521 - "The Fortune Teller": Escapes from common grabs
14 step instructional including photos and extra tactics for women and men's training. Includes basic escapes, joint attacks, and takedowns.
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Studying grab escapes is useful not just in the specific instance of solving this particular problem but also in the way that it allows a road into understanding attacking various areas of the hands, wrists and arms of an aggressor that can present themselves as brief opportunities within chaotic struggles.
Over the next fourteen sections (and accompanying photos) I’m going look at the various tactics that can be applied to the problem of being grabbed by the wrist (and then we’ll look at both wrists) as well as the simple “Fortune Teller” idea that acts as a set up for both sets of ideas - it’s just a name I came up with to help trainees remember this tactic and it’s seems to help with retention during a chain of movements.
This isn’t an exhaustive study but rather a clear walk through of an entry level and an intermediate set of solutions to get you started (if need be) and for you to try at home.
In the case of the first example we’ll look at, your right wrist has been grabbed by the left hand of the aggressor (a same side grab) while your hand(s) were in a walking / standing low position. The aggressor is now free to pull / manipulate or restrain the hand for whatever their follow up agenda will be.
I’ve trained several women that this has happened to in various situations including:
Several who were grabbed in public by strange men including being seized and dragged towards an open van in a busy street.
As the prelude to sexual assaults.
Another again was an extremely aggressive male stranger late at night in a venue and the girl in question said she was unable to break free to get away from him . People just watched until security arrived to help her.
This stuff happens. Getting a release is usually step one (or pretty close to it) of your course of action to enable escape.
This first idea is the basic release that I share when coaching workshops before moving on to other options of which there are many. It’s easy to remember, is quick and simple to learn and just needs aggression added to make it work for most first timers to get a reasonable result with.
Here’s idea number one that the rest of the tactics can flow from: