329 - Defending the side headlock: A student manual

36 real world ideas and considerations for training (including photos, scenarios for home training and progression ideas).

Defending the side headlock: A student manual

Copyright © 2022 by Jeth Randolph

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1) A basic defence idea to start with. You are grabbed in a headlock by an aggressor. Their arm encircles your neck, and you are bent over with your head pinned against their side with both of you facing forward.

If they do this with their left arm, for example, you will counter by reaching behind them with your right arm to try and access their eye on the left side of their head.

From there, you gouge and pull them over backwards by the head. The thinking here is that it will affect a release of the headlock and also achieve a takedown of the aggressor.

Here are 35 different ideas and considerations to experiment with in your training of this tactic:

2) Firstly, the eye reach is a viable tactic – we had a student who has used it – they didn't catch the eye but inserted a finger in the nose of the attacker and tore their nostrils badly during the takedown. Also, all students manage to do this on nearly their first attempt, so it is not a high skill tactic. But this is the learning stage, and everyone is being nice and helpful!

Problems with this idea: