[headline_tahoma_medium_left color=”#000000″]Wrist Locks on Your Back?[/headline_tahoma_medium_left]
by Keith Pascal
No, I’m not kidding.
Choose any wrist lock that you can do standing up. Try it on a practice partner a few times.
Now, lie down on the floor. Have your training partner reach in to you for a grab or submission hold. Design the exercise in a way that allows you to respond with the same lock that you practiced in a standing position.
Even though it’s the same lock, it feels different, doesn’t it? (What? You’re just reading? You aren’t following along with training partner at your side? We’ll, experience the difference after you read this article, I suppose.)
The relationships of the angles to limbs is the same, it’s just that the orientation has changed. You need to get accustomed to effecting locks from this supine position. You need to learn the finesses that limit your enemy’s movements, even though you may be positioned below him or her.
[headline_tahoma_small_left color=”#000000″]Why is any of this important?[/headline_tahoma_small_left]
Could you imagine someone reaching down to you, as you sleep? You awaken to someone choking your neck from above. Of course, you’ll probably hit and kick, but a control … a lock … might be nice, to stop all movement, until you get your bearings.
After all, just seconds ago, you were asleep. Right?
[headline_tahoma_small_left color=”#000000″]Grappled, Again[/headline_tahoma_small_left]
If you think that sneaking up on you as you sleep is an impossible scenario, then what about a more likely one … what if you were knocked to the ground?
Of course, you want to get back on your feet A.S.A.P., but you might have to defend yourself from the ground for a second or two. Just maybe.
I’m proposing that you spend a portion of your training sessions practicing your wrist locks from a downed position. I know you won’t let it happen in a real-life situation 🙂 , but just pretend that you have been knocked to the ground.
Maybe you aren’t on your back; you could defend yourself from your knees, on your side, or facedown. The question is, how will you take your opponent’s grab into a wrist lock or joint lock?
And that is the question of the day … that warrants a little wrist-locks practice … on your back.