The Basic Exercise -- If You Like This One, You'll Love the Next Articles
In past issues of MAM, we already discussed standing around with your arms crossed. Uncrossing locked arms so that you could defend yourself was the primary consideration. In those articles, we talked a little about the way you stand in public and the relationship of your stance to your ability to defend yourself.
In this article, I'd like to introduce the subject of standing around with your hand(s) in your pocket(s).
We could acknowledge that standing with hands in your front pockets or coat pockets is not the safest position from a self-defense standpoint. And then as martial practitioners we'd choose never to get caught in that position.
Let's face it; there are times when standing with one's hands in his or her pockets makes sense:
* We need to get something out of our pocket(s). As the hand goes in, the attacker lunges toward you.
* We are concealing something from others' sight -- maybe even a weapon.
* "Your" fingernails are dirty. You are hiding them in your pockets out of shame, embarrassment, and possible ridicule. :-)
Seriously.
Create an exercise with a partner where one of you defends with your hands in your pockets.
Your partner can attack using feet, hands, elbows, knees, whatever. Your limitation is that you must fight the entire time with your hands firmly planted in your pockets.
That is your limitation. You may defend yourself anyway possible -- AS LONG AS YOUR HANDS STAY IN YOUR POCKETS! (At all times!)
Get comfortable practicing with your hands in your pockets. Make your feet, knees, head, and even your shoulders your weapons of choice. Use anything you can, except those hands.
Would you like a variation on the theme by ... Pascal?
For example, your opponent attacks with a kick.
You respond with a stop kick as your counter. In other words, as your opponent's kick lifts, you stop it with a kick to the shins.
So, as a response, your opponent punches at your face (even though I think in real life he'd be bent over in pain from the shin or knee kick).
You step forward and slightly to the side, with just the right timing (whatever that is), and as the punch goes whizzing by your face, you find that you are close enough to shove.
Imagine doing that exercise over and over again, so you feel comfortable having your hands in your pocket. Now, imagine the same situation, but your hands are free. As you step in for a shove or two, your hands continue their barrage of punches.
Readers who enjoyed the above article also liked the following article:
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