A relatively small raccoon can kill a much larger hunting dog with a surprising tactic. The raccoon can run up the front of the dog’s chest under the dog’s jaws and reach around the dog’s muzzle to scratch out the dog’s eyes.
This is not specially taught behavior or a “raccoon martial arts secret”. It is natural cunning spurred by the desperate need for survival.
It is also important to note that raccoons are intelligent enough not to go looking for big bad dogs to challenge with this technique. Big is still bad.
It is also important to note that the raccoon has to surprise the dog in order to get this technique to work. If the dog is on the alert, of course it can catch the raccoon in its jaws and kill the raccoon in a heartbeat.
What about the little guy or gal trained in the martial arts taking on a huge monster who just loves hurting people? Same as the raccoon. It is possible. But honestly and realistically, the odds are against the little one outweighed by 150 pounds in a pit fight like the UFC. In the everyday real world where the little one can employ surprise timing and psychological distraction, and maybe pick up a rock as a surprise attack, the odds are certainly flattened out, and can even be turned in the little one’s favor. But it is still a loaded fight.
Speaking from personal experience, I never stop contemplating what I might do to even out the playing field when confronted with a bigger, stronger, meaner, more determined, better-armed adversary. This is not a contest I’d engage in happily. There is no second place. So what might I do to follow the example of the determined clever raccoon? That’s why there is To-Shin Do.
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