I see this shit in movies all the time and it always just looks insane to me. Even just basic physics should mean that the equal and opposite reaction of one skull banging into the other would knock each person out equally. How does this ever work? The character always walks away like some badass as if they wouldn’t have some major concussion and are invincible. The only use of this I ever appreciated was the parody in an Adam Sandler movie where the guy did it and did actually pass out from it.
In: Physics
This thread is full of almost-right-but-wrong-in-important-ways answers. The 2 biggest one are:
1. You DO NOT use your forehead. You use the most arched part of your head, lying somewhere between your forehead and the top of your head. For most people this will be around their hairline.
2. You are NOT “trying to break their nose”. That’s just one thing you can do. In terms of fight-ending power:
1. You can also knock them unconscious. (temple, jaw are good for this. You win!)
2. You can break their nose. (pretty painful, can make it difficult for them to continue)
3. You can crack their orbital bone. (a proper break can be incredibly painful, and might make it hard to continue)
4. You can break their jaw. (very painful, but might not stop someone)
Didn’t ask but fun facts:
1. Yes headbutting works very well, and is an accepted attack in Lethwei (martial art) and people get taken out all the time.
2. Since most people aren’t trained on how to spot a headbutt coming, this can be a very effective attack. If you don’t miss, and you hit with the right part of your head, it’s going to hurt them a lot wherever you land.
Here’s David Leduc doing a tutorial on headbutts in Lethwei:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnlQH2Hzu4Y](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnlQH2Hzu4Y)
ELI15 Details:
[https://wtcs.pressbooks.pub/nursingskills/chapter/7-2-head-and-neck-basic-concepts/](https://wtcs.pressbooks.pub/nursingskills/chapter/7-2-head-and-neck-basic-concepts/)
1. The flat part of your forehead not indestructible. If you headbutt someone with it, you can crack your own frontal bone. There’s a seam on top of your head between the frontal and parietal bones. It’s fairly strong but also not indestructible. That’s why you use the most arched part of your head, somewhere in between, which is structurally much stronger.
2. You are going to rattle your brain. But if you can hit a softer part of their head (face, temple, nose, back of skull) with a harder part of your head, you’re going to impart more energy into their head, and cause their brain to move around a lot more.
WARNING A little gruesome, here’s Cyborg Santos’s forehead after he ate a Venom Page knee.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/4tav84/picture_of_cyborg_santos_skull_the_mma_fighter/](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/4tav84/picture_of_cyborg_santos_skull_the_mma_fighter/)
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