Headlock on the Ground: Not Just for Untrained Meatheads

When we introduce Defense against Headlock from the Side in Level 1, we explain that there is not an immediate life-threatening danger as there is with chokes. The headlock is not a choke; rather, the attacker’s goal may be to:

1. Not actual mean you any physical harm but grab you like a childish idiot. (Boy will he be surprised when you rocket a forearm into his groin!)
2. Hold your head in place so as to punch it.
3. Hold your head in place so his buddy can punch it.
4. Yank you down to the ground by your head.

Assuming you either don’t know the Level 5 Defense against Headlock from the Side: Being Spun Inward or weren’t able to pull it off, it’s Attacker Goal #4 that leads to our Level 3 headlock on the ground defenses. These defenses address the basic position and the minor variations of it.

For the average nogoodnik not trained in grappling, a headlock on the ground is not typically a prized position. It’s relatively difficult to maintain on a squirmy victim, and it doesn’t satisfy the bloodlust quite like sitting on someone’s chest and pounding his head into the pavement. (Uh, well, so I’ve heard.) Considering all of the very bad positions to be in on the ground, this is not the worst. If the attacker clumsily moves to another position to satisfy said bloodlust, there’s a great opportunity to escape. If the attacker releases his clasped hands to punch, there’s a great opportunity to escape. If the attacker does not appreciate your squirming and clamps down on your head, he will most likely overcommit his weight one way or another, and for this Krav Maga has very strong escapes that work alone and in combination.

Now, I do not mean to imply that this position is not a dangerous one if held by an untrained person. All the confounding variables of self-defense still apply, including rolling over who-knows-what on the ground, his buddies stomping on you, someone pulling an edged weapon, 27 ninjas with Uzis materializing in the dark alley…

But I’m meandering, as I’m wont to do. The real subject of this article—other than my usual tack of making you feel invincible with Krav Maga and then bringing you back to reality (you’re welcome)—is to expose you to just a sampling of what can be done by someone who does know what to do with this position. Just do a YouTube search for “scarf hold” or “kesa gatame” to be overwhelmed. Here are some highlights:

The purpose here is not to promote grappling arts nor to make you feel like groundfighting is an impossible battle against someone who specializes in that domain. It is impossible to train individual defenses for every eventuality. One of the most important tenets of Krav Maga is to have one solution to as many scenarios as possible. Keeping that in mind, how do you defend against every one of the submissions in the videos above? Learn unique counters? No! One solution: Headlock from the Side Defense (Basic Positioning). In other words, keep your limbs tucked in the proper defensive posture and you remove them as options for your opponent.

[On a related sidenote, when Danelle and I went through Phase A, some wisenheimer asked the instructor, Jonathan Dugas, how to counter some exotic submission from the mount. “Show me,” Jon said. The submission was set up, and Jon calmly reached up and put his thumb in smart guy’s eye. Point taken. Demonstration over. We don’t have to play by grappling rules.]

As I’ve written many times before, it is very valuable to both know the concepts of common scenarios (in this case, arms exposed = bad) and to augment your skills by having at least a cursory knowledge of other fighting styles—especially the popular ones!

(Plug: I will be exploring the idea of concepts vs. techniques in a forthcoming article. Stay tuned!)

Photo credit: Cubmundo, on Flickr