Can you kill someone by punching them in the throat and what are the odds that would happen.What are the affects when you punch someone in the throat.i dont know alot about punching in the throat but Ive had un-educated people tell me you shouldnt punch someone in the throat unless you domnt mind killing them.

It is possible to kill someone by striking the throat. It is possible to cause significant damage to the vocal chords, severe structural damage or swelling that causes the throat to constrict-leading to death.
Due to variations in anatomical strengths, disease process, etc. between individuals it is difficult to tell how much force is needed to cause significant damage or death. It also depends where you strike.

To sum up-if you want to reduce the risk of death or serious injury,do not strike the throat.

Who really knows though? If you strike anyone ANYWHERE hard enough it'll kill them. Perhaps you can generate the power to do this with a fist. That would take a lot of things falling in place, such as; your opponent being a complete tomato can, your opponent not knowing enough to keep good posture and defensive structure and, your opponent not doing anything to attack you in return (as you'll have to be fairly lucky to hit a shot in someone's throat when they are throwing back at you).

In short, it's not the easiest thing in the world to do. Not that it can't happen, only that it rarely does.


-John

I hesitate to answer that question but yes you can kill someone with a strike to the throat. With enough forse you can collapse the throat/wind pipe. It's one of those life and death self defense decisions. Why do you ask?

If you punch someone in the throat it doesn't mean you'll kill them, like nekogami said, to many variables. Now what CAN happen is you punch them in the throat, and what happens to them is their trachea (windpipe) collapses.
In order to heal itself the trachea inflammates (swells) if it swells to much, you basically suffocate. I've seen people get hit in the throat, and luckily they didn't die, but they had just the funnest time trying to breathe, one of them I think actually went to the hospital just to make sure that he was ok.(in the first incident they weren't striking full power, just a freak accident with an elbow strike missing and just landing right in the throat area, again they weren't hitting full force, so this might be a reason why he didn't need medical attention.)
So to play it safe, avoid throat punches.
If it was a matter of life and death for me, I wouldn't hesitate punching or finger jabbing the throat. [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif[/IMG]

I would not try experimenting with this.

I caught someone in the front right side of the neck with a snap punch in a karate tournament some years ago. even though it was really not much more than a 'love tap' the guy dropped like a sack of s&*t. He got up moments later the point is it was not a particularly hard shot, I think a really hard shot in the neck (front & forward sides & behind) are likely to cause major damage.

Be careful
Jim


[This message has been edited by Jim (edited 05-02-2004).]

Never having killed someone I am not qualified to answer, but I saw a guy get hit in the throat with a softball and if a doctor had not cut his throat open and put a tube in right away he would have died. I saw a guy get kicked in the throat in the sabaki and walk out of the ring. So I think it must be possible.

Yeah about the doctor putting a tube in his throat.... it really wasn't in his throat, but this goes along with what I was saying, when the trachea collapses you can't breathe so what they have to do is cut a hole just under your trachea (or the place under where the trachea is inflammating) and then put a tube in there and walla, you can breathe again.

[This message has been edited by Raven (edited 05-03-2004).]

It would take a considerable ammount of force to kill someone just by striking the throat...
On the other hand, there are some vital points in this area that can kill with a little less than full force.
Moderate force at the side of the throat (the corotid sinus in particular) is all it takes to deliver a knock out while a hard strike would be deadly, but your aim would have to be accurate.

Really, it all depends on where and how hard the strike is delivered whether or not it would be lethal.

I will add this-I was kicked rather hard(to me) in the throat. Since I flinched I was hit left of center of the adam's apple.
there was a period of roughly a minute where it kinda hurt, but I was functioning normaly(could breathe fine, etc.)
After that I could feel my throat swelling, as it began to be difficult to breath. This subsided after a few minutes.
Couldn't manage more than a harsh croak for several days and after a week still sounded like I had laryngitis. After a few weeks voice returned to "normal". Occasionaly during this period whenever I swallowed it felt like razor blades sliding down my throat.

2 years later, I have come to grips that my dream of professionaly singing is over(not that I could sing before, except in the shower-there I sound awesome!). I can no longer hit high notes, squeal like a pig or sound like Michael Jackson [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/frown.gif[/IMG]