Last night at karate class, I helped a 15 year old girl really understand how to cause pain with a wrist lock. We were practicing the “locking hawk” technique, and she just wasn’t getting it. Locking Hawk goes something like this:
* Assailant is swinging a club (beer bottle, ash tray, something small and hard) in from the side, aiming for the side of your head.
* Step in with the right foot and block their wrist with your left hand. Right hand goes under their arm to trap their upper arm inside your elbow.
* Adjust your block (left hand) to grab their wrist, and sweep with the right foot to put them down on their back. It helps to lean forward with your right shoulder.
* Step over them with your right foot and pull the wrist across so that their arm is locked and painful.
* Take the club and hit them with it.
I’m okay with the fact that a 15 year old girl isn’t able to knock me down during practice. We sort of go with the flow about this sort of thing. Everyone knows that in the real world, in order to knock down someone much bigger than you, you have to do things that will leave a mark…which are not encouraged in the classroom setting (the classics are the snap-kick to the groin, or a throat strike).
Still, she was just missing the point with the wrist lock. Finally I stopped her at that point in the technique and said “look, that doesn’t work at all. Do this instead.” It took a bit to communicate the fundamental idea of a wrist lock (the arm has to be twisted so the palm faces backwards, with the elbow straight, and then pressure is applied at the knuckles to fold and flex the wrist. It requires no strength, and it hurts like stink. In a couple of minutes, she was able to do it “right,” which meant that I was in a world of hurt. It was really gratifying to see the technique turn from some sort of dance move into something that she might be able to use to actually defend herself.
I feel like I did my good deed for the day, though my wrist is still kind of sore.
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