Tim,

What are the effects of punching someone in the throat?

When striking someone, what are the primary ways to knock someone out? Medically-speaking, how does this occur?

Thanks

If you want to knock someone out and do it with one or two hits, aim for the chin. This rattles the jaw at its joints, and at the joints there is a nerve running to the brain. Thus when the brain feels this with a sufficient amount of force, it will jolt so bad the brain go into standby mode to protect from further damage. Other ways are to the body by damaging the internal organs badly or hitting the temporal (side of the head) or occipital (back of the head at the connection of the neck and head). In any extremely painful situation, the body will go into shock and go on standby to protect it from any more possible harm.

JJ,

There are three basic ways of knocking someone out. The first way is percussion, the shock to the brain causes a temporary shut down.

The second way is vascular, done by cutting off the blood supply to the brain.

The third is by twisting the brain stem (usually caused by hitting the person in the jaw hard enough to cause a severve rotation in the head).

Hard shots to the body will often cause incapacitation, but not loss of consciousness.

Very good. Thanks for the replies.
Can punching the throat/windpipe do any serious damage?

"Can punching the throat/windpipe do any serious damage?"

It certainly can.

Better know how to do an emegency trachiotomy (sp?): if you practise to routinely punch or strike the front of the throat. The sides of the neck are almost as functional and the person will probably wake up afterwards which might save you from a lot of legal bills and heartache.

Oh, and I've seen people get struck with a lot of power in the neck and it just seems to "wind them up"; but that's true of a lot of supposedly vulnerable targets on the body. It's tough to generalize about "vulnerable points" though it seems popular enough on the internet.

Be prepared for Murphy"s Law to rear it's ugly head if you have to use your martial skills for real ...

Troy,

I can't follow your explanation about a "nerve running to the brain" and so on.

Tim is absolutely correct about the three ways a knockout could occur, hitting the cranium, occluding of arteries as in a carotid choke hold, and hitting the head in such a way as to cause rapid rotation which could compress the brainstem.
There is also such a thing as fainting from shock or pain, so I suppose that's not impossible either, but it doesn't seem very likely.

There isn't any "shutdown mechanism"; going unconscious generally wouldn't protect you from further damage, it generally would leave you vulnerable to be burned up in the building, eaten by the bear, killed by your adversary, etc. Unconsciousness is a result of FAILURE of the mechanisms that allow consciousness.

All cranial nerves
"run to the brain", as all spinal nerves "run to" the spinal cord. Regarding a nerve at the corner of the jaw, I suppose you must mean the fifth cranial nerve aka trigeminal nerve.

I don't actually know how knockouts occur when the point of the jaw is struck; I doubt it has anything to do with cranial nerves. I'll try to find out. My first guess is that the way that would work would be that the lower jaw (mandible) is slammed against the maxilla (upper jaw), i.e. mouth is slammed shut, taking the slack out, and the head is rotated up and back, taking the slack out of the neck, so that either the brainstem is compressed-- not so much by a left to right rotation as a back to front rotation. Either that, or, because the jaw and neck are locked up by the blow, most of the force is transmitted through the jaw to the skull, causing the brain to be struck by the skull, as in a coup-contre-coup injury. In other words, the brain rattles around in the skull.

My guess would be that while someone might be knocked out by one punch this way, lots of times it wouldn't work; the angle and timing would have to be just right. Without boxing gloves, you want to use a palm strike, not a punch; you'll break your hand as likely as his jaw.

I've read of a couple of incidents where Mike Tyson knocked people out in bar fights and broke his hands.

A strike to the front of the throat could break the larynx, which would likely result in suffocation and death. An emergency trach would indeed be called for. Striking one of the carotids might cause a momentary loss of consciousness.

A blow to the 10th cranial nerve (vagus) will cause a knock-out.

ive never been knocked out, but i do know that it isnt easy to knock someone out. ive seen people get hit very hard, but i have never seen a person get knocked out, and ive seen alot of fights.

You've never seen someone get knocked out. Guess what? Someone's been knocked out. But I guess you've never seen it. Try ESPN, son.

of course ive seen it on t.v. im talking about real life... lol, you got me there.

ive pounded someone before while they were on the ground, they got up and ran after i let up (i didnt want to kill the guy) ran a couple steps and then passed out. does that count as a knockout? of course i was careful to wake the guy, be careful when you knock someone out, you have to wake them up or you could kill them, then you'll get 25 with a L.

"I don't actually know how knockouts occur"
but I won't let that prevent me from rambling on in a tangent on how they happen

For all you fantasyland street fighters, Robert, Jay and any Tawanese Bovine Boxers
I am referring (Reefer?)all of you to George Dillman he is your Chi Fantasy NO TOUCH KNOCK OUT GURU
with real martial artist that validate his delusion.
He is the Cow Tipping chi projecter of the USA
please visit his site (in hopes you will spend less time here).
http://www.dillman.com/videos.asp

Oh and DJS
if a blow to the 10 cranial nerve can knock sombody out...
that would mean all these jayoffs with analcranial insertion would be sleeping by now wouldn't it?
or a good swift kick to the perineum would render even a female unconscious wouldn't it?
TCB knockin' myself out

A guy knocked me out with his chi once. He sent his chi through a fence post he happened to be hitting me in the head with, and his chi magically went from the fence post into my head and all the way down to ... well, the ground. Luckily, I had some friends there with powerfull chi to save my arse.
Well, I joke. But it really happened. I mean, the fence post to the head while I was chatting with some girl, that part.. This was when I was young and long before I met my wife, so don't tell her. Her chi is explosive. Pi Qi (Tim and others who speak Chinese will understand).
Cheers,
D

J.J. Remember that if you hit someone in the throat, the legal system will see it as a potentially lethal blow and will likely view you as not a nice person unless you can show that you were really fighting for your life.

Hooray for palm strikes. One just needs the requisite p.s.i. (not the empty force type) and BAM. oops

M. Hatfield is correct. The legal implications are not too far behind if the person was not armed (knife, gun, etc).
Walk softly and carry a small palm.

i love the smell of neipalm in the morning!

cheese anyone. no cutting needed.

I'm not big on lethal strikes to the neck...I realize they can kill very easily. But whats the law regarding destroying the knee joint (or any joint for that matter...like elbows), gouging an eye, boxing ears and destroying ear drums, and splitting ribs? If attacked of course.

I think knocking someone out is secondary to incapacitation.

I mean if someone pulls a knife on you are you allowed to use lethal force? Damaging force? ect ect?

I'm pretty sure if it ever happened I'd just hand the •••• over if i was getting robbed, and I don't have enemies but...ya know...what if?

that depends on what country you are in.

And if it was justified... are you in fear of loosing your life or are you just a malicious person.

I knew someone that went to jail for a long time for defending himself, but the jury so it a different way...