There’s four principles to every Krav Maga gun defense: redirect, control, counterattack, disarm. For this particular gun defense, control is the most challenging part for beginners to perform correctly. This video will show you many of the details to controlling the weapon properly while performing this defense. It explains how redirecting properly makes controlling easier. It also shows the location of the control, as well as your shoulder, elbow, and hand positioning.
Transcript:
“Hi, this is Randall and Glenda with KravMagaTraining.com. And in this video, we’re going to address the fine details to controlling the weapon properly when you’re doing the defense against a gun threat from the front. So, out of all the components: redirect, control, counterattack, disarm… this is the one that students have the most trouble and that’s why I want to address it and get really specific with it. Okay. So here’s the thing. Glenda is the back guy. She points the gun at me. We redirect the line of fire and this is the part that I’m referring to, controlling the weapon properly. This is the part I want to really get down into all the details.
Now before I actually get into this position, what I’m going to do is give you a slight correction on the actual redirect because if you don’t redirect properly it makes it actually harder to funnel to this control position properly. This is what I mean is… Glenda’s got the line of fire on me you can actually see the red dot on my chest so that we can visually see what’s going on. Now on the redirect what I want to do is I want to move this line of fire off my body. But you notice that if I blade my body and just move the gun a couple of inches it doesn’t take very much to get the line of fire off of you. The biggest mistake that beginners have, I made this mistake as well when I first learned this gun defense, is that we’re so paranoid about getting the line of fire off of us that we do this big movement way over here. Where now the line of fire is going way over here. But the problem is when the gun is way over here I don’t have a lot of control over it and it’s a lot harder for me to make this move way over here and then bring it all the way back around to get to the proper control point. So when you see the line of fire’s on me right now, I just want to get the line of fire off of me and that’s as far as I have to go. This is as far as I have to go. And if, because the weapon is more in line in front of me, it’s very easy to control the weapon properly and just punch it straight down. Instead of this big movement and all the way around. So that’s actually the first thing to proper control the weapon is actually redirecting the line of fire properly and not making it a big, wide, excessive movement. Just redirect just far enough so the line of fire is off of you and once it’s off of you, ‘boom’, you can punch it straight down. So one more time. Here’s the line of fire. Just this far. And then now watch how it’s really easy for me to go to my control point.
Now here’s the next part is when I get to here what I want to do is I think about punching down and I’m aiming for her hip flexor right here. So if she has the weapon in her right hand, I’m aiming for this area where her thigh and her pelvic area kind of connect. So like if she were to bend her knee up in the air. Like go ahead and bend your knee up Glenda. See this spot where she’s bending. This is what I’m aiming for. Okay, you can put your foot back down. So when I get to this spot right here that’s what I’m aiming for like that. Okay. I don’t like to have it go over here. I don’t like it over here as much. I like it right here. Now if I had a choice between which sides I would rather have it too far off, I would rather have it over here because you can see her arm is kind of jacked up and it’s in a weak position. The more that I go over to this side the less control I have and the more control she has. The more I bring it over to this side the better. And ideally, I like to aim for that hip flexor area because a lot of times I can pin it to her body. Now the question comes up is ‘Well, what if they are too far away?’ And that’s okay. Just aim for it. You don’t necessarily have to pin it to them. Especially, if the person realizes that you’re fighting back and they start backpedaling, that’s going to happen. That’s okay. As long as you go as far as you can you’ll be fine. So anyways. Aim for the hip flexor. Even better, actually pin it to their body.
Now the next detail that I want to really focus on is to make sure that your arm is straight, relatively straight. The more it’s bent, one you kind of get jammed up with your ability to strike and you’re getting closer to her free weapon that she can strike with. I want my arm straight so I can fully extend my power on my punch. I stay farther away from her free side. But also, and more importantly from the control standpoint, when my arm is straight it’s much stronger. Think of in a football game you have the running back, someone’s trying to tackle them, will they stiff arm the person because when your arm’s straight you’re structurally very strong. You don’t see them stiff arming like this with her arm bent because it’s not a stiff arm. The arm has to be locked out. Well, the principle is the same here when controlling the weapon. I want the arm locked out and, and ideally, pinned to their body. If it’s not, it’s okay to have it out here, arm straight.
