Applying Grappling Techniques in a Realistic Setting

Here's another important video from the Personal Defense Network. Now we've left that sterile, open training environment, we've gone into a more simulated environment, or maybe, for you at home, it'll be your actual home or your actual workplace, where you have a training partner, you can control the environment, certainly make sure that everyone in the area knows that you are just training, you're practicing and simulating a violent attack. And again we're going to go very slow, but the difference now is we've entered into a setting that's much more realistic, we're not standing here faking an altercation, we're actually gonna be in a normal environment and then get into the context of that situation with an actual attack. So maybe I'm an angered coworker, maybe I'm an ex employee or just someone who's found Andrew at work and while I want to have a physical confrontation with him, I'm gonna take advantage of him while he's sitting down and try to sneak up on him and get control. During this situation, as I approach him and maybe call out his name or some obscenities or get his attention in some way, obviously he's gonna bring his focus to me.

Now, it's only natural that even though he has a perfectly good improvised weapon in his hand, that he might drop that and turn to me, thinking that he's gonna be able to deescalate this situation, it's not gonna get physical. I'm just yelling at him, just maybe calling him names, telling him I'm upset about something. He's gonna get his hands up into a more defensive position, he's gonna be gesturing towards me to calm down and relax, and as he's doing that, I might reach out and grab him or punch him or strike him or in some way get into a situation where he might recognize the opportunity to use something like that arm bar technique we dealt with earlier. So as I reach out, he grabs up, pulls away and pushes and gets into a situation here where, as you can see, he's in a greater than 90, his form is against my tricep, and he's pinning my hand and my wrist against his body. At this point, if my body were immobilized, if I were pushed against the wall or a filing cabinet or maybe another desk, at this point, Andrew could certainly take his thumb, weave it down into the palm of my hand, push back and up, causing me to release and giving him even more control.

Okay, so at this point, we've seen how, from a seated position with an attacker coming in from another angle, Andrew was still able... Go ahead, back into that seated position for me, Andrew. Andrew was able to execute a perfect arm bar because the situation determined that that was a very easy thing for him to do. As I came around and grabbed him, boom, there's the opportunity, he recognizes it. Again, isolating the arm and quickly moving into position right here, this is where the arm bar starts, and it's through the use of his body as he lowers his center of gravity at the waist, leaning forward, that he would push forward and be able to then control me, move me into a position maybe against the wall or out of the way or move to the next step.

Again, the arm bar may not be the end of the confrontation, but it's a great way to get from a position of being dominated and being controlled in the seat to actually taking control and controlling your attacker. You know, unfortunately it's true that the overwhelming majority of attacks against women occur at the hands of someone the woman knew and trusted prior to the attack, whether it's a coworker, an acquaintance, a friend, maybe an ex boyfriend or ex husband even. It's someone that you're okay with being in your personal space at the time and in the context that you're there, so the likelihood of someone jumping up behind you in a jogging trail or someone squaring off with you and confronting you in a, you know, man to man type fight confrontation setting is not nearly as high as the likelihood of someone that you trust in this kind of a setting, maybe we're sitting on a couch watching a movie or we're in a work environment where it's just the two of us in a break room, park bench, whatever the situation may be, where this type of contact, this type of closeness, is okay. And then unfortunately, sometimes a man will take the opportunity, because of the isolation and the proximity, to try to go further and go into an inappropriate area of contact, so maybe something as simple as, you know, putting my hand on your leg would make you uncomfortable, you're not okay with that, you're gonna tell me to stop, and at first, of course, this isn't something that would escalate to a very violent attack, but it is gonna be an opportunity for a woman to assert, take control, and try to get that action to stop. And if it occurred again, then it would be certainly appropriate to come in and do something like this wrist lock situation where, by coming in and placing Jamie's thumb up underneath and the fingers up underneath of my fingers, where she can peel this grip back and then using the bench or the wall or the back of the couch or whatever it may be as a point of leverage, she can now push down, rotate in, and in this case, I'm gonna have you remove your hand now, Jamie.

You can see that this is creating that position of a wrist lock, where we're causing pain and discomfort and, of course, eventually disability, here, with the other important point of leverage being this imaginary back of the couch or the wall. So even with a minimal amount of strength, you can maximize the leverage here of pushing back, causing pain. Now this may, in many cases where it's an inappropriate physical contact between someone that didn't understand the relationship, this may be enough to stop it. At this point, Jamie can take the opportunity to stand up and actually get away. As she does so, notice that she turns her hips in, and that applies even more pressure here against my hand, against that imaginary point of leverage, the back of the chair, and she brings this hand up, of course, to defend herself from any other type of attack or simply to gesture and say, "Hey, stay here." And then she backs away, and by backing away, of course, she's not gonna open herself up to an attack from behind.

She's gonna keep her hands up as she backs away, maybe even stretching this hand out a little bit as she moves away, understanding, of course, that this, once again, may not be the end of the confrontation, but it certainly would be a handy way for you to get someone's hand off your leg if you didn't want it there. Check out more videos just like this one at the Personal Defense Network.