I (21f) am 5’5" and skinny. I recently attended a self-defense class, and there I was tought how to use a pocket knife. And as I have some male friends 6’5"+ tall, I thought that that height actually makes your belly particularly vulnerable in case of a fight (in comparisson with short people):
- a short person’s shoulder height is around the same level as your belly making it easier to stab/hit;
- your belly is proportionally a larger target.
And in general, if a 6’5"+ guy stands in front of me with his stomach released (even if he has just a bit of a belly) it feels like having an exposed, large and squishy punching/stabbing bag right in front of me, into which, if needed, I can easily harshly and deeply plunge anything straight away.
I also practice historical fencing (rapier) and most of the times I stab tall opponents into the belly - my favorite thrusts are ducking counterattacks when I duck while they attack, go low and impale a tall guy’s unprotected belly right onto my rapier.
What do you think about it?
My partner and I sometimes sparring and discuss on different scenarios. But those are just games and hypotheses. There are always advantages and disadvantages, prepared and not prepared, there can be ambushes that we don’t know how we died, a fight with the same weapon is not fair because all sorts of things. All in all, we don’t want to be caught in a fight. If have to, we want the information/power/instrument the opponent don’t know we have. And then, we might still die…
So I might want to keep the advantage that I thought I have, or my opponent thought I don’t have, as a secret. Maybe?