Defense Against The Bearhug

[Hand Sword]

Absolutely! Any waiting in any self defense situation is costly! Remember Ed Parker's quote "He who hesitates meditates in a horizontal position!" If you get bear hugged and picked up, your definitely going to get tossed! React immediately!!!

 

[MJS]

headbutts are key here, whether you're really slamming them or pressing with your forehead to manipulate the face. it'll at the very least get their attention off the hold for a moment.

from my system, vs. a bear hug from behind, arms pinned or free...

step hard right into a horse stance, pulling the badguy off balance. step aroud behind with your left leg. make sure to press your left knee into the pit of his right knee. turn your torso counterclockwise while flailing both arms. he'll fall over. if he takes you with him, you get to put your elbow in is gut a la wwe.

Very similar to a Kenpo technique called "Crashing Wings" As our foot is going behind the opponent, we're doing a left elbow strike and right hammerfist to the groin.

Mike

 

[MJS]

My fav is to dig your hands under their ribcage and pull it up (if you can get your hands high enough if you can he wont be able to hold that hold for long) if not head butts are the one,or even knees to the groin.

On a similar idea, against a front bearhug, arms pinned, reaching up and grabbing onto some skin in the lat area. I like the idea of the ribs though!

Mike

 

[MJS]

Arms free is another story. If grabbed from behind, I am fond of testing the flexibility of his fingers. No matter what grip he chooses, all the fingers cannot be concealed.

Definately a good choice!! Striking the back of his hand with your knuckles is another way of getting a release as well as helping to get ahold of his fingers.

Mike

 

[RoninPimp]

Modern MMA Clinch 101 covers pretty much all the variables found from the bear hug. Drill and spar. Drill and spar.

 

[jgrimm01]

Something that our style teaches as well is in either case, from the front or the back, roll your shoulders forward as much as you can to create space for you to breathe...if your arms get pinned truly at your sides, a giant squeeze from the assailant is all that's needed to completely remove your ability to inhale...its tough to react when you can't breathe at all...lol...

Train hard,
Jamie

 

[Cryozombie]

Ok, difficult to explain maybe, but... Ill try...

Grab from the back, over the arms... I like to lower my center of gravity as soon as I feel the grab, to make it harder to lift me once the clamp on. Shift my hips either in or out, and slide my foot thru their legs or behind the leg on the outside, depending how the attacker grabs, and then do a rear softfall onto their leg... with a followup on the ground when we hit...

Its tough, because I have miffed this up and wound up in a nasty choke... but after doing it wrong a few times you start watching for it, and take control of a hand or arm as you are going down...

 

[Makalakumu]

Here is one that works if you react as soon as you are grabbed...

 

[BlackSheep]

Any technique not trained with full speed and power against a fully resisting partner will always be a low percentage technique for the user. On the other hand, high percentage techniques are those techniques that have been trained with full speed and power against a fully resisting partner.

Head butts, foot stomps and similar techniques can not be practiced at full speed and full power. Not if you want to keep your training partners that is.

A high percentage technique for a front bear hug is the metzger

A high percentage technique for a rear bear hug is the switch*

* A switch can be done from the standing position as well.

 

[SFC JeffJ]

Head butts, foot stomps and similar techniques can not be practiced at full speed and full power. Not if you want to keep your training partners that is.

Sure they can, that's what "redman" suits and the like are for.

Jeff

 

[BlackSheep]

Sure they can, that's what "redman" suits and the like are for.

I think the over protection of redman suits sufficiently distorts the reactions of the person being struck as to make the whole exercise very unrealistic.

 

[SFC JeffJ]

I think the over protection of redman suits sufficiently distorts the reactions of the person being struck as to make the whole exercise very unrealistic.

It does. It makes it a lot harder. Also it lets you get lots of reps of the technique.

 

[BlackSheep]

JeffJ

If I read your post right, you agree that training in a redman suit is unrealistic, right?

So we have a situation where the bear hug guy is virtually immune from head butts etc. so he will always slam the head butt guy to the ground. Therefore the head butt guy never learns to do the technique effectively.

Or the bear hug guy lets the head butt guy succeed, making it unrealistic and low percentage again.

