April 25, 2025
Use Your Head…as a Weapon!
Two things right off the bat.
First, when we say head-butt we don’t mean the imprudent and dangerous type you see in the movies. That’s a head-smash, which is a foolhardy and reckless means of using one’s melon. Literally smashing your brain-cage into anything is as bright an idea as trying to change someone’s mind on social media. And almost as dangerous. Don’t do it.
There was a singularly wise government plan in the 80’s to stop the use of illegal drugs. “Just say no.” It was, as all government ideas usually are, wildly successful and money well spent. Illegal drug use plummeted because people had never thought to just say no. Indeed, the land rejoiced and inner cities here in America became as peaceful and bucolic as a farm on a green Vermont hill.
Okay…well, that didn’t actually happen, of course. But they tried. Getting back to reality, and the issue at hand (or head), we’d like to co-opt that vacuous slogan and put it to good use. Just say no to the head-smash. A real head-butt has nothing to do with a head-smash. They’re like the difference between a skilled surgeon and Jack-the-Ripper. To be clear on the difference is to answer the usual objections to the head-butt by those who value their brain cells. They’re right. We do too. But we aren’t talking about the same thing because what they’re objecting to (rightly, we add) is the aforementioned head-smash. The real-deal is surgical. It’s a subtle and opportunistic action with huge upside.
And this brings us to the second point, which is that the recipient of an honest to goodness head-butt isn’t going to fare well. That’s more movie stuff, by the way. We see it all the time. There’s a fight and one of the guys winds up, pulling his head waaaay back, crossing time zones, and then BAM! The poor victim of the celluloid head-smash is taken aback, surely, but they’re always A-OK afterward and keep fighting. And not only do they keep at it, but there’s virtually no sign whatsoever that they just ate a hard skull moments ago. For all intents and purposes they may as well have done nothing more than sneeze.
Yeah, we all know that movies aren’t very good at depicting the reality of life, much less combat. Nevertheless, it’s quite easy to be influenced by them for the simple reason that we see it all the time. Movies and martial art demos are like porn for the self-defender. They fill our minds with woefully unrealistic expectations.
To that end we give you a few critical truths of one of the in-fighter’s greatest tools: the head-butt.
In reality, the actual head-butt is like a jab. A real head-butt is a quick smack with the top of your head. It’s an opportunistic thing and almost always done from the clinch, never from the outside.
Moreover, the target is the other guy’s face. As obvious as this seems it doesn’t go without saying. We should never use our forehead as a weapon nor should we target his.
A proper understanding of the in-fighter’s crouch and the scientific use of positioning cuts down on available targets for the enemy and opens up some for you. With careful practice you’ll gain a positional advantage on the inside through which you can hold-and-hit, especially to the lower abdomen and groin (great targets for short, but powerful punches), and menace the bad dude’s face with the top of your head. The head-butt is always done slightly upward and/or sideways, never down. The reason for this is all about the angle of contact. If the enemy is shorter, or is in a deeper crouch, the head-butt is off the table. Don’t take the shot. Moving downward to the target increases the risk of striking his forehead (or head) and that’s as much fun as a car crash. Seriously.
In Jeet Kune Do in-fighting the idea is to use the bridge/contact as a kind of “inside fighting measure.” In other words, the first order of business is to shut down the enemy’s offense. Some instructors illogically teach that you should be hitting all the time. But this neglects the defensive considerations necessary to stay safe. Grapplers and Muay Thai fighters use their respective clinches to smother the striking ability of their enemy and simultaneously set up their attack. Jeet Kune Do does the same thing. The difference is that in JKD we’re thinking of fighting without rules. It’s important to understand this point or else we’ll likely never have the opportunity to use this effective in-fighting tool. The JKD head-butt is a short-range weapon launched from a controlled in-fighting position that doesn’t compromise one’s defense or balance. It almost always requires some type of trap or clinch that momentarily immobilizes the enemy and leaves him unable to strike or grapple.
As with every other tool, the head-butt is used within its context and in combination with everything else. Footwork, trapping, pushing, striking, pivoting…it’s all in there even on the inside. Many of us, due to flawed presuppositions, get on the inside and illogically assume that everything stops. We’re grappling now, we tend to think. Or we think one-dimensionally. On the contrary, the skilled in-fighter is a whirlwind of combat science. By using the combination of paak-sao, laap-sao, lan-sao, angles, pivots, and careful positioning, the JKD in-fighter is able to fire brutal close-range combinations of dirty tactics. Low blows, head-butts, shin and ankle kicks…like a boxer’s one-two. Speed, power, control and lots of dirty, filthy stuff!
The best way to practice this is with a sparring partner you don’t like very much. Maybe he owes you money. Maybe he married the girl you wanted. Maybe he wears way too much Axe Body Spray.
No…but seriously…no matter how tempting all that might be, never spar with this stuff. So, how do we get good at it? Drills. Use the heavy bag to work on positioning and use the head-butt off of that. Never practice actually butting the bag, but put your head on the bag from your crouch position. To the uneducated it’ll look as though your using a short bob or duck, not an actual head-butt. Add light sparring drills to this where you work on bridging/tying up your partner in a non-contradictory manner, which is to say in a way that sets you up for good in-fighting.
It’s all about smart habits and reflexes developed through realistic but safe training. Now that’s using your head.