Why We Headbutt
The headbutt is one of the most devastating blows that you can land.
You are able to get a solid part of your body mass behind the headbutt and you are hitting with the thickest hardest bone in the human body.
Headbutts frequently cause instant knockouts and/or serious damage. That is one reason they are illegal in most fighting sports such as the UFC.
The Wrong Way to Headbutt
In the movies you see headbutts done ridiculously wrong.
One guy will bash his forehead into the other guy’s forehead. The person doing the headbutt doesn’t get hurt but the one receiving the headbutt does get hurt.
Now how in the hell does that make any sense?
To go one step further… I have seen in more than one movie where one guy starts doing headbutts to the other… which only hurts the recipient. And then the guy who was getting headbutted does some sort of powering up mode and starts doing them back to the other guy and now it hurts the 1st guy instead…
WTH?!
Banging your forehead into something hard is at the very least going to hurt like heck and at the worst can knock you dizzy. It doesn’t matter if you initiate the headbutt or they do.
Ready to learn how to do a proper headbutt?
How to Headbutt… the Right Way
The correct way to headbutt is to use your frontal bone (the thickest and hardest bone in the human body) to hit your opponent’s face.
The face bones are small and brittle. They contain lots of nerve endings whereas your skull contains far fewer nerve endings.
You can easily break your opponent’s facial bones with a solid headbutt. The nasal bone and teeth are especially vulnerable.
But it really doesn’t matter as long as you hit your opponent below their eyebrows. The eyebrows are the bottom of the frontal bone.
To make sure you hit the face with your frontal bone follow these tips:
An important note is make sure you don’t look at their face as you come in. Paul Vunak, creator of Rapid Assault Tactics, told me about the scar he has on his lip from when he headbutted a guy in a real fight. Paul looked at the guy as he did his headbutt and the 2 of them bashed faces.
So make sure to keep your head tucked and come in hairline to face from a lower angle.
How to Practice the Headbutt
It is vitally important to practice the headbutt safely.
1st off you don’t want to go slamming your head into a punching bag as if you were throwing punches.
Your brain is inside your head after all. Ever heard of TBIs? This is the reason that the NFL is wearing those larger helmets now. And they don’t really work by the way.
When your head is moving forward and then suddenly stops your brain will keep moving forward inside your skull. It is floating in cerebrospinal fluid with a hard case (your skull) on either side.
The sudden stop causes your brain to smash into the front of your skull and then bounce back and hit the back of your skull.
This is called countercoup.
Countercoup is what causes concusions, TBIs (traumatic brain injuries), and often over time will lead to neurodegenerative disorders including anger and emotion issues.
Just ask all of these former amateur boxers who can’t look at your straight or speak well. Yep all of that head trauma catches up to you.
Next… when you train with a training partner it is SUPER important that you be careful.
If you follow my tips of dropping down, pointing the top of your head at the other person’s face and then jumping up… guess what?
You can’t see how far away their face is!
It might be several inches or ½ an inch.
If you pop your training partner in the face that will be a bad day indeed.
So here is how you practice a headbutt with a training partner.
Simply jump down and point the top of your head as described before.
And now…
DO NOT MOVE UP… AT ALL!
You know you are in position for the headbutt. Just say “Headbutt!”
Choose not to follow my advise at your own (and your training partner’s) peril.
How to Use a Headbutt
The headbutt is clearly a very close range tool. Here are a coupe of applications for it.
Headbutt from a Thai Clench
Oh yeah baby, you can mess someone up with this one.
Keep your Thai clench, drop down, point your head, and as you jump up you can also pull them down causing even more damage.
Headbutt an Opponent at Your Back
If an attacker is grabbing you from behind you can drop your body and smash the back of your head into their face.
Headbutt on the Ground
Brutal, nasty, completely illegal in BJJ and MMA.
Imagine being in a full mount position. Now drop your body lower than their jaw, point your head, jump up into their jaw. If they look at you you will hit them in the face, if not you get their jaw like a boxing uppercut.
Headbutt as a Sucker Punch
Now this is risky because that means that you have to allow someone to get right in your face so you are leaving yourself vulnerable. But man if you land it properly…
Conclusion
There are of course many more opportunities for a headbutt in a variety of up close positions. Generally shorter people will have more of them while taller folks like myself will only get them if we drop down and our opponent is standing tall.
It is not enough to read about or watch how to headbutt. As ancient Greek soldier Archilochus said, “you don’t rise to the level of your expectations you fall to the level of your training.”
So come train and get your reps.
Brian
