I (21f) am 5'5" and skinny. I recently attended a self-defense class, and there I was tought how to use a pocket knife. And as I have some male friends 6'5"+ tall, I thought that that height actually makes their belly particularly vulnerable in case of a fight (compared to a short guy/girl):
- a short person's shoulder height is around the same level as the the tall person's belly making it easier to stab/hit;
- a tall guy's belly is proportionally a larger target.
And in general, if a 6'5"+ guy stands in front of me with his stomach released (even if he has just a bit of a belly) it feels like having an exposed, large and squishy punching/stabbing bag right in front of me, into which, if needed, I can easily harshly and deeply plunge anything straight away.
I also practice historical fencing (rapier) and most of the times I stab tall opponents into the belly - my favorite thrusts are ducking counterattacks when I duck while they attack, go low and impale a tall guy's unprotected belly right onto my rapier.
I'm not going to tell you you're wrong about having a type of advantage due to size, but I will say in actual fights, unless you're against someone the size of Halfþor Bjornsson, it won't matter enough to protect you.
And when it comes to knife fights, one person dies on the spot, the other gets to die on the way to the hospital.
Someone once said "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth"
Keep attending self-defense classes and learn to kick assailant ass the proper way!
How about "Everyone has a plan until they get stabbed in the belly by a short sneaky girl"? 😉
I genuinely hope you're never in a position to find out how badly this attitude can go in the real world.
You want to be confident and feel secure in yourself and I get that but you're too confident and inexperienced.
Over confidence, inexperience and a bit of emotion is a quick way to end up dead.
Why you think I'm so inexperienced? I am a pretty good fencer. Yep, I have never been in a real street fight. But at least I have a skill of fighting with a thrusting blade. So, if I get attacked by a guy who has no such skill (which would very likely be the case), why you think I'll have disadvantage?
Are you a tall guy yourself? If so, lets be honest: you just can't acknowledge the fact that a short girl like me can actually disembowel a bigger and taller guy when being attacked.
I've been in street fights, bar brawls, boxing rings, mma cages, ice hockey brawls (my favourite), even tried out fencing and HEMA out and you don't come across as someone with experience and you just admitted as much.
Do you think someone is going to swagger up to you and announce they're attacking you? Are you going to pull your knife on every man that approaches? Oh you'll only do it for the scary looking guys? Jeffrey Dahmer didn't look real scary did he now.
There's a solid chance you won't even manage to draw your knife if genuinely attacked.
A few things to consider.
And on the legality side if carrying knives and guns is legal... WTF are you going to do when you pull your little pocket knife out and someone ventilates you with .45?
I once had to get a steak knife off a toddler to stop them taking their own eye out and didn't come away unscathed, so sure, you're probably mildly more dangerous than a toddler.
The toddler was fine btw.
Knives are dangerous, potentially illegal to carry and adding a knife to a situation is very likely to escalate it, and if you've got time to draw a knife you've got time to run and/or get help.
You sound insecure and I hope you can sort that out.
In addition, check out ShivWorks Instagram page. They use videos of real fights to show just how fast shit starts, ends, and how badly things go. Fights and assaults usually start with someone sucker-punching someone, not with people squaring up.
Tbf she'd be safe from Ol' Jeff, you or I might have to worry more about him than she would. Bundy OTOH...
Also oddly it's not usually strangers killing women, men are actually more likely to be killed by a stranger than women, women (out of those murdered of course as murder at all is fairly uncommon) are usually killed by people they know.
Because the average 80 year old man can overpower the average 21 year old woman.
Crazy graph but I'll attest to it. The difference in pure strength is just massive. We wrestled a lot in the army and our unit had women as well. One of whom had taken taekwondo most of her life. None of them stood a chance against me, and I don't lift and had spent the previous months smoking weed and drinking beer and watching movies. Still, there was absolutely no contest. Even the girls about my height ans weight had no chance. They had more chance than the smaller ones, but still, it was below what most of the shorter dudes could give. I'd say perhaps one of the smaller guys might have lost a bout to one of the women, can't recall, but the point is it was just ridiculously clear how much testosterone makes a difference, even without training or even when women have trained.
And this is not me saying I can beat all women in wrestling, far from it, I wouldn't stand a chance against even an amateur hobbyist wrestler, but we had no-one who actually wrestled. Well except for one guy, who literally was a semi-pro, had ranked high in European wrestling or something. Dude could toss one of those massive medicine balls to the ceiling of the gym when I got it barely a fifth of the way there or something. He wasn't made to wrestle with the women. Or much anyone. Actually I think the lieutenant made him coach a little iirc.
Anyways. Agree with your comment, thanks for the neat graph.
Are you just going to get a rapier around with you everywhere you go and fight with one arm behind your back? The only skills you're traveling are the fitness you've gained from training, which is less than that if a runner.
I'm not a particularly tall guy, around 6'. I wrestled during my youth and completed against guys that were 5' tall and others that were 6'5"+. Both heights had advantages and flaws, but universally, if they were well trained, their height was irrelevant to how skilled they were. Agility is something that can be learned and isn't a unique trait that only you possess and that tall guys don't.
I can say with absolute certainty that if a guy, tall or short, wanted to attack you, they could close the gap in the amount of time it would take you to get out, open, and ready yourself with a knife. Maybe if they were 100 yards away and yelled that they were going to attack you you'd have a chance.
Also, what does being sneaky mean in a fight? If you're actively in a fight, you aren't sneaking around. I think one mistake your making is that there are rules in a fight. There aren't. Let's say you have a knife with a 3" blade out and ready to go. If I bullrush you and at the last moment jump up and aim a double leg drop kick at your chest, your just hoping to make contact because the fight is over if you don't end me right there.
Physics is why.
How does you leaning forward with a short knife counter a 2m tall dude kicking you?
Are you thinking of defending yourself, or murdering someone unsuspecting?
You nead to be sneaky, agile to defend yourself succesfully, especially given my short height
You need to ask the smallest guy you know to wrestle with you. Explicitly tell him that you don’t want him to hold back his strength.
If you want to get fancy with it, give him a white shirt to wear, and have an uncapped felt tip marker in your hand. See how many stabs you can get in before he’s completely overpowered you, which he certainly will.