Chapter 20, Page 45
[The following is an excerpt taken from Tashida Kom’s guide, Self-Defense Tactics 101.]
Ears and Eyes—An Attacker’s Weakness
While your attacker may be able to overpower you when it comes to raw physical strength, a difference in size and muscle doesn’t mean that you have to be the victim.
If the assailant is directly in front of you, an ear clap can be an effective means of defense. The human ear is a universal vulnerability—you can’t close it, and it’s almost always unprotected. Cup both hands slightly and quickly slap your hands together against their ears. This will leave your attacker disoriented, allowing you the chance to escape.
If the assailant is not immobilized and continues to attack, you can follow up with an eye gouge. Immediately after performing the ear clap, position your thumbs and thrust them into the attacker’s eyes.
Please be aware that both of these self-defense moves are dangerous and may cause permanent injury to your assailant. An effective ear clap can result in the rupturing of the tympanic membrane (ear drums) and may cause ossicular chain dislocation. Similarly, an eye gouge—depending on severity of force—can result in temporary blindness and/or eye loss.
Danger Zone One. Story by Midnight. Art by Salaiix.
Don’t mess with a highly trained cop, bitch!
LOL The whole point is that Reena isn’t highly trained. This was one of only a few moves she learned from Madison, which may have just saved her life.
She’s an inexperienced cop with a big butt and a heart of gold, that being said she’s definitely not as incompetent as people like to believe, she’s just trying to maintain her cover and she isn’t the type to want to be violent or hurt anyone. She’s a sweet young woman.
Can confirm. It works. Zoe is going to have serious trouble with balance and may end up with permanent hearing loss
This was well deserved! Zoe was getting out of hand.
I love seeing Reena get bullied but Zoe was really about to kill our favorite girl over a misunderstanding, hell no.
That is one way to stop an attacker…
There’s one slight problem with that move. As shown in the second panel, with Zoe’s hands around her neck, Reena’s arms are partially blocked by Zoe’s arms. She has to be able to get her arms around Zoe’s in order to make the hit. It’s not as clear and easy a strike as the 5th panel implies.
Yeah, the double ear slap is basically a myth. It more-or-less doesn’t work, for two main reasons: Firstly, it’s very hard to get a pressure seal with just a hand. Secondly, if you hit someone from two opposite sides simultaneously, you can’t exert much force because you can’t put your weight behind the attack.
If you want a good source for this, Stephen Kesting (a fairly reputable self defense expert) has a good article on both the mechanics and the history of the ear clap technique. TLDR: It was a legal technique in Japanese Pancrase fighting, and it basically wasn’t used because it’s not effective on people who are fighting.
Striking the ears can be a good technique – but it’s not going to inflict a huge amount of pain on someone who is hopped up on adrenaline, and striking from both sides simultaneously will really weaken the forces involved.
Ever crushed a can between your hands? It involves force from both sides
You can put a pressure seal over an ear with just a hand, but the real damage is from forcing air into the small opening, which is done by partially cupping your hands and effectively ‘scooping’ the air
Just saw this, and feels it’s worth answering. This isn’t like crushing a can. The technique is depicted as a short slap, which is very different. No cupping of hands – just an open palm.