How to Take a Punch to The Face

This is a covert operative combatives insight guide on how to take a punch to the face, what it feels like, how to minimize its impact, engagement response techniques and what to do after recovering.

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. -Excerpt

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.