After you learn all the wrist releases when your attacker is directly in front of you, next you need to perform the same escapes when the attacker is grabbing your wrist but is off to the side. A very subtle but important detail is to turn towards your attacker before doing any of the wrist releases. This detail is often neglected by beginners. This video explains two reasons why the wrist releases work better when you put your attacker at your 12 o’clock first.
Transcript:
“Hi, everyone. This is Randall, Glenda, KravMagaTraining.com. In this video, I’m going to discuss how to position yourself properly when your attacker is grabbing your wrist from the side, regardless of what variation of that grip is.
So this is what I’m talking about is, I’ll pretend that I’m the defender. I’m facing this direction. Glenda is off to the side of me like this and she grabs my wrist. It doesn’t really matter how she grabs my wrist. She can grab it this way. She could be grabbing it on, you know, different ways. She could be grabbing with the other hand. Two on one. It doesn’t really matter. Because, here’s the thing: We already know how to get out of all of the escapes because it’s just a matter of turning and looking, assessing where the thumb is, and using the escapes we’ve already learned.
But the part where beginners make the mistake is they forget to turn and look at the attacker. So when I get grabbed, they’ll stay in this side position and take a look and say ‘Okay, how can I get out of this?’ And the thing is, you probably could still get out of this but it makes it a lot easier if you just do this. Turn to them and put them at 12 o’clock. And it’s easier to funnel to all of your escapes. So will do a couple of examples of this.
Okay. So like I said, beginners what they do is, sometimes they just turn sideways and stay sideways. And you still might be able to get out of this but the problem is you won’t be as strong with your escapes. Especially, the ones that involve twisting your hips. Like, let’s do a two on one Glenda. If I’m already turned sideways and I have to do the escape, I can’t twist as much because I’ve already pre-twisted. So it makes the escape a lot harder.
Another reason why don’t like not pre-turning is, let’s say we’re just doing a regular one hand grab, is if I’m turned sideways like this and I get out of it, notice if I was to go to my tactical stance, I have to turn back around. Now, whether that be a make or break scenario, not necessarily. But why add an extra movement to something if we don’t need to. Let’s make things as efficient, efficient as possible. So when she grabs me, if I just turn and look at her and get out of it, it’s easy for me to square up in my tactical stance.
Here’s the thing, when she grabs me there’s nothing restricting how my body moves. So just because the attack in this particular wrist scenario starts sideways, doesn’t mean that I have to keep them, in this case, at my 3 o’clock or my 9 o’clock. Instead, I’ll just look at them. It makes everything a lot easier. It’s such a subtle, little detail but it makes a big difference in, not only, making your escapes stronger and easier, and also easier to assess exactly what they’re doing, but you end up, you tend to end up in your tactical stance or your fighting stance a lot quicker.
So that’s all you guys have to do. Once you get grabbed, if you don’t mind Glenda, just turn and look at them. Put them at your 12 o’clock. And then you’ll be able to get out of it a lot easier.
Subtle detail, but often negle
cted. So be sure to implement it. Thanks for watching.”
“Krav Maga is the system taught to Israeli women to prepare them to serve in combat. For women, there is not a self-defense system in the world more street and battle tested than Krav Maga.”
