1. Rough and Tumble (Gouging)
If you ever find yourself in a life-of-death hand-to-hand combat situation, a fighting style that you may wish to borrow techniques from is often referred to as “rough and tumble”.
Pioneered back in the, well, pioneer days, this martial art was developed by Americans in the 18th and 19th century. In a sense what this style of fighting did was take all of the fighting techniques that are generally considered unethical (eye gouging, groin strikes, biting, small joint manipulation) and make a whole style out of it. Rough and Tumble basically means “fighting dirty”. Really dirty.
Back in the 1800 or 1700s two rivals could challenge each other to a fight and decide whether to conduct the fight “fair”, or they could fight “Rough and Tumble”. Rough and Tumble fighters would gauge out full eyeballs, they could bite lips, ears and noses, and even the genitals weren’t off limits in these truly no-holds-barred contests. Some fighters would even attach sharp objects to their teeth so they could cause maximum damage when they bit down on part of their opponent.
Eventually the revolver was invented and two people who really hated each other began to practice the more civilized act of shooting each other with guns.
