In this text we shall look at various techniques for self defence, using some of the Jeet Kune Do (JKD) principles to protect yourself. Different scenarios, this time, from the last but the techniques stay the same.
Of course, the best thing if you can is just plain....RUN....or....GET AWAY!
“Live to fight another day...” so they say, and whilst their is a lot of truth in that, I believe it’s good to have some knowledge on how you can get out of tricky situations if, god forbid, they ever arises.
A few things to think about.
Close Quarters
Blocking - imagine, if you will, that you have a knife in your hands (hand neutral, blade pointing down). You’re in a room. From your waist, raise the hand - any hand - and stab the top corner of the room (Left hand, Left corner..Right hand, Right corner), then from neutral (hand by side), stab the bottom corner of the room (Left hand, Left corner..Right hand, Right corner).
Standing side on - rarely do we stand face on to our opponents. Why? Face on creates a bigger target to hit. Side on reduces the size of the target. Remember.....YOU are the target!
Pendulum Stepping - used in boxing and Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) forms. It’s a rhythmic back and forward motion, standing side on remember...where the back leg is pushing forward and the front leg pulling back. Used to control distance of your opponent’ attack - they try to punch/kick when your forward then you push back on the front leg, making them miss. Simple!
Arm Locks
This time, your assailant is, once again, very angry and unhappy.... They stepping forward and trying to punch you with their right arm. You high block with your left, instantly stabbing with your fingers of your right hand to front of the elbow joint, bending their right arm and then grabbing their wrist and pulling it behind, whilst holding their bicep for control....and watch them cry!
[media=https://youtu.be/dHrsJmJjMjc]
OR....
My favourite, ie one that I have - sadly - had to use in real life situations is to site step their punch, to the left, grabbing hold of their wrist with your right hand, turning around so you are facing their back, push the assailant down with your left hand whilst simultaneously lifting their straight right hand up, keeping their thumb facing down. Again, they will cry!
It is worth saying that pulling too far back with the first one and pulling too high with the second will result in broken bones. In self-defence terms, we just want to make things painful so that we can get away, not to inflict too much damage.
Blocks
We have already talked about blocks with arms. General consensus is to block with the same side as they are punch with, in terms of upper body. So using you left arm to block their right hand punch (it’s coming towards your left, remember?). You can high or low block. All depending on what you were planning to do next...that economy of movement thing yet again.
If you assailant just won’t give up and is now trying to kick you, again you have options. Here we will talk about with legs.
A favourite is to raise your front foot, knee high, so that your shin will protect you. Your weight is on the back leg so you will be grounded. Simply raise to defend against the blow, lower then raise again to front kick. Aim either at their shin, their knee or to the groin.
