On Ultimate Techniques;
Eye gouging, although a sound and effective strategy in RBSD is an often misunderstood tactic by many martial artists and critics alike.
I've heard it said numerous times that this is an overated attack for self defense and that because it can't be fully practiced, it's effectiveness is questionable.
In reality, it's effectiveness can easily be proven.
If you look at MMA events, one of the most common fouls, that result in a fighter being penalized and a fight being called in time out so the hurt fighter can be checked out is very commonly because of an accidental eye gouge.
Regardless of skill and toughness, a finger to the eye results in a fighter being momentarily incapacitated.
So much so that he is given time to recuperate because of the unfair advantage his opponent would have without him being able to see clearly.
This is mostly not the result of an eye gouge but the result of fingers slighly poking the eyes.
AM I saying that this is a be all end all technique?, Absolutely not!
What I am saying though is that its' proven effectiveness at distracting and providing an unfair advantage can't be denied.
The majority of realistic self defense practitioners would easily understand that the eye gouge is used to set up something more devastating or as a distraction to enable someone to escape and get away.
Again, there are practical and effective tools, not undefeatable tactics and that everything is used as a part of a combination. There are no ultimate tools.
They're all dependent on the situation, as well they are to be used as a part of a greater whole.
It's important to make the distinction between the false notion of individual responses to common attacks that some RBSD systems may be guilty of but the most effective ones know better.
The majority of RBSD systems espouse tactics that can be used in a majority of situations.
In other words yes look at what the majority of attacks might involve so you can prepare for the most common and most dangerous attacks however train tactics which apply to many attacks.
This is how you can realistically apply tools and not buy into undefeatable techniques.
