Bear Hug from Behind / Pick Up & Carry or Drag Away

[RBFC]

Here's another from our series of basic self-defense tutorials. Note that many principles can be taken away from these "women's self defense" scenarios and applied to any "the attacker is bigger & stronger than I am" settings.

In this sequence, our heroine is daydreaming and a much larger attacker sneaks up behind her to grab her. This is one of the number one fears of the thousands of women we've trained and polled. Notice the height differential, and we'll discuss first how this affects the attack. Note that although he is over a foot taller than her, when he secures his bear hug, he is effectively the same height! In order to grasp someone tightly in the bear hug, one must grab them across their elbow joint. Too high, and they can slip out the bottom. Too low, and they can easily pull their arms free in an upward direction. Picking them up without securing the arms (body lock) leaves their hands free and you might say goodbye to an eye or two. Here's the initial grab:



For someone to control you in a grasp of almost any kind, they must sacrifice their ability to defend one or more of their vital targets. In the rear grasp, the attacker cannot simultaneously defend his head, his groin, and his lower legs/insteps. He has to stand fairly square behind you in order to exert the required amount of force to hold you. We will exploit his inability to defend these areas, as he either takes blows to them or lets you go... either way, he'll be letting you go soon enough!

One of the easiest counter-attacks to the bear hug grasp is the head butt. Anyone who's unsuspectingly taken this shot from a small child they were holding knows the pain and damage this blow can cause! Our heroine uses her legs to push off, arches her back, and snaps her head back in an attempt to crush the attacker's nose. Here's a front shot and one from the side:



Perhaps the attacker is either savvy enough or lucky enough to have his head in an inaccessible spot, and she cannot head-butt him. He has a tight grasp on her such that she cannot break free, and the mobility of her arms is limited. However, he cannot control the movement of her hips with the grasp he has! So, she can step to the side, shift her hips out of the way, and leave herself a straight shot to deliver a "hammerfist" directly to the attacker's groin. The fun part is: as long as he still tries to hold her, she just keeps swinging. We've found that he usually gets tired of this before she gets tired of hitting him! Notice how he cannot defend against this strike:



So far, we've been able to choose from two pretty simple targets, and use blows that need very little practice. Simple blows that are intuitively understood, both conceptually and physically, reign supreme in basic self-defense. The eye poke, the head butt, and the hammer fist have all fit that description.

Continued.....

 

[RBFC]

The third target when grasped from behind is the lower leg of the attacker. Since we've never seen a rapist/mugger that could levitate himself, you can pretty much guarantee that you'll be able to figure out where his shins are! It's fairly easy to perform a "donkey kick" backward into his shin, and continue the motion with a scraping of your shoe sole down his shin, ending in a stomp to his instep. All of these portions of the single blow are big pain producers.




So, we've demonstrated her ability to land blows to one, two, or three vital targets from this grasp. At any time, the attacker may give up his hold or may attempt to secure a tighter grip. The tighter grip accomplishes nothing, since he is still unable to protect his targets. Only the strongest, most committed attackers can actually injure you by squeezing in this manner, and most will simply relinquish their grip early on.

Unfortunately, most attackers have no plan to simply stand there and hug her in the WalMart parking lot. They want to control her so that they can move you to a location of their choosing. From the bear hug, they will either pick her up and carry her away, or they will drag her forcibly across the ground. Here, the attacker picks her up and she immediately begins to kick backward at his shins as he attempts to walk (extremely difficult for him to walk while being kicked!) In order to maximize her power in the kicks, she moves her upper body in a "figure-eight", similar to swimming the back stroke while in his grasp. This multi-dimensional struggle she creates forces him to exert large amounts of energy to maintain his grasp. The "figure-eight" motion also serves to help her "wind up" for each kick. It takes about fifteen minutes of practice in our experience for one to fully understand how to generate maximal power in this position. It's pretty simple. The combination of her body movement and her kicks that have her heels smashing his shins will force him to set her down very quickly. Most attackers will only make it one or two steps once the kicking begins:



Once the attacker has to set her down, she employs the "three-target" tactics we've shown above. Very few rapists will continue their attack against effective resistance, and this certainly qualifies.

