The carotid arteries are an ideal place to target punches when it comes to a street fight or real self-defense situation and also the place to avoid during martial arts training or a martial arts sporting event.
Hitting the carotid arteries is not fun and even if you are fighting in the street, you should always reconsider aiming your blows at this area.
The more you should cover it so you don’t get hit there.
Each properly landed blow to the carotid arteries causes a shock throughout the body, paralyzing the opponent (or you) for a while and can even result in a temporary inability to breathe (if you’re still lucky).
What really hits is the carotid sinus where the common carotid artery branches off into the internal and external carotid arteries.
There are receptors in the carotid sinus that control blood pressure in these blood vessels. When the pressure changes, they send the nerve impulse to the brain, which then sends this information to the heart to change its work according to the needs of the brain.
You can find the carotid sinus area on the side of your neck (where your carotid artery is) at the same height as the notch in the thyroid cartilage (also known as the Adam’s apple).
Hitting the carotid artery can cause bradycardia, heart attack, or cardiac arrest.
The blow to the carotids or carotid sinus if desired is one of the deadly touch methods of the well-known Dim Mak concept. I don’t believe in death touches though, there is a bit of science behind hitting the carotid arteries because every hit can actually RESULT IN DEATH.
Each of these three things has a huge impact on brain and heart function that can also have a fatal impact on health.
If you want to train the movements and blows that target the neck, always use the appropriate protection to avoid possible damage that you can cause.
I also recommend, when fighting older people, to avoid these points at all costs. Older men are more fragile and hitting sensitive parts of the body always has a greater impact than on any younger person.
I hope now you understand a little.
And that is far from what you can really know about street fighting and real self defense.
There is much more you can learn.