The Achilles Heel Rapist

After a lecture or at the end of a Fight Like A Girl course I always open the floor to a Q&A session. These Q&As help to debrief on the training and also to provide more detailed advice on different scenarios that ladies are concerned with. Invariably though I get thrown a curve-ball scenario.

One of these scenarios was of a rapist, who was stalking women in the shopping mall parking lots, his MO was to hide under cars in the parking lot and when the woman would come out to their cars he would cut their Achilles tendon and then pull them helplessly under the car. So what do you do in that situation?

To say that I wasn't exactly sure what to say would be kind of an understatement. My mind was trying to conceptualize what kind of car the guy was hiding under (probably not a Smart Car), 1st of all it would have to be a car with considerable ground clearance. Secondly, I was trying to figure out what happens when you lose your flexor muscles (oooh I should have paid more attention to Anatomy 101). Well off to do some research.

Interesting enough the great myth busters Snopes .com has this very scenario listed as an unfounded rumor. See here:

Claim: Thieves lie in wait under victims' cars, then render their victims helpless by slashing their ankles.

Status: False

Irregardless, not to dismiss it as unfounded rumor - I actually asked one of the doctors at my day job is (you didn't actually think I make millions off of Fight Like A Girl did you?) what would happen if someone cut your Achilles tendon - this got a few raised eyebrows and after some explaining he was more on board with humoring me. The Achilles Tendon connects the calf muscle to the heel bone. It lets you rise up on your toes and push off when you walk or run. Even if it were severed - you could still pull your foot up so as to use the heel of your foot as a strike/ thrust kick at the creep under the car.

Something else to consider is that human reaction to a pain or fear stimulus is usually to move back from the stimuli. We get this from being children and learning what happens when you touch something hot (or an electric fence... which was one of my experiences). Therefore say some under the car creeper cut your ankle, chances are good that your natural stimulus to react to the pain will be to step back with the other foot. You'll probably also fall down (protect your head) but now you'll be aligned with the guy under the vehicle. If he still has your foot, you can kick with the other leg. Instead of kicking the center line, you'll be kicking directly at his face since he is laying down to and perpendicular to you. So fight back and turn his face into hamburger. Be sure to yell and make noise (Rule #4). Profanity also has a way of turning heads too, especially when it comes from a woman.

So I hope this helps you consider what you might do in a worse case scenario. In the future i hope to run some advanced classes that would actually make use of defense in and around vehicles. Anways stay posted and Stay Safe!