Continued....

 

[RBFC]

The attacker may choose to drag her instead of lifting her. She'll find very quickly that she cannot kick back at him; her legs are too busy keeping her feet under her as she's moved. So, she remembers the "three-target" principle and chooses the head butt (great decision in this position). She can actually set her feet so that she can virtually jump up & backward to power the head butt. First, you can see how dragging her eliminates the option for kicks, then you can see how the head butt can work here:



When you get to these types of attacks, some practice is obviously necessary. One must fully understand what all this "feels like" in real time. One must be prepared to move from one of the three targets to another as opportunity dictates. One must also be prepared to be set down very quickly (and sometimes very unexpectedly!) during this type of attack. The bad guy may simply quit on his attempt at any time. We bring women up to speed on this scenario in approximately a few hours of work, depending upon their physical condition, age, etc. We've had several real instances of these tactics resulting in a successful escape from an attacker.

Finally, as is typical, the question may arise: "What if he bear hugs her while facing her?"

It's often more difficult to use the head butt, due to the way her neck operates through its range of motion. Possible, but more difficult than I like. It's also quite difficult to kick or knee him when he pulls her extremely close. One very effective way to loosen his grip quickly is to bite an exposed target:



Once he gives her a little space, she can attack all three of the primary targets.


In summary, basic self-defense is quite primal and not as complicated in execution as we might believe. The mental commitment to fight back, along with an understanding of basics like those shown here, provide a very powerful deterrent to an abduction-style attack. The techniques and tactics shown are by no means the ONLY way to escape these predicaments, they are the ones that we have chosen after testing on a widely varied population numbering several thousand trainees. I sincerely hope that this information leaves a few valuable "nuggets" with our members, and also motivates us to seek a bit of training to enhance our personal protection skills.

Enough for tonight, must listen to a bit of music before bed!

Regards,

Lee

 

[audioguy]

Lee:

I sent this thread out to a bunch of people and one guy responded: "Thanks for the information. I would just like to get a baseball bat and beat the crap out of the bald guy"

Thanks again. Really appreciate you posting this. However, how does a woman practice this with a knowledgable person if she does not live in Dallas or who else could she practice with?

 

[RBFC]

I live in Albuquerque, NM. I have certified a few instructors around the country. You can feel free to contact me anytime.

It can be difficult to choose a self defense program. Ego abounds in this business, with unqualified folks making claims that they should not. The young lady in these photo sequences was a student at a local taekwondo studio. We were contracted to do a series of seminars for the studio, which had a huge sign outside: SPECIALIZING IN WOMEN'S SELF DEFENSE. When my assistant grabbed her by the throat and held her against the wall, she was paralyzed with fear. Even the female black belts at that studio were helpless under similar circumstances! After this experience, this young lady began to study with us and remained long enough to become an assistant instructor. This finding illuminates an all-too-common shortcoming of many programs: failure to create realistic amounts of stress and force in practicing these tactics. Without an ingrained understanding of the effects of adrenaline on one's personal performance, the "rush" can be crippling.

Let's use the example of an Emergency Room nurse. Her first day on the job, an auto accident victim is brought in all mangled up in critical condition. Adrenaline has her running around like a chicken with its head cut off as she attempts to perform her duties. Now, the 50th time this same event occurs, she goes about her duties very efficiently! The event/stimulus is the same, but she is not. She has "filtered out" the negative effects of adrenaline and retained the performance-enhancing portions. In a like manner, a female who has been grabbed realistically many times in practice no longer experiences the fear-related symptoms of paralysis. Instead, we hear reports He wasn't as strong as the guy we train with!". The experience has been re-framed as an analytical one rather than an emotional one. When we can access our analytical brain under stress, we are able to plan and carry out tactics.

As you can see, modern self-defense training encompasses several teaching methodologies. Human performance science, adult education theory, and a deep study of adrenal stress response under life-threatening pressure is required. To advertise as being an "expert" when one has not done their homework is negligent. The stakes involved with what we teach are too high to ignore.

Lee