Saw this tragic story about a 9 year old boy who was attacked in the groin by a bully and has consequently lost one of his testicles. If you pause the video at 1:23 there's a copy of the medical report in English. Basically after being attacked, the victim was admitted to hospital and cleared to go home, but later at home he noticed that one of his testicles was swollen and turned black... after going back to hospital, the doctor declared that the tissue inside had already died and they had to surgically remove it. Small consolation is that the remaining testicle is fine and he ought to be able to reproduce with that in the future, but the child continues to suffer psychological damage and nightmares which will may very well take much longer to heal than his physical injuries. The technique that the bully used where he grabbed the boy's testicle and twisted it is something that is taught in several martial arts; mimicking a martial arts technique known as "Monkey steals the Peach" (from the story of Saiyuuki (Monkey Magic) where Son Gokuu (Monkey) steals the Peach of Immortality from the Heavenly Garden). I think it's a solemn reminder as to just how dangerous groin attacks can be - even if you walk away thinking that you're alright. As with a lot of internal damage, symptoms may crop up long after the initial strike.

Disclaimer: I'm in NO way validating/condoning the bully's attack in this story, nor am I attempting to place the victim under any scrutiny here. IMO the attack was a completely abhorrent and deplorable act, and I hope that the attacker will be suitably dealt with. The victim is only 9 years old and was completely set up by a person he considered his friend (and thus implicitly trusted). I'm only referring to this story to demonstrate what the consequences of a groin attack can be.



>>>Now comes my typical rant about groin-defence; long time readers of this thread may choose to tune out now<<<



As most of you know, I've witnessed far too many martial arts practitioners who just don't adequately protect the groin, especially people who train for competition fights. And I've encountered a lot of people who steadfastly believe that they don't need to defend their groins - that it's a "dog" move, that they would never do it, and that anyone who does it is scum. Sure, they're scum... but they're scum who may very well cause permanent damage to your doo-dads! I can totally understand people who have personal objections to using groin attacks... okay, that's fine. But what I don't understand is people who object to learning how to defend themselves from a groin attack! I personally don't carry a knife around to attack people with, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't learn how to defend myself against a knife attack!

I still cannot believe the number of martial artists I've come across who, when I try to discuss groin defence with them, actually get really angry. I've had people scream at me, verbally abuse me and just walk away refusing to train with me if I so much as suggest incorporating groin attacks/defence. It's as if it's some kind of massive taboo for them to even think about it. I get that it's incredibly unpleasant... but what part of being assaulted is pleasant anyway? Surely self defence is about protecting ourselves from horrible nasty people who would consider doing horrible nasty things to us. Some people seem to have a mindset that they only need to defend themselves from a noble attacker... but noble people don't attack others!