Escapes from wrist grabs are not a topic I have often covered in this blog. There are hundreds of books, blogs and videos showing such techniques. They range from simple to intricate, and from realistic to the not so much!
Here at survive.phillosoph.com, I try to offer content not found on other defence or survival pages. When I do consider a more common topic, I endeveor to look at it from a different angle, or provide fresh insight or novel information. I hope that I have achieved this, at least sometimes.
If some self-defence courses and books are to be believed, someone walking up to you and holding your wrist is a common problem. Maybe not for some of us. I am big and ugly and not that many people wish to hold my hand.
On the other hand, (pun intended!) wrist grabs are probably a more common feature of altercations between a man and a woman. And there are fighting styles that often feature controlling an arm to apply a lock, throw or to pull aside a defence for a strike.
Therefore, your repertoire of defensive techniques should include some responses to wrist grabs.
“Crash Combat” mainly concentrates on the method I have called the “under and up”, the “under and out” or even “under, out and up”. Use whichever name helps you remember how it works.
This technique works for same-side grabs (right hand to right wrist, left to left), or cross/mirror-stance grabs (left to right wrist, or right to left-wrist).
It works for whether the grabber's thumb is towards or away from the defender’s hand.
The same technique is used to respond to your knife wrist being grabbed, or someone grabbing your baton or rifle barrel.
Being a more extensive work, “Attack, Avoid, Survive” adds some additional techniques, ranging from the very simple jerking action against the thumb, to the kuk sool won-based throwing techniques.
Recently I started reading “Analysis of Shaolin Chin-na”. This included advice that I will paraphrase as: “if someone grabs you (by your wrist, fingers etc), poke them in the eyes or kick their shins. Attack, Avoid, Survive contains the same tactics, although not as catchily expressed as Jwing-Ming Yang put it, I will admit.
Techniques from Bagua
I was inspired to dig through my collection and find the DVD that included Erle Montaigue teaching eight methods of wrist escape. I found it on MTG15 “Dim-Mak and Combat Wrestling”, which is worth checking out, btw.
The clip below does not include the wrist grab section, but has some other techniques worth knowing, some of which may be used to prevent or follow-up a wrist grab.
The eight techniques Erle shows each use a hand form from bagua/pa-kur. Several of these are actually the under and up technique, but using a variety of hand configurations.
Today I would like to look at three of the other methods in the video. I personally think of these as the “Hidden Hand Wrist Grab” responses.
For ease of illustration, let us assume that it is the defender’s right wrist being held in the following descriptions.
First Method
In the first method, the wrist is grabbed, the grabber’s thumb away from the hand and his palm on the outside/back of the forearm.
In response, the fingers of the grabbed hand are splayed out. This action is also seen in the kuk sool won techniques in Attack, Avoid, Survive, so I presume the intention is to fortify the wrist.
The fingers are then thrust towards the grabber’s throat or face. This echoes the “poke ‘em in the eyes” advice, but uses the grabbed hand rather than your free hand.
The restrained hand is driven forward, not just by the arm, but by a rotation of the hips and waist and the forward movement of the whole body.
As the thrust is made, the hand is turned palm up so there is a corkscrew-type action, and considerable weight and force is applied to the space between the grabber’s thumb and fingers.
There is a supplementary technique to this move, which I will address a little later.
Second Method
The second technique is very similar, but in this case the grab is to the inner side of the wrist.
Again, splay your fingers and use your body motion to twist the arm and drive the fingers at the throat or face.
“Head Scratch” Method
The third and final technique we will look at is the fourth method on Erle’s video. To avoid confusion, I will call this the “head scratch” technique.
The wrist has been grabbed as in the first technique. The grabber holds the right wrist with his left hand.
Splay the fingers and raise your hand up so you look at your own palm. Without pausing, continue raising the hand as though you intend to scratch your head above the forehead. At the same time as you make this action, you utilize the body rotation and movement that powers it to turn to your left and move away from the grabber.
If the hold is not broken and the grabber does not let go, they will be pulled along behind the defender.
As the defender turns away, they may choose to throw their hand before them and thrust forward with their palm, applying additional force to break the hold or pull the grabber off balance.
This technique may also be used right hand against right wrist, or left against left, but you will need to change the direction you move away. Move to take yourself to the outside of the grabbing arm. This will take you out of reach of the grabber’s free hand.
Supplementary Technique
The supplementary technique for all three moves is essentially the same for all.
As your grabbed right hand begins to move, your free left hand moves toward your right elbow and then swings up toward your right hand. The left hand moves parallel to the underside of your held forearm. The grabber may not notice this motion, which is why I call these “hidden hand” escape techniques.
By grasping your wrist, the grabber has effectively immobilized their own, making it easy for you to grasp their wrist with your free hand. Use your thumb or fingers to attack nei gwan/neigwan/PC-6.
Rather than trying to grab the wrist outright, try placing your left palm on the forearm and allowing it to slip slightly down the forearm as it tightens the grip.
If the foe’s wrist grip on you is broken, use your own wrist hold to pull the foe off balance, or pull their arm out of the way while you strike with your freed arm, for example using a hammer-fist or elbow strike.
If the hold was not broken, twist your body to pull him forward, stepping across his front so that he is tripped.
Successfully exploiting a grab or lock may require disrupting the foe with some strikes. Similarly, a lock of grab may only be a prelude to a throwing technique..
For the head scratch technique, the action of turning away may be used to drive a hip or shoulder throw without waiting to see if the hold is broken.
If the hold is broken during the initial “head scratch” motion, the turn away may be replaced with a turn back to deliver a strike.
There are many other options, of course.
Your grab on his wrist may be used to pull his hand low and then up behind his back, for instance.
If moving to the outside of the grabbing arm the arm may be taken up to create a high bent arm lock to force the attack to overbalance backwards.