What are the safest places to punch someone in self-defense?

I'm a decent bit larger than most people in my environment (I do weight training but not martial arts), so I'm not very concerned about "winning the fight" as I am with not accidentally causing excessive injury or killing someone in an altercation. So, I want to ask about places where you can hit someone to create a big enough opening, so I may disengage if I wasn't able to do so before the person has already attacked me.

My most likely situation is that I get into a fight in a bar or restaurant due to an argument with another patron, who is possibly somewhat drunk, definitely unarmed, often slightly foolish and stubborn but not trying to kill me, and about 20-30% smaller than I am. My goal is to leave the fight safely, with as little damage to my opponent as possible. If I can punch the person once, get him to stop grabbing me, or to be gasping or vomiting for a short moment, that's a good enough result for me to leave safely.

Is punching the abdomen generally the best way to do this? It can cause enough pain, sometimes vomiting if my opponent has been drinking/eating, and it's relatively unlikely to cause permanent damage...? or is it actually highly dangerous?

I think going for the head is a bit too dangerous, probably? It certainly has a high chance to look bloody should the police be involved later. On the other hand, punching the arms or legs would be somewhat ineffective (or occasionally too effective if a joint is broken) so probably not those places either? Chest is basically worse abdomen because there are breakable ribs rather than squishy internal organs, so again, probably just punch the abdomen?

I'm also curious if I should discount grappling in favor of punching, because the environment can be chaotic and if I grapple I have much less control in what happens. Even if I do something as light as just shoving the person, what if he lands on a table with hot food on it or a beer bottle that shatters, for example? I also think grappling is not as effective in creating a clear exit condition for me compared to punching. I don't know if this is indeed the case though, or if I should actually prefer grappling to punching if my goal is to avoid accidentally causing permanent injury.

Thank you very much for reading the post, and for any thoughts on the matter, or your experience with self-defense against smaller opponents.

Submitted 2026-02-23T19:38:52+00:00 by LogLongjumping https://ift.tt/1A9uVjZ