws are involved that might take precious minutes to lock on before they can obtain a submission (which really doesn't achieve a lethal result, anyway, and which would release the foe when you let go of him to move onto someone else.) I would predict that ten strikes in five seconds would normally be lethal for most people, but I would expect that a really skilled person could do it in four seconds with eight strikes. What do you guys and gals think?

[bushido_man96]

How many and how fast are fairly ambiguous questions, in my opinion. You need to concentrate instead on the target, and how hard the contact is made. One can punch fast but not hard, or hard but not fast. I don't think it is something you can put a tag on. In order to really take someone out like that, I think the onslaught would have to continue after the opponent is unconscious. At that point, you are the attacker, and most likely going to go to jail.

[tallgeese]

I agree with bushido man here, "one shot, one kill" kind of strikes are pretty rare in the unarmed arena. Not unheard of, but rare enough.

I'd guess that you'd have to beat on each unconcious to do that, and now we move well out of the real of defending one's self.

For lethality agaist so many, I'd try and escalte to weaponry.

[bushido_man96]

Escalating to weaponry would be the best bet in a group. It would difficult and naive to assume that you could just punch that many people in the throat and dispatch them and move on.

[The BB of C]

There are a thousand-plus ways to do everything when it comes to this.

There's Dim Mak pressure points. There's also things like neck breaks, heart stopping punches, shoving the nose into the brain, temple shots, back of the head shots, mid-spine shots. There is never a set anything for lethality.

[Johnlogic121]

If I could restate the main question again slightly, I would ask, how many strikes on average should be enough to kill the average person? The comments so far have been interesting and contributive, but nobody as yet has speculated an informed guess or reported a proven answer. This question is important because you might be enraged enough to beat on someone someday who has just raped your wife, and you would want to know what the practical limit is between putting him in the hospital and putting him in the morgue. I think ten strikes would finish the average person or eight strikes is the strikes are strong. Does anyone feel that the level should be less? Self-defense can usually be accomplished with three successful strikes, but my inquiry is about going all the way to the death. Would anyone here take thirty strikes to finish somebody? -JL

[bushido_man96]

The human body is really quite resiliant. I don't think 10 strikes is just it. It could take more. Of course, you are not going to likely be beating on someone that is completely unable to defend themselves, either.

[cross]

It would be near impossible to come up with an accurate set of figures for this, there are far 2 many variables... How much power can you generate with a strike? Can you actually land a strike of that power? how physically fit is the person your striking? How many times are you getting hit yourself while you are hitting them? Etc etc.

There have been a number of cases where people are killed from getting punched once in the head and then has they fall they hit their head on the ground. And at the other end of the scale there are fights where 20 or 30 strikes are thrown and both people walk away without a mark.

[unknownstyle]

depends on where you strike him. insides of limbs and strikes to the neck area could be fatal with just one depending on the amount of force

[FitOrDie]

Well, real life isn't street fighter, no one has a bar above them that slowly turns from yellow to red as they get hit until they are finished, fall in slow motion, and say "oouuhhh oouuhhh oouuhhh" in a strange echo sound. If you are attacked by a group of people, you do what you can to survive, hopefully that means running away, as it's your best chance, and that's that.

I don't mean to insult you, really, but people who do martial arts often find themselves in such a world of theory it becomes like a fantasy than anything else, based on cartoons and movies. I think this is happening to you. Don't burden your mind with trivial things, fantastic scenerios, or whatever else. Prepare to fight and win as if it's inevitable that you will have to, and know when to fight.