Can you do anything at all to defend against a surprise attack? Been looking at knockout game videos on youtube. Even a surprise attack from front? I'm not talking about situational awareness etc. Weightlifting would "help"...a little? The bigger you are, the more damage you can take?
The problem with a suprise attack is A) its a suprise B) its an attack So if we can't deal with a) with situational awareness etc we have to deal with b) and hope it's just unarmed, Getting some practise getting punched a lot in boxing will help, as will putting on weight, but if it's mostly fat you'll die earlier from heart disease / cancer etc, so weight training and sprint training is where its at. So really the best training is just normal training, and situational awareness.
If I hear running feet behind me I always look over my shoulder to see what's happening. Obviously the vast majority of the time it's an oblivious jogger who gives me a funny look as they run past. But imho it's good awareness to take notice of sounds around you.
You ever play the lottery? Same difference. You know you got a limited amount of numbers to choose from. But still surpised when some of those numbers come up. You cant help it even though you got an idea it might be coming.
Knockout game - Wikipedia Interestingly it looks like "the knockout game" is a massive over reporting / fake branding of the actual assaults, which in themselves are reasonably rare. Fear sells unfortunately.
I was actually nearly a victim of a happy slap. My lady (at the time) used to live in the deepest dark of Southern London and within the estates. Shes been robbed from three times. Twice in her own estate, to give you an idea of what kind of place it is. So I dropped her home and had to walk through this big communal area, Mushroom sense already high. I was lucky and heard "go go". I turned to see one kid behind me. And I cant remember if I gave him a closed or open hook strike. I do remember him going down like a sack of potatoes though. And I sped off, asap. I didn't wanna see how many there were and I didnt want to take any chances. And I'm not a small bloke. Thankfully, she was moving out shortly after but I didnt have any repercussions from that.