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How to Counter Joint Locks, Arm Bars, and Body Controls

February 14, 2010 | Author: Matthew | Filed under: How-To,Martial Arts,Techniques,Tips and Tricks,karate,self defense

Whenever I am teaching bunkai and self defense I advise students to “create a disturbance” before applying a joint lock.

A disturbance could be a strike to the body or face that causes the attacker to focus on the pain instead of you. It could mean a subtle pulling off-balance that puts the opponent in a position of weakness. It could also be as simple as a movement of your body and hands that causes the attacker to critically expose his/her body.

By utilizing disturbance you can circumvent the strength, focus, and potential counterattacks of a live attacker. Often in the vacuum of a dojo we can apply punishing joint locks that make our partners whimper. Unfortunately we are working with a level of compliance that ignores the power of adrenaline charged muscles (which can ignore pain and significantly resist your efforts) and the volatility of swinging fists, feet, and forehead of an opponent that wants to take you out.

There is a great video of Taiji (tai chi) exponent Yang Hefa demonstrating what can happen to an attacker who is trying to apply various locks and maneuvers without doing anything else to create an initial disturbance. Yang is free to think and react naturally, and the results for the attacker are unimpressive and sobering.

As you were watching you probably had the instinct to say “just elbow him! punch him in the face! Perform KoshiNage! etc”. But that’s not really the point of the video as I’m sure Yang Hefa could have performed plenty of nasty techniques himself. What Yang is really showing is the ability to weave, bob, and slink his way out of some of the most commonly used grappling techniques.

Yang’s tricks are really not that hard to understand -

  • first, he is staying very relaxed. Many joint lock techniques are exacerbated by tension in the defender rather than sheer skill of the attacker.
  • Second, he keeps himself perfectly balanced and his weight underside, which makes off-balancing techniques for his opponent very difficult.
  • Third, Yang knows how to move with the force of his opponent, accept it, and redirect it when the attacker over-commits.

Is this video just a demonstration? Of course, but there are a lot of valuable takeaways. Next time you find yourself in a grappling or tegumi situation, take note of the amount of tension in your body. Figure out how your weight is distributed and if it is vulnerable to over-exposure.

If you feel yourself being put into a lock or bar, instead of resisting it with muscular strength experiment with rolling your body and moving with the motion. Find some willing and good humored training partners and see if you can frustrate them.

Finally take note of the possibility of failure when grappling and the need to move quickly to other techniques and methods. I personally recommend creating a disturbance in the opponent to distract his mind so that he can’t resist, or worse yet, show off skill like Yang’s.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, February 14th, 2010 and is filed under How-To, Martial Arts, Techniques, Tips and Tricks, karate, self defense. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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  • flintstone
    Good food for thought! Thanks.
  • nunoaku
    greetings from portugal
    Thanks for sharing!
    violence leads to violence, thats comon sense.
    Lack of violence may not lead to love, but at least doesnt provoque the person, and that is just the begining.
    I'm an Aikidoka, and i feel that the path of aikido is not to control the other person but to control yourself.
    Again, thanks for the all article.
    sorry for my bad english.
  • tom611
    This is a joke!

    The guy trying to perform a lock is putting his own arm in the way so he can not perform a lock.

    The porper execution is never to have your arm blocking the lock. As far as the arm lock. His whole position is wrong. The same with the wrist lock.

    Good try but no cigar.
  • No argument here Tom - the attacker definitely does not have expert level experience. I actually think that lends value to the video though as a person is far more likely to encounter someone with imperfect skills.

    Ultimately my focus for this post was on the ability to move and relax the body instead of tightening up and actually helping the joint lock take effect on you.

    Thanks for your thoughts and visit!
  • Hi Matt,

    A couple of things here. You do make a good point about people being indoctrinated to not respond and truthfully most people might not do too much good in many situations but of course in this one - all it would have taken was for the larger people to start yelling and pulling the kids away from the girl. A little risk but it would have been the right thing to do.

    True it is a personal decision but without taking about how (closed vs open fist), people in all walks of life should intervene to the extent they feel comfortable with - even if it is yelling and getting other people involved.

    I am conflicted but assuming my family is not at risk and the person seems to be worth saving - then yes I would always get involved as I would hope others might come to the aid of my family members.

    Now my prejudice - after owning a karate school near an outlaw biker bar for years - I don't like bikers much. I used to have to fight them every month - the result was always the same but it was annoying. To this day I figure if they are fighting their own - I don't care much...

    Karate is excellent for self defense assuming you do want to intervene. I did a post that had three stories... the first of which was a girl that was accosted in a transit station and restaurant here: http://myselfdefenseblog.com/http:/myselfdefens... you might be interested... she was able to get away but that is not the norm when a bunch of thugs attack a girl (sadly).

    Another though provoking post Matt!
  • Hey John - I think you may have intended this comment for the other blog post about self defense (for whatever reason it is showing up on my join locks post). If you'd like, copy and paste this comment over on the other post and i'll delete this one.
  • Great post.
    I think this points out the value of form and push hands training. The push hands aspect is easy enough to see--the ability to yield, neutralize, redirect. But primary to application is good form--sinking, staying grounded, and what we call "sung" in Taiji. So much of Taiji training revolves around form, or kata. In the Chen system that includes Silk Reeling, which is specifically applicable in escaping from and avoiding joint locks. It is rare to see such a perfect example of the accrued benefits of the training that in many ways is unique to Taiji. Thanks for sharing.
  • Agreed, I think this does show value in drills like that even for hard stylists. If you ever do a post or video on silk reeling, feel free to link it up here!
  • Hey Matt. Good advice on offer as usual. I'm with you on creating a disturbance, as you call it, something my club does all the time when training. I wouldn't think of attempting a lock or such without first putting a strike or distraction in beforehand. And if the technique doesn't work then immediately move into something else that does.

    I also kind of have to agree with Kenposan on the video. To my mind, if you apply that figure four armlock correctly then you aren't getting out of it quite as easily as that guy did. I of course see the point he is trying to make, but still...not as realistic as it should be.
  • kenposan
    is it just me, or is the guy applying the locks not doing any of them correctly? I understand it's a demonstration, but if the locks were applied correctly, could the Tai Chi guy have slipped out of them so easily?
  • We can't really be certain if the attacker wasn't too great at applying joint locks, or if his skill was nullified by the constant maneuvering of Yang, the tai chi exponent. Either way I think the takeaways are still there.
  • Bob
    I agree with the relaxation. It seems counter intuitive; but, training and becoming confident in the technique will help. This seems to be more apparent in internal systems like Taiji and aikijujutsu. At least they teach you to be softer. Easier said then done after 20 years of punching and kicking.
  • Definitely Bob. There are some ingrained habits that have to be tweaked in order to get this stuff working. But it's well worth the effort.
  • Some great points that need to be considered by all. From a ground fighting/submission wrestling perspective, many beginners get joint locked, not only becuase of there inexperience to know what is being applied on them but simply becuase they tense up, and creat perfect opportunities for there joints to be locked. Relaxation is one of the vital keys to bear in mind.

    Good article!
  • Nice point Mark - this definitely applies to wrestling as well.
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