How to Fight Back When Attacked from Behind

How to fight well when you are being attacked from behind depends on two key factors. Firstly, that you move in the correct direction when being attacked. Secondly, and this is important, that you can see what’s happening behind you in your fight for survival.

We teach a very simple system of self defence when attacked from behind. Of course, you can’t fight or defend yourself if you can’t see the punch in the first place. This means that self defence starts with simple situational awareness. You must be aware of your surroundings, more importantly you must be aware of what is happening behind you.

With that in mind, there are simple measures that you can take to avoid being caught unaware. For example, when walking in urban environments avoid walking close to doorways, entrances, or intersections with other pathways. These are potential choke spots where people can step out from to follow or grab you. Another helpful self defence tip requires that you use the reflections of glass, windows, and cars to see what is happening around or behind you.

Here’s Our Advice

Having said that, being ambushed from behind can be rare, especially when there are lots of people in the street around you. Therefore, we suggest that you don’t become overly paranoid when doing your local shopping. Simply awareness will suffice.

However, in the event that something should happen we have filmed a video to explain the two basics self defence steps that could make a difference if you are suddenly attacked from behind. Realistically, you will get punched in the face if someone runs up and attacks you from behind without any warning. So in this video we look at how to move if your attacker pushes you first before the attack. This gives you some chance to fight back.

Stage 1

Footwork is key. You must move well and effectively. So this part of the video looks at the idea of how to turn to face behind you in a fight. Here at the London Wing Chun Academy we teach a method of stepping across the centreline in order to move your body to the outside gate of the attacker. This essentially takes you away from the other more dangerous attacking arm.

Stage 2

You must be able to look behind you. In this part of the video we look at how to move your head so that you can see the attacker behind you. How to fight depends on what you can see, so you must look behind you in the correct way otherwise you will get punched in the face or the back of the head.

We have lots more videos on how to fight with Wing Chun. Please visit our YouTube channel. Better yet feel free to leave a comment or make a suggestion of what you would like us to film for you. It doesn’t have to be about Wing Chun it can be about any subject related to fighting, how to fight, Wing Chun techniques, or even Wing Chun vs other styles of martial arts. We are happy to pass on our knowledge and experience free of charge. CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE FOR OTHER VIDEO TIPS AND NEWS!