Using Your Head
Because the head strike, or head butt, is such a close-range technique, it’s often disregarded by many individuals as a last-ditch technique. Common opinion is that it risks injuring the cervical vertebra of the neck, unless you deliver it with little power, or has limited value. Actually, a good head strike serves a couple of useful purposes.
One use is for escape. A quick and experienced fighter can easily place you in a clinch hold, shortly before the throws you painfully to the ground. A fast head strike to his nose or the cheeks under the eye can prevent him from getting the jump on you; even if he doesn’t release the clinch to protect his face, you’ve given something that buys time to work on escaping his actual clinch another way.
Another use is as a control technique. An opponent who effectively goes nose-to-nose with you is likely expecting you to move first, ideally hoping you’ll sucker punch him or shove him back. Driving your head into his nose or cheeks may not drop him, but it will distract him. The instant you create the distraction, you can take him down using your arms or legs.
These are useful tactics, but neither necessarily address the common concerns with using headstrikes.
There are actually a few different types of head strikes. Driving your forehead into his forehead (the classic headbutt) is arguably the least effective form of it. Rather, drive the top of your forehead into his nose, or into the cheeks. Do not strike the tops of his eyes: you might split the eyebrow open, but this won’t stop him in any way. Aim lower around the cheeks, if possible, if the nose is not free. Additionally, the back of your head can be used for opponents clinching you from behind. Further, the outside edge of your forehead can be used in a circular swing to deliver a powerful hit: this can be useful for an opponent smart enough to keep his head to one side to prevent the classic headbutt. In grappling, these variations can work well against the opponent’s head, or even the ribs or sternum to knock the wind out of him.
Could this injure the neck? Indeed, all short range impacts with the head can jar the cervical vertebrae in the neck. There is, however, a simple cheat: use the motion of the body to deliver the head strike, rather than the neck. For a forward head strike, raise either foot off the ground: step downward, powerfully, letting the formward momentum this generates to drive the head into the target. Similarly using the feet for other head strike techniques delivers more power without requiring any motion of the neck.
Once you have the ability to generate short-range power without injuring the neck, you need to consider how you are focusing the strike. The frontal bone of the skull (the part composing the surface of the forehead) is in fact well-armored and thick. It can easily crush the bones of the nose, and withstand the shock of hitting cheekbones or even the jaw. Conversely, there are places on your head that do not take pain very well: the very side of the head above the ear, the occipital protuberence on the very back of the head, and the very vertex of the skull (the very top point on your head) can cause you more pain than the opponent will feel himself.
Practicing head strikes should be introduced carefully: do not deliver them full speed into a heavy bag. Rather, learn how to control the delivery on smaller bags or folded mats (all softer targets). Get the feel for them until you understand how to protect the neck from injury, and note what pain, if any, you feel on impact on the surface of the face. In time, you will realize that much of the reluctance about using head strikes goes away, and that the classic head butt can evolve into much more effective techniques.