 

[Hand Sword]

It's both. The head butt guy will head butt. The suit will prevent the wearer from really feeling it, thus, responding like someone would for real, and the head butt guy would get slammed to the floor.

 

[Hand Sword]

The suit is a two edged sword. As stated, it lets one keep practicing at full power, while protecting the partner. However, the automnomic responses of the assailant aren't present in the training, like they would be for real.

 

[SFC JeffJ]

JeffJ

If I read your post right, you agree that training in a redman suit is unrealistic, right?

So we have a situation where the bear hug guy is virtually immune from head butts etc. so he will always slam the head butt guy to the ground. Therefore the head butt guy never learns to do the technique effectively.

Or the bear hug guy lets the head butt guy succeed, making it unrealistic and low percentage again.

Is what the protective gear like the redman suit allows is safe repititions. You practice your headbutts against a bag, brickwall, or whatever to get the technique right. Then you go against a partner in a redman suit, which allows you to practice the technique using full power and speed against a living, breathing, and moving person. Will that person in the suit react the same as an uprotected person? Of course not, but it gives you practice against a live, albeit protected, person. The trick is to treat the suit as a big moving bag. You want the person wearing the suit not to bowl over, but not to ignore what technique was done on him. It's not the end all/be all of training. Just to be clear, I'm not attacking the techniques you posted. Looks like good stuff to me. Grappling is a big part of my SD training, I just like to loosen them up with a strike of some kind.

Jeff

 

[MJS]

Pretty much every art out there has a number of defenses against the bearhug, both front and rear. I thought that we could discuss some of the best defenses that you've seen for this type of attack, as well as things that may be overlooked in some defenses.

Some things to keep in mind while discussing the techniques:

The intention of the attack- what they want to acheive once they get the grab.

Arms pinned or free

If the arms are pinned, where are they grabbing us on the arm?

What tools are available to us at the time.

Just to confirm...this is the topic of the thread! I do not care to discuss pressure testing, padded suits or things of a similar nature. In the past we have had many threads become derailed. That being said, I do not wish that to happen with this thread.

So, back to the discussion of bearhugs.

Mike

 

[SFC JeffJ]

Just to confirm...this is the topic of the thread! I do not care to discuss pressure testing, padded suits or things of a similar nature. In the past we have had many threads become derailed. That being said, I do not wish that to happen with this thread.

So, back to the discussion of bearhugs.

Mike

Sorry about that. Let myself get sucked into the sweeping statement thing.

Jeff

 

[Brad Dunne]

Real world bear hugs are questionable at best. The only person I've ever seen using a bear hug on somebody has been either police or some other security personel. Either way, it was what I'd call a static hold and because of who is doing the holding, doing something against it would be asking for some serious trouble. Therefor, it becomes a mute point. Now the times I have seen a bear hug used by folks actually in a confrontation, has been from the rear and the person was picked up and dumped so fast, there was nothing that could be done - again it becomes a mute point. So IMO, all that training for this type of attack is wasted effort.

 

[still learning]

Real world bear hugs are questionable at best. The only person I've ever seen using a bear hug on somebody has been either police or some other security personel. Either way, it was what I'd call a static hold and because of who is doing the holding, doing something against it would be asking for some serious trouble. Therefor, it becomes a mute point. Now the times I have seen a bear hug used by folks actually in a confrontation, has been from the rear and the person was picked up and dumped so fast, there was nothing that could be done - again it becomes a mute point. So IMO, all that training for this type of attack is wasted effort.

I am not sure if all of us can agree that this type of attack is wasted to defend against?
It does happen and yes if the person dumps you quickly...this will be hard to protect yourself.

It is like saying why use a punch if it can be block? ...why throw a kick if it can be grab? We practice them because bearhugs do happen. In the real world how many times did you punch someone or kick a person to defend yourself? Most of us will not ever get into a real fight. But we train....to learn how to defend against most possible attacks, even it will most likely never happen in the real world.

Bearhugs from behind...you can escape if done quickly before being lifted and dump. This is where your training will kick in before thinking about it.
We practice this alot...for those who where dump...need to train more? ...do you agree? .....just my thoughts......Aloha