Sensei Brien ended this session with some self defense drills today.
Simple blocks for close encounters…
We started with some simple, face to face blocks as if an attacker is standing right in front of us. Our partner tries to grab our collar, from there, we do an open hand, double arm outward block. Next, our partner attacks the same way but we side step and do a knife hand block.
For the next drill, our partner attacked the same way but we were able to counter attack. For the counter attacks, we could use moves from our kata’s. For example, one of my favorites is doing the double outward block and then doing a dropping back fist, from Heian Yondan, to the nose and face. Another move is doing the side step, grabbing the attackers arm and doing a sideways hammer fist the ribs.
Non-lethal self defense, if done correctly…
We worked on a series of attacks. One really nasty attack was putting two fingers in soft spot between the neck and chest and pulling down. This does not feel good and the feeling stayed with me for a while after Sensei did it to me. Another attack was grabbing the skin on the upper lip right below the nose and squeezing. An alternate to the move was grabbing the lower lip and squeezing with a similar result.
One of the most interesting movements was really simple. The attacker grabs our collar and we step in and gently slap their face many times to disorient them. When my partner did this to me, I couldn’t do anything until it was too late. He was able to disorient me enough to step behind and move in for a throw. It worked the same way with him and I was able to throw a attack before he could see it coming. That simple moves buys you at least a few seconds to attack or run away.
It was some really neat stuff and simple enough for almost anyone to learn.
This article was originally posted on www.shotokanplanet.org. Any reproduction on any other site is prohibited and a violation of copyright laws.