Now the next detail on controlling it properly is to make sure that your body weight is over the top of that. The key is notice how my shoulder is higher than my fist. This allows me to use gravity and body weight to lean on it like this. The higher the weapon goes up the less gravity I have on my side and the less weight that I can put on this. And the problem is if my attacker is stronger than me she can fight for this weapon back a lot easier and I’m going to start losing control. But the lower it goes, look how the more I’m leaning, leaning. I’m actually not even pushing Glenda. I’m just using my fat ass to lean on top of the weapon. So this detail is very important. Especially, when you’re dealing with someone stronger than you that you have your shoulder higher than your fist like this. So once again, I put my body weight over the top. If you do that, you don’t have to use as much strength and you’re using more technique.
Now, another very important part is when you line up your hand with their body think about punching the person. And when you punch someone you’re supposed to hit with your two large knuckles here. Well, I want to take these two large knuckles and I want to aim them right into her hip or if I can action make contact I’m actually punching her into her hip. When I do this it makes the control a lot stronger because now my wrist is straight. Everything is lined up. I’m structurally very strong. But, if I were to take the weapon away and just let Glenda holds this position, look how she’s structurally very weak. Her wrist is bent back. The hand is pressed flat like this. Her elbow’s jacked up. Her shoulder is raised up. She’s structurally very weak. The biggest mistake I see people make is they push like this. Now, my wrist is bent back. I’m not as strong. If I let go of the weapon. Let’s go back for a second Glenda. Just hold that position for me please. Now turn towards the camera. Look how her wrist isn’t bent now. Her wrist is straight. Structurally she’s a little bit stronger. Especially in the wrist area. Whereas before because I punched it and turned it like this. Now her wrist is getting bent back and she is, it’s harder for her to control the weapon. So that’s why it’s really important, not like this. It’s not a push. It’s a punch. Roll your knuckles down and make sure your wrist is straight. This is the biggest mistake beginners make is they, they do this. I’m the one with my wrist bent back. She’s the one with her wrist relatively straight. If I do this those roles get reversed. So this is actually a very small detail but very, very neglected. So make sure that you do that part as well. Is making sure that you’re punching the person, not pushing or palm striking them.
So to me, those are all the key details to good, good control. So quick review once again. She points the line of fire at me. Make sure that you redirect just far enough to clear the line of fire but not any more than that. No big, excessive movements. Because, like I said before, it’s harder to swing it all the way back around. Whereas, if I just go this far, ‘boom’, it’s a straight line in. The next part, aim for their hip flexor. The farther I go over to the live side the stronger she becomes and the weaker I become. I want to stay more on the other side here. When in doubt, I would rather be too far this way then too far over here. But the hip flexor’s nice. Next thing is try to pin it to their body, if possible. I can guarantee that is always going to happen because sometimes it might be like this. But that’s okay. Just pin it or at least get it as close as possible. Next detail: arm straight. When you’re arm is straight it’s strong. When it’s bent not as strong. Next, shoulder above your hand so you can put body weight and use gravity to your side for more control. Plus you have more extension on your counterpunching and it keeps you farther away from her ability to fight back as well with both her free arm and her free leg. And then the last thing, and the most neglected detail, make sure you are punching two knuckles aiming towards them. Like you’re rolling your knuckles down. Not pushing like this. I’m weak, she’s stronger. I do this I’m a lot stronger and she becomes weaker. And it’s very easy to get to two hands. Now we have maximum control and can get into the takeaway but I’ll cover that in another video.
So anyways. Those are all the details to having really good control when you’re doing this particular defense against a gun threat from the front. So make sure when you train that you don’t neglect any of those details. They are very, very important. All right. Thanks for watching.”
“The over-arching principle in Krav Maga’s defenses against handgun threats is this: Once you are out of the line of fire, do not go back in.”
