How to Take a Punch to The Face

When engaging in offensive hand-to-hand combat or defending yourself from an unprovoked assault, taking a punch to the face is likely and thus should be expected. Knowing how to take a punch properly is crucial not only to minimize the impact and potential damage but also to respond, recover and maintain an advantage in the fight.

      What it Feels Like to Take a Punch

A punch to the face can cause a variety of sensations, depending on the force, angle and position of the strike. Most commonly, the initial impact feels like a sudden, intense pressure, followed by a numbing sensation. This may be accompanied by a temporary loss of focus, disorientation and ringing in the ears. There won’t be any actual pain in the first moment or maybe not even until the engagement is over when your adrenalin levels have subsided. So it’s not the pain that would disrupt your ability to optimally engage, it’s the extreme discomfort and disorientation. Pain comes later.

      How to Take a Punch

Minimizing the impact of the strike and therefore the damage and debilitating effects is the purpose of the strategy of taking unavoidable hits to the body, in this case the head or more specifically the face.

• Keep Your Chin Tucked:   This helps protect your jaw and neck from excessive force, as well as reduces the likelihood of whiplash. This reduced physical damage as well as experiencing less severe disorientation.

• Use Proper Head Movement:   By keeping your head moving and maintaining a dynamic defense, you can minimize the chances of being caught with a clean shot (taking the full force and optimal angle of the strike).

• Tighten Your Neck Muscles:   Flexing your neck muscles upon impact can help to absorb and distribute the force of the punch. This helps prevent being knocked out or damaging your cervical spine and hyoid bone.

• Breathe Out:   Quickly exhaling upon impact can help to stabilize your body and absorb some of the force, reducing the potential for injury and disorientation.

• Roll With The Punch:   By moving your head slightly in the same direction as the incoming punch, you can slightly to greatly reduce the effective force of the blow. If well executed, the opponent may stagger and open themselves to be countered.

      Recovering From a Punch

After being punched in the face, you must first recover from the effects of it before you can respond or counter the attack.

• Use Footwork to Create Distance:   Move away from your opponent, using lateral and circular movements, to create space and allow yourself time to regain your senses.

• Stay Composed:   It’s crucial to remain calm and focused, despite the disorientation caused by the punch. Take a deep breath and maintain your composure.

• Keep an Eye on The Target: Always have your vision trained on your opponent in the short moment you have to recover, in case you have to react before you’ve recovered.

• Maintain a Defensive Stance:   Keep your guard up (physically by having your arms up and mentally by being situationally aware) and continue to protect yourself from further strikes while you recover.

• Assess Your Condition:   Quickly evaluate your injuries (but don’t linger on them), if any, and determine whether you can continue the fight or need to take unconventional or evasive maneuvers.

      Post-Recovery Response Tactics

From the moment your face is struck to recovering from it to how you finally respond can occur in as little as 3/4 of a second. So you have to think and engage without hesitation and through the disorientation.

Receiving strikes is an unavoidable part of combatives and self-defense scenarios but knowing how to take a punch to the face is one of many factors to be in a better position. By understanding how it feels, minimizing the impact, recovering effectively, and learning from the experience, you can enhance your resilience and performance as both an operative and civilian.