Lito
Admin
Joined : 11 Aug 2007
Posts : 485
Location : California
|  Subject: Rear Attacks  Thu Sep 13, 2007 5:06 pm | |
| Hi John,
From our conversations, I don't recall you having to deal with many rear attacks. I know that awareness thwarts most of them. Anyway, if/when you were attacked from the rear and/or witnessed them, what were the most common rear attacks you experienced/observed? What tactics and techniques did you or would you employ to address rear attacks? Do you specifically train for rear attacks or do you advocate/employ general concepts (such as neutralize the immediate threat then turn & face the adversary, going on the offensive from there) to address them?
There are some instructors out there who just teach awareness skills to thwart them all the way to instructors who teach specific responses to specific attacks. Just curious as to what your thoughts and experiences are.
Just to let you know where I'm coming from, first off, I've never been attacked from the rear in real-world situations only in training scenarios. I'm an advocate of the generic tactical response of neutralizing the immediate threat (whatever it may be) then turning & facing my adversary and immediately going on the attack from there.
Specifically, I think techniques like heel-stomps, backward head-butts, backward & outward elbow strikes, up-kicks to the groin are worthless. In my limited experience derived from training, I've specifically found that a backward butt smash (as I call it), a backward groin slap/grab, and the standing switch (from folkstyle/freestyle wrestling) are viable moves against most holds and grabs along with, of course, just turning and facing your adversary and attacking. Anyway, enough of my thoughts, I'm looking forward to your thoughts...
As always, thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience with us.
Hope all is good with you and your family. Take care and God bless...
Best Regards,
Lito
_________________
The essence of true love is purposeful effort.
True happiness is attained through fidelity to a worthy purpose.
Winners take chances and perceive pressure as a privilege.
Whatever you believe, it's true. |
|
john skillen
Joined : 01 Sep 2007
Posts : 113
| | Subject: Re: Rear Attacks Fri Sep 14, 2007 6:18 am | |
| Hi Lito this appears to be a big question, I shall give you a small answer to get you and others thinking about being attacked from behind.
The methods i use and advocate are taught within my pentagon system which is a self protection and self defence awareness system which enables one to understand and utilise self defence when self protection breaks down.
Firstly to defend oneself or others we have know and understand how we are lkely to be attacked.
I have seen many self defence books, articles and pictures in magazines that give out confusing and conflicting information about defending rear attacks.
the question is ; why would someone attack you from behind for what purpose.
Take the urinal in a gents toilet a friend of mine would wait for his adversary to go to the toilet follow him in then smash his adversarys face and forhead agaist the wall he was facing then finish him off.
How do you defend that!
Another thing who would want to grab you from behind!
A brother, a colleague, because if i'm going to take someone out from behind i'm not going to grab thats for sure unless i'm in a restraining situation.
I will post more on this very important subject later
off to teach now!!
John |
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Lito
Admin
Joined : 11 Aug 2007
Posts : 485
Location : California
| | Subject: Re: Rear Attacks Fri Sep 14, 2007 10:32 am | |
| Hi John,
You wrote:
| Quote: | Firstly to defend oneself or others we have know and understand how we are lkely to be attacked.
I have seen many self defence books, articles and pictures in magazines that give out confusing and conflicting information about defending rear attacks.
the question is ; why would someone attack you from behind for what purpose.
Take the urinal in a gents toilet a friend of mine would wait for his adversary to go to the toilet follow him in then smash his adversarys face and forhead agaist the wall he was facing then finish him off.
How do you defend that!
Another thing who would want to grab you from behind!
A brother, a colleague, because if i'm going to take someone out from behind i'm not going to grab thats for sure unless i'm in a restraining situation. |
Excellent post, excellent points...
Yeah, I have to tell ya, this area of focus is one of the most misguidedly addressed in the self-protection realm. In my 18 years on the job, almost all of the rear attacks I've dealt with have been ballistic-based ambushes, often times with a bludgeoning weapon/object or worse yet, an edged weapon. I'm hard-pressed to recall any serious rear attacks consisting of grabs, holds, bear hugs, or the like man-against-man. In practically every incident, the rear attack was successful because the victim was caught by surprise, completely unaware. Awareness is really the first and most viable line of self-protection against rear attacks period...
You brought up two excellent questions--1) "Why would someone attack you from behind and for what purpose?" and 2) "Another thing who would want to grab you from behind?"
An answer to question #1 is to effectively and efficiently get back at someone who has upset you earlier in some form/fashion and to do so with the highest chance of success with the least amount of resistance in the process. An ambush from behind gives an attacker a tremendous advantage by way of the element of surprise to catch an intended victim completely off-guard/unaware.
Regarding question #2, exactly. When it comes to man-to-man situations, rarely, if ever, does surprise grabs, holds, etc from behind come into play. It's almost always a bludgeoning blunt force attack or stabbing to immediately take the person out. Now, I have dealt with incidents where rear grabs and such have come into play with abductions, usually with a woman or child being the victims. However, even in these cases, kidnappers will inflict blunt force trauma of some kind to stun the victims first making it easier to snatch them up.
A little while back, there was an incident at a club which I handled where a male victim was grabbed from behind (bear hugged with both arms pinned) by one male and pummeled by another. The motive for this two-man attack against one revolved around, surprise, surprise, a woman. Anyway, after I officially interviewed the victim for reporting purposes, I asked him some questions afterwards about his reactions and what he thought he could have done better. Well, guess what? He said he should have been more aware of his surroundings and of the possibility of being attacked. Even more so, he stated he should have just left the club after the initial incident to eliminate this possibility in the first place. He said he was totally caught by surprise in the restroom and when I asked if there was anything "martial artsy" he could have done, he said no. As soon as the one guy grabbed him, the other one started blasting away. When I asked him what he would have done if he was only grabbed from behind by the one guy and it was a one-on-one situation, he said he probably would have driven him backwards and rammed him against a wall or sink then turn around when he could and attack back. Oh, the victim was not a saint himself and had been around the block a few times to say the least. Arrogance, bravado, and complacency got the best of him in this particular situation.
Anyway pal, looking forward to more of your thoughts and experiences in this area.
Take care and God bless...
Best Regards,
Lito
_________________
The essence of true love is purposeful effort.
True happiness is attained through fidelity to a worthy purpose.
Winners take chances and perceive pressure as a privilege.
Whatever you believe, it's true. |
|
