The most formative sparring I have ever had happened in around 1995, when I weighed 135 lbs (61 kg) and went 3 hard kickboxing rounds against a friend of mine with 10% of my training but who was 6 inches (15 cm) taller than me and weighed 350 lbs (159 kg.) I thought I could take him because at the time I was the most advanced student in class (kickboxing & kung fu,) and was able to have my way with other students who weighed 200 lbs (91 kg.) The result was the worst beating of my life, as him landing a simple jab on the gloves protecting my face would knock my feet back 6 inches and afterwords 8 Ibuprofen didn't put a dent in my headache.
I committed myself to the study of how to beat larger opponents for the next year, grilling my Sifu on everything he knew on the subject and considering my previous training and experiences in self defense situations, Karate, Arnis and Aikido. The 350 lb opponent was only shook in those three rounds by one attack: my wide overhand right hook. But about a year later, I knocked out another friend of ours who was also significantly taller than me who weighed 325 lbs, using the lessons I learned since the first beating.
Since then I have had numerous experiences on the street that were dangerous self defense situations, where these lessons I learned above arguably saved me from being injured, killed, or going to jail. Here are the 5 tips in order of importance from first to last:
Stay off the line of attack.
Wide overhand hooks.
Leg kicks.
Rear Naked Choke
Weapons
1. Staying Off the Line of Attack
The key with this strategy is "evasive footwork" as is often taught in martial arts and combat sports. The line of attack is the front of your opponent where he can most easily strike and grab you. Don't be on his line of attack; don't stand in front of a larger opponent. There are many effective techniques for evasive footwork, but it's important to train in something simple enough during free sparring that you will use it for real if you have to:
Evasive footwork is the most important thing I learned in the aftermath of that original beating I mentioned above. I have actually used evasive footwork to resolve numerous violent situations without having to inflict injury on anyone. Evasive footwork buys you the time you need to act like an adult, and then only if necessary, attack like and adult. Notice how evasive footwork buys this fighter time against a much larger opponent:
2. Wide Overhand Hooks
In the NES game "Mike Tyson's Punch Out" the player character uses uppercuts to attack larger opponents. This is OPPOSITE of reality: as a shorter opponent your are LESS able to land uppercuts against larger opponents, because you are swinging your punch up against gravity above your own head. (And I have been knocked out twice in hard sparring from uppercuts from taller opponents, but never from shorter opponents.)
What really works on larger opponents are overhand hooks that swing down onto the opponent's jaw, with gravity on the side of the shorter opponent. Notice how this wide overhand hook palm strike -backed up with evasive footwork - brings down the larger opponent in the most famous David vs Goliath early UFC fight:
In that original beating I wrote about above, the ONLY strike I through that phased the 350 pounder was my wide overhand hook. Mike Tyson himself used hooks effectively against numerous larger boxers:
These wide overhand hook strikes are a potent tool that have been successful in MMA ever since that above early UFC fight:
3. Leg Kicks
Later when I KOed our 325 lb friend, it was with a right leg round kick to the jaw well above my own head level, BUT which I set up with numerous low leg (calf) kicks. (It would have been wiser for me to use a wide overhand hook instead of a high round kick.) As you may have noticed in the early UFC fight above low kicks to the leg tend to land on larger opponents. Bas Rutten established leg kicks as the solution for taking out larger opponents with iron jaws:
As you get older, or in real self defense situations where there is no time to warm up, it is harder to throw high kicks. This means that the most effective kick in MMA (the leg kick) is probably also the most effective kick on the street. The one time I used this kick outside of the gym, I landed three of these kicks and the whole confrontation concluded in less than 30 seconds, as most aggressors have no defense against this whatsoever:
4. Rear Naked Choke
I am not a fan of trying to use grappling submissions on the street, because it is so chaotic that once you have someone pinned down, you are still in danger. However the "sleeper hold," aka Rear Naked Choke (RNC,) is highly versatile and can be applied once you have a hold on someone from behind, and it renders them fully unconscious (and not simply trapped.) You could become very proficient with this technique after a few years of training in grappling a few times per week. Here is one of many examples of a smaller woman pulling this off on a larger man:
Though I personally have not used the RNC outside of the gym, it is a natural movement that you can use even when under pressure. It is also great move if you are looking for a nonlethal way to defend a friend who is being attacked:
5. Weapons
The elephant in the room is that martial arts without weapons are naked. When people are serious about protecting themselves they access weapons to do so:
The problem with guns is they usually cause more problems than they solve. However if you are a careful person who has disciplined lifestyle and you seriously train in firearms, the gun guys are not wrong about the self defense value of the firearm:
But what if you don't want to use lethal force? In my training and experience I have found that pepper spray is more versatile than advertised. (For example, you can shoot it behind you as someone chases you down a hallway or stair well.) Here's what it looks like to use pepper spray (with evasive footwork) against someone menacing you with a knife:
What if the attacker isn't even human, but a lion or bear? It turns out that bear spray specifically is effective enough to take on whole groups of predators:
