A key point in our Inside Defenses is to move the target—your face! Last night in Fight class, we focused on head movement and making punch defenses without using our hands. As I clarified in class, while this does have direct application to self-defense, we can’t take it to the extremes that boxers do. Their head movement, without doubt, is the best among combat athletes, but they also don’t have to worry about kicks or takedowns or broken beer bottles!

The techniques from the Krav Maga curriculum are:

• Slipping
• Lean Back and Trap (slightly modified last night, as we didn’t “trap”)
• Bobbing and Weaving

Why is this kind of training important?

• If your head defenses are good, you’re going to be hard to hit. Couple them with good hand defenses all you’ll be really hard to hit. If you’ve never had the opportunity to spar with someone who’s skilled at this, trust me, it’s really aggravating to be constantly missing what seems like an easy target.
• Making a hand defense, by necessity, takes your hand out of position, even if the movement is tight and small. You are potentially creating new openings any time your hands come out of position. By keeping your hands up and moving your head to dodge the punch, you’re both better protected and better able to throw an immediate counter.
• Your opponent expects to hit something. Even if you block or redirect the punch, it still feels like hitting something. If your opponent punches with this expectation and hits NOTHING, it can disrupt his/her balance and create a short “What the—” moment on which you can capitalize.

Let’s suspend judgement of Mike Tyson as a person for a moment (a brief one) and remark on the sheer awesomeness of his head movement:

Here’s the slip being used against Tyson. (How do I still remember that pass key?!):

How do you practice this stuff? Well, come to Fight class for one! If you’re looking for some solo training options, make yourself a slip/maize bag: