It’s just harder. Fighting isn’t a, “It Works Or It Doesn’t,” scenario. We can all agree that punching someone in the face really really hard works. Everyone knows that kicking someone really really hard in the groin works. Everyone knows that jamming your thumb into someone’s eye really really hard works. But sometimes it doesn’t. When someone is larger than you, it becomes harder to physically affect them. There’s a reason combat sports have weight classes, and why fighters dehydrate themselves to near death to get into lower weight classes. Being bigger is an advantage. Bigger people have more reach, more power, and more armor. If you’re a small person, punching a large person in the head probably isn’t going to affect them much. There’s just not enough mass. That’s why in Krav Maga we emphasise high-value strikes like kicks and knees to the groin, and eye gouges. Although some people will have a higher tolerance to them than others, those are strikes where just being bigger doesn’t necessarily make someone more durable to them. We also have to remember we don’t have to win the fight, we just have to get safe. That can mean striking and escaping, it can mean fighting hard enough that our attacker gives up because it’s not worth it, and it can mean surviving long enough for help to arrive. Beyond techniques, at the core of Krav Maga is aggression. We know from thousands of years of combat and warfare that aggression works. It’s also a quality not limited by your size. Even a small person can fight with a level of aggression and intensity that surprises and overwhelms their attacker. Remember we’re not stepping into the ring for a planned, sanctioned fight. We’re dealing with an attacker who might expect us to be an easy victim, and doesn’t know what they just signed up for. If they’re bigger, it’s harder. But nothing changes about our approach.
