June 29, 2007
Back to Class
Are you old enough to remember the whole break-dancing craze? If you’re reading this blog, chances are that your answer is "yes." I don’t know about you, but I always watched my friends (mostly guys) who could spin around on their backs for what felt like the entire song and do all kinds of other crazy stuff in absolute awe. I was a Roger Rabbit pro for sure. Need some Vanilla Ice, Ice Baby moves? Got those too. But break dancing completely escaped me. I had no clue.
If only I had a capable karate person to help me back in the day. . .
I spent lots of time spinning around on the floor tonight. There were many bunkai questions and after a two week break from being the "attacker", I definitely got my share of wrist locks, take downs and other fun tonight. We spent a lot of time on bunkai and self defense tonight and it felt great to get back in the dojo for the first time since returning from vacation.
Whenever we have a class heavy on self defense, I always come home and try things out on my husband. He’s 6’4" and a fairly big guy. He’s got a lot of upper body strength, especially when compared to my spaghetti arms so it’s always a good test for me when it comes to whether or not I’m using good technique.
I’ll be honest. Many times when I come home and try things out on him, I am discouraged. I get very frustrated with not being able to get it quite right. It is a completely different thing to practice with a person your size at the dojo and then go to someone much bigger at home.
Tonight was not one of those discouraging nights.
While in the course of going through a particular scenario, a question came up as to what to do if a person approaches you and grabs you or your shirt with both hands. Instead of trying to get out of the hold, my instructor took a bigger guy, put his hands over top of the attacker’s hands, held on tight, stepped back and sent the "attacker" flying onto the floor. It was an absolutely awesome move that I haven’t seen before.
I came home, told Mr. BBM to grab my shirt and then I proceeded to take him for a ride.
"That was awesome!" he said. "Man, that really works!"
He was so excited about that move that we ended up working on different things, taking turns as the attacker, for about an hour. And then, towards the end, Mr. BBM asked me to show him some blocking drills again to get them back in his head.
I didn’t think it would happen, but maybe, just maybe, Mr. BBM will come back to karate at some point. I guess he’ll have to if he wants to keep up with me, right?
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I just started karate about a month ago. And ironically, last night, we ended the evening with some self-defense techniques that sound very similar to the one of which you wrote. I, too, was very excited about it and went home to try it on my 6’3″ husband. I didnt’ actually do it though so I don’t know if it would really work or not, but it seems it would anyway. I love the site!
Interesting post. I’m always a believer that as far as Karate and self defense goes, things should work no matter how big the opponent. Of course, distractions don’t really fall under this category, but most other techniques should generally work for all – It’s just a matter of mastering the nuances of the technique. That said though, I’m not sure what kind of techniques you’re using, so maybe I should keep my big mouth shut. (#);)
And maybe something was missing for Mr. BBM to make him leave Karate in the first place. Maybe he just needs the right instructor or style. *shrugs*
I’m always trying stuff on my wife. Sweeps and reversals are no big deal. She doesn’t mind that and with her I focus on fluidity and technique. She tends to get cranky when I try to “show” her a new transition to, say, an omoplata or any other submission. “Hey, honey. I learned a great lockflow today! It’s a triangle to armbar to omoplata. Let me show you.”
There are some things that I could definitely not do without a partner, so having someone willing to help out is critical.
The bigger the attacker, the smaller the joint you attack. For some reason our class attracts alot of big guys. Wrist locks and finger locks work best on them. Maybe an elbow lock if it’s a good day for me and my left hand leads (since I’m lefthanded it’s stronger).
Ah, the joys of Hapkido.
Ah, your bunkai sounds so much like taekwon-do’s “hosinsul.” I love that stuff! I am a very powerfully built man, and somewhat tall, and with an insane pain threshold (“Pain don’t hurt!”), so I was very happy to let the smaller women in my class practice those moves on me. I intimidated them, and I had no plans to hurt them. So I really hope that if one of those women ever gets attacked in real life, that something she learned and practiced against me will help her! Also, I’m sure you have some forms of strikes using the backfist. Do you ever bust those out in sparring? I used to love that strike so much, because it is lightning fast and doesn’t require much movement to take your lead arm from a guarding position to serving your knuckes to the side of somebody’s face!
You are lucky to have a partner that gets involved in your training… Although my partner encourages us alot (I do karate with both my kids)… he will have nothing to do with me when it comes to practicing my self defense techniques… I think he is afraid! lol So consider yourself lucky ;o)
Amitié,
Myrika ;o)
I would be interested in knowing what techniques you used. We have some we learn, but I am always looking for new and better ways to do things.
Now come on BBM – you’ve just got back of vacation and already you’re finding excuses to roll about the floor with Mr BBM! 😀
Well, he will have to if you keep taking him down!! I think that is the rule of the male! ;*)
My problem is that during those classes, especially if most of the class is female, *I* end up being the “attacker”. Being that I’m 5’10” and about 60 lbs overweight, I guess I’m the closest simulation to the size of an actual guy, except I have boobs. I can’t do too much to my DH, he’s just not interested as much as I try to get him into it. But I will say that if he didn’t know how to keep his distance in certain situations with me before, he certainly does now! LOL I think if we were attacked, he’d expect ME to defend us, not the other way around! :-S
Re: “taekwon-do’s “hosinsul.”
Early taekwondo was a variant of Shotokan karate. So depending on the style of taekwondo you practice you may end up practicing an inordinate number of wrist locks. This topic is near and dear to me because I used to work in prison where we had to apply “force.”
It’s good that bbm realizes that not all of this stuff will work. Both my favorite corrections lieutenant and our tko school’s founder (aka sabum) would always preach that we need to have a “plan b” because some things may not work.
~BCP
Hey, I love that picture of you with sais!
My husband absolutely loathed it when I’d want to practice take-downs on him. Although…it sure made me feel good to know I could do it.
I’m trying to picture this lapel grab defense you’re describing, but I’m not quite getting it. But if it works, it works. Realize that as a woman, you’re far more likely to get choked as opposed to being grabbed like that. I’m wondering if this same move could be modified to counter a similar choke-hold. (btw, great profile photo with the sai!)
Hey, nice new photo, you hottie!
Sounds like great home practice. I hope my gf comes to karate – after the pregnancy.
And that my kids come too – eventually. We’ll have fun at home then.