Often an attack may happen when the attacker is quite close and you are in an environment where you are not expecting to be attacked. An example would be when you are at a party or in a club. In these circumstances, you are unable to predict the attack and need to prepare for responding immediately after being attacked. The next technique focuses on such a scenario.

When someone grabs your hair and tugs you towards them, pain will shoot through your body alongside the shock and disbelief that this may be happening in an unexpected environment. The attacker may also be trying to pull you away from the crowd to a quieter place.

Normally, someone may try to resist this person pulling their hair and just use force to pull back and loosen their grip. I’ll repeat that our purpose has to remain to assume that the attacker is stronger and we will likely not win in a strength battle. So, what should you do? Well, it is actually quite simple: you step backwards and move with the pull. 

What? Just move with it? But how will that prevent their next attack? 

Well, there are a few different reasons for this counterintuitive move. 

Firstly, to stop the pain by yielding to the force of the pull. 

Secondly, if you do stand still or try to resist them pulling your hair if they are stronger than you, there is a high chance you could lose your balance and fall over. This would leave you in an extremely vulnerable position and make it harder for you to fight back.

Moving back not only prevents these possibilities but also gets you closer to carrying out your own attack. So, what should your attack be? This can also be found in Si Nim Tau, however, unlike the other moves described earlier, this is found at the end of every section of Si Nim Tau. It is known as the “elbow punch” (This can be seen in the video linked below): 

However, rather than just bringing your hands back, the motion is done with a lot of thrust to truly hurt anyone behind you at the time of this counterattack. Keep in mind that the opponent must be very close to you to be able to feel the maximum impact of the hit. When stepping back you would have to get as close as possible to them, facing away from them, and then do the elbow punch. 

This can be done with both hands or with just one hand depending on the situation you are in. If you were to be pulled either left or right, then only one elbow would be able to make an impact and you would only have to do this move with one arm. Your arms would go from in front of you to by your side, with your elbows jutting out behind you, like this:

If you can turn around moving backwards, then I would recommend doing so as this would allow you to use a variety of punches as well as be able to see your opponent. However, if you are in a situation where you are unable to rotate to face your opponent, carrying out this move would still be effective. 

The combined shock of both losing control of the pull and being repeatedly hit on their abdomen will force the attacker to back off. 

Practise this technique with a friendly opponent a few times to make sure you begin to train your mind and arms to react in the right way.