> There's a common (apocryphal?) story about an untrained guy who got into fight with an experienced grappler. The grappler got the takedown, got on top and was beating on him a little to show he'd won. Then right when he was about to stop and let him go, the guy tries to stick his fingers in his eyes. He ends up getting completely brutalized by his now really upset opponent who had already won and wants to punish the loser for trying to permanently blind him rather than just accept he'd lost.
That sounds like the grappler making up a bunch of bullshit to excuse his own sadistic brutality. If someone has you pinned down and is beating on you "a little" (WTF?), a rational person does not assume that they're "about to stop and let him go". You assume they're going to keep on hitting you until their arm gets tired, and you take any measure necessary to save yourself from permanent injury or death. From the perspective of the guy on the ground, he was getting the shit beat out of him no matter what, so there's nothing to lose in trying for a gouge.
Perhaps I should have left that part out, but as I replied below, the moral is supposed to be that eye gouges and groin shots won't help much if you can't control the fight already. The guy already winning hands down is in a lot better position to pull those dirty tricks, so there is definitely "something to lose" by escalating it. The saying is "position before submission."
But a lot of people make money teaching unreliable self-defense stuff about how you can beat anyone with a quick eye gouge or groin shot, leaving people with a dangerous sense of self-confidence, imo. It's low percentage stuff, least likely to work on a truly dangerous opponent and mainly just good for hurting people who pose no threat to you anyway. Hence the story as a potential warning.
> There's a common (apocryphal?) story about an untrained guy who got into fight with an experienced grappler. The grappler got the takedown, got on top and was beating on him a little to show he'd won. Then right when he was about to stop and let him go, the guy tries to stick his fingers in his eyes. He ends up getting completely brutalized by his now really upset opponent who had already won and wants to punish the loser for trying to permanently blind him rather than just accept he'd lost.
That sounds like the grappler making up a bunch of bullshit to excuse his own sadistic brutality. If someone has you pinned down and is beating on you "a little" (WTF?), a rational person does not assume that they're "about to stop and let him go". You assume they're going to keep on hitting you until their arm gets tired, and you take any measure necessary to save yourself from permanent injury or death. From the perspective of the guy on the ground, he was getting the shit beat out of him no matter what, so there's nothing to lose in trying for a gouge.