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I have a question regarding punch defense and the Krav Maga for beginners book. For a punch from an outside angle (page 110) we are to redirect by bringing our hand across and away from our face (right to left). I am wondering if it is wise to use the same motion to defend a straight punch. If you are defending a right straight punch, you could bring your left arm across your face (left to right) to deflect the punch.
I appreciate any advice or thoughts.
Re: punch defense
Hi Sunstar.
There is such a defense in the system, but we refer to it as a “reflexive” defense. It’s part of our upper and lower body “reflexive” defenses that gets nicknamed as the “oh sh*t” defense.
The premise (for the punch) is that you attempted to defend the same side hand (i.e. being punched by a right hand and defending with your left). However, the attack was from the opposite hand and/or it was a two-hand combination….so you take that same hand in an “across your face (left to right)” manner as you described to defend against two strikes.
We don’t emphasize this as an ideal first defense to straight punches for a couple of reasons. The first, and most obvious one involves keeping your face defended. It’s also the more fundamental one (to Krav principles). If you block across your face (either left to right or right to left), you leave the entire side of your face exposed, and your attacker presumably has the closer hand available to throw at the side of your face you just left unguarded. Even if you’re really quick, it’s not an ideal defense for a straight punch.
The second reason involves economies of movement. It’s simply faster to defend a right punch with a left hand to re-direct the punch. It is impractical to send YOUR right across your face to defend against a big right straight punch from your attacker. I’ll ask some of my fellow instructors to add some commentary and perhaps another couple of compelling reasons why we don’t encourage this particular defense as the first line of defense for a straight punch.
That’s a good question you ask, Sunstar. Keep bringing those questions here as we have many instructors that can provide insight on techniques, and where/when it makes sense to apply them.
Did that help a bit?
Mario
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