Self Defense Against Striking Weapons

Sundar J.

M. Brown: I am Sundar J.

M. Brown with Joe Diamond's Mixed Martial Arts Academy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Today, we are discussing practical self-defense. In the event that my attacker uses a more advanced striking weapon such as a bat or a pool cue it dramatically increases the odds in his favor. The best situation here is that I try not to fight at all. I should run and scream as loud as possible to attract attention. If I am in a situation where I must fight, this is what I do. Let's break it down step by step to see the movement, so you can understand it. The most important thing is to take seriously that a bat is just as lethal in the right hands as a knife or a gun can be. If I get it in the head and I get knocked unconscious the fight is over, not in my favor. So, what I want to do is stay out of range. If I am close a bat or a stick or a pool cue doesn't really have much affect because already I am clenched. So, I want to keep my distance and make sure that I stay out of striking range.

Now, that I am in striking range the person is still going to try and hit me, so if the situation progresses I want to continually backup and allow them to swing. As they swing, I wait until the arc of the bat passes before I make my move. Once the arc of the bat passes at that movement I must enter in using my hands and again walking in base to stop the bat from coming back. So, I am here and as he swings at the back, the bat arc passes, that is when I enter. Now, I wrap in a clench position, joining my hands like this, controlling the elbow here to make sure that the bat doesn't get used again and gluing one ear and head into his chest. I am going to repeat the same sweep and step take down that we have performed earlier. I stuck the person into my heads. I use my rear leg to sweep here, trip and then let the opponent fall.

So, let's look at the entire series again. Once the arc of the bat passes, I make my move to enter, controlling the arms and the elbows. I wrap the person's body and stuck their hips into mine, planting my head and ear firmly on their chest and I take the angle of their body back. I use my rear leg to sweep and step and I let the opponent fall. I follow with my hands and then with my knees to this mounting position, where I can strike or take bat away and finish like this. Again, as the person swings, the arc of the bat passes. Once that has passed I must immediately make my entrance, maintaining contact with the arms. I now clench the opponent, never loosing contact and I am in base the whole time so that I don't fall. I stick the opponent's hips into mine. I put my ear and head on the attacker's chest and I use that to kick them backwards. Now, I use my leg to sweep and step. See I am in base and he is not. From here I can hold him forever, but I don't because then Graham is falling up, but if I let him go, it's damaging. So, now I follow this up by putting my hands on the ground, my knees on the ground, I punch or I can control the arms again, take the bat and finish. Let's look at it one more time in full. In our next segment we will learn how to defend ourselves against the more advanced weapon, like a knife.