A Sneaky Technique for Unbalancing an Attacker

internal arts training tai chi self-defense taiji self-defense May 04, 2009

On Saturday, we practiced various techniques for unbalancing an attacker. Some were very subtle and will be covered in future posts and videos.

Here's the concept -- you take your opponent in the direction he wants to go. You can help the process along by making slight adjustments and adapting to the way he moves so that you can take advantage of they way he is moving.

Sometimes it only takes a push on his calf with your shin to make his rear shoulder turn every so slightly -- but enough for you to grab and help the shoulder continue moving in that direction, causing your attacker to lose balance even more and hit the ground.

In the photos here, Leander Mohs is attacking Chris Miller. You see him step in with a punch. Chris deflects the punch and puts his right foot behind Leander's left foot and slides it back toward him. This unexpected move causes Leander to lose balance and he turns, trying not to fall on his back. The result puts him in a vulnerable position and Chris could follow with a choke-hold, a neck break, or striking techniques.

This technique can be found in all three of the internal arts. I like it for bagua especially, because the goal of a bagua fighter is to suddenly appear behind an opponent.

I also like this technique because Chris is helping Leander's foot to continue traveling in the direction it is going -- toward Chris.

If he pulled enough, Leander could easily do the splits and pull a muscle as he fell. Leander was able to balance himself but couldn't avoid ending in a vulnerable position.

The practice of push hands is one of the best ways to learn how to take advantage of an opponent's "energy" and put him in a vulnerable situation, but this is also a concept that can be used in many different situations, from dealing with a grappler to a puncher and kicker.

There will be a lot of video on these techniques on the online school soon. From this type of "one-step" practice, you internalize these techniques through push hands and sparring practice. sparring practice. That's when you really learn how to use your opponent's energy against them.

--by Ken Gullette

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A Sneaky Technique for Unbalancing an Attacker

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