The most common beginner mistake while performing this particular gun defense on the dead side is having the wrong foot in front. This video will show you all the details to proper footwork while doing this defense. You’ll learn the potential problems of having your feet out of place on both the dead and live sides. Also, you’ll find out how this same footwork applies to other techniques such as arm pull and hair grab defenses.
Transcript:
“Hello, this is Randall and Glenda with KravMagaTraining.com. In this video, we’re going to discuss the how to defend a gun threat from behind when it’s touching your back, specifically, going to the dead side. And the particular section that I want to emphasize with this particular defense is to make sure we’re doing the footwork properly because I found this is a really common mistake, especially when we’re doing this defense and going to the dead side.
This is what I’m referring to. Glenda is the gun person. She’s got the gun on my back. And the first response, obviously, is to redirect the line of fire. So I do this and this case we’re going to the dead side. Now, the transition from here to controlling the weapon, this is where a lot of students make a mistake. I see this happen a lot. You’ll notice that I actually took two steps and I ended up with my left foot in front. The correct response is this. My right foot stays in front as I’m controlling the weapon and throwing my counterstrike. So this would be the proper step.
But I think this is the reason why students make this mistake a lot is because they are used to fighting in a orthodox stance or left foot in front. When they have to go southpaw basically, they don’t feel comfortable in this position so they naturally take a second step.
I don’t like this. It’s too slow. Anytime you have to do two steps, do excessive movements, it’s going to slow the technique down. So don’t do this. Not one two in place. It’s too slow. Just one step like that. All right. So it’s very important when you do these gun defenses that you learn how to fight on both sides. You have to be ambidextrous. You have to be able to fight, whether it be right foot in front for the left foot in front.
Now, how you remember is whatever shoulder that you’re looking over that’s the foot that’s going to step forward and that’s the foot that’s going to end up in the front. So this is what I mean is if she puts the gun on me, if I look over my right shoulder notice my right foot’s in front. But if I was going the other direction. If I was going to the live side, the left foot is in front. If Glenda were to switch hands and I was doing the drill on this side, same thing, left foot has got to end up in front. All right.
So this is important. Not just for the quickness of the drill but also if, let’s say, let’s go back to the right hand Glenda, even if I was to do the drill and I was doing it on the dead side and I and up with the wrong foot in front, this is a problem on this side as well because when I’m doing the defense, if I keep this foot in front it’s very easy for her to change levels, pick up my leg and now I have to defend a single leg and a gun threat at the same time, which is getting to a ridiculously difficult situation. So even if I was doing on the dead side here, if I keep this foot back and she tries to go for a leg, my forearm can stop her in place. As long as I keep this foot on the outside of her foot over here. So here’s her foot right here lined up, my foot’s on the outside, she can grab that foot as well. So it’s really important. This foot is on the outside. This foot is back.
Now, the question comes up “Yeah, but what if you do it on the dead side and this foot is in front?” This side is not an issue because if I throw the palm strike and cross face her she’s not going to have the ability go for this leg. Also, unlike the other side, I’m not going to be spending a lot of time here. It’s one strike, go for the weapon and I’m out. So there’s no screwing around with that.
So anyways. That’s what I’ve found is the biggest mistake with this particular gun defense is just make sure that you end up with the correct foot in front. If you look over your right shoulder, right foot’s in front. If you look over the left shoulder, the left foot goes in front.
And this is important too because it carries over to other defenses that we do as well. So, for example, in Level 1 we have an arm pull defense. So, if I’m standing here, Glenda grabs me with both arms and starts pulling me like in a kidnapping situation, if I get turned to my left, left foot is in front and I strike my way out. If she turns me and spins me the other direction, same thing here. If she’s grabbing my hair and pulling me backwards, whatever direction I turn and look, in this case my left shoulder, left foot goes in front to defend the hair pulls, and vice versa.
So, with Krav Maga we want the system to carry over into multiple defenses, not just one. So proper footwork also applies for the arm pull defenses, hair pull defenses, as well as these gun threats from behind. So we want to make sure that we stay consistent within the system because it makes the system easier to learn. And that’s one of the beautiful principles of Krav Maga.
Anyways. It’s a simple mistake but I see it a lot for some reason. I don’t know why. I tell everybody before I even teach them, make sure you put the right foot in front but people still screw it up a lot. So just, don’t, do me a favor. Don’t be that guy. Be aware of your footwork. Learn how to fight with both feet in front. Get comfortable with it and I explained why. If you do that it’s going to tighten up your gun threats from behind, especially when you do it on the dead side we just worked on.
Anyways. It’s a simple video. Nothing too complicated. Just be aware of it. Thanks for watching.”
“An important Krav Maga principle: Fewer techniques that solve more problems.”
