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Hello, been taking KM for 4 months, level one, testing in early sept for level 2.
Of course, your friends get interested in what you are doing 4 times a week so you show them a move. Well, here is where the trouble begins, on the head lock from the side, I ran into the problem of not being able to reach up and grab his face for the take down. My buddy is aout 6’2\” and I’m 5′ 8\”, should I be using a different move for taller people? I’m sure in level 2 there I will be thaught better moves, but what do I do for now?
I did some research and it looks like the only thing to do is groin shots from front and back. My worry is that I practice one move but in a real situation I have a feeling you only get one move, especially with a bigger enemy.
Thanks for any responses.
The attacker’s height should really be irrelevant. He has to come down to your level in order to control your head. Your head should be essentially between his forearm and his shoulder area. His head should be very close to his shoulder. 😉 I’m only 5’7\”, and I’ve never had any problems.
Just trying to nail down the proper technique for the test. I’ll have to work on it some more, I’ll see if I can get some taller guys in class to help me figure it out. I don’t know what your tests are like. We have a lot of 2-4 level students come to level one classes and I’ve talked to them about the test.
It is 4 hours long, they have 3 or 4 upper level students walking around taking notes to make sure you are doing the moves right. If you and your partner don’t do it right, they give you 30 seconds to do it right in front of the class, if you don’t get it, you fail.
Our instructor is all about wiping us out. His basic philosophy is \”anyone can fight when they are fresh, the true warrior is tested when he is wiped out.\” I’m sure you all understand, fighting is 90% mental and 10% physical. It’s the mental part he wants to see. You know that drill with the belts, where one guy is holding you back and you are fighting to get and beat the third guy/pad. Well, that drill is a big one for our instructor.
Thanks for your advice, I think I just need to work on it some more. One more thing for now. How do you handle a partner that is a spazz? I have a bad feeling I’ll have to test with him. He runs into people, he brings his knees to high in the drills (fat lips are common), he has gotten way to close doing groin kicks. We have been drilling before and he kicks me in the groin, then knees me in the face, not on purpose, but he just doesn’t understand holding back. The last time I partnered up with him the whole time I was thinking about dropping him. He is pumped up, super nice guy, it just during drills he has pushed more then one person to the edge.
Well then Hit his groin first… Not sure what way they are teaching this to you – I always think of it as one move, as the guy is grabbing around your neck and jerking you down to the headlock position your natural body movement is downward and toward his groin so your arm is swinging in that direction and you nail him between the legs and then other arm goes for the head to land him on his ass.
Our instructor is a smaller guy as well. He showed us for the smaller guys to the bigger ones that you can grab the side of the neck or an ear if you cant reach their face/chin. There is actually a nerve in your neck that helps make this move work even better when the neck is grabbed….trust me…my neck still throbs when I think about it.
Also, if he turns his face away from you, it might be hard to do the move. That’s when it will work better to go for the neck (or maybe hair).
I take issue with all the grabbing of the ear talk. Ears are not attached really well and can come off in your hand if the attacker resists too much. I would go for the tendon in the neck if their face is turned away or the eye socket if you feel the nose isn’t viable, or they don’t have hair.
I suspect however, that you are pushing backward instead of peeling the head back. I’m five one, and the only problem I’ve had with the technique is if the pull down of the head lock is very very aggressive. But in that case you curl you knee in pull the shoulder, take them down and end in a side mount.
Good luck –
chris
When I read the initial post my first thought was be sure you get a good groin strike, funny how that brings down the attackers head a bit as they double over. If it didn’t work the first time, hit them again, harder this time. If they try to pull their groin away, the head will tend to fall.
Sometimes an attacker will try to twist you around as if to throw you. this can make the level 1 defense a bit more difficult. We do eventually learn how to roll and in the process throw the attacker to the ground. This may not help you in your next test, but if your friends question why you couldn’t pull off the self-defense move, other techniques do exist for different variations of of an attack.
\”I take issue with all the grabbing of the ear talk.\”
Well, I don’t really teach it, but if it’s there, I tell my students to take it. I hardly think it’s something to take issue with–it’s an option, and I wouldn’t want to limit them. Even if the result is simply a flinch response that leads to more viable options, that’s better than where you started.
My 2 cents-(and just my 2 cents)…
1. If I am in a fight and someone rips off my ear, I am going to seriously question if I want to escalate this any further…Ears, therefore, should not be left out.
2. On the other hand, if you are dealing with a crackhead, etc. (in LA there are crackheads at every single corner) That may just make the fight worse so make sure wether its an ear, hair, nose, or tendon, you know how to finish the moves and break away to run, counter etc.
My problem with this move goes back to what the original poster had mentioned….If you do have trouble with taller people, how do you get the chance to really try it out without ruining someones chances to have kids?
You are relying on a lot of trust here…but someone somewhere has seen it work-
Another method, besides attacking the groin, is using your legs to become upright (getting your head above your hips). By positioning yourself behind your opponent, you will throw him off balance. If you get him arched back over your hips, you can reach around to grab his chin, eyes, hair, etc and pull him backwards. A guy who weight like 130 pounds can do this to me easilly (I’m 6 ft 170lbs), but it would work better after striking the groin. It takes some good body mechanics and sensitivity to do this effectively. This technique, by the way, assumes that you step differently than you would for the standard krav defense- this would be more likely if someone got you in a side headlock but didn’t pull you down so much that your body is slung (maybe you just end up there while grappling.)
I’ve never once mentioned the ear to my students. First and foremost, it takes the head in the wrong direction. And, unless the person has dumbo ears, it’s not much of a hand hold.
In my opinion, if you can reach the ear, you can reach the eyesocket. And like I said before, I’m almost 5’2\” and have had little trouble with reaching what I needed, even if the guy is big.
-chris
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