This was actually a question that was asked over on reddit/r/bjj, but I thought the answers might be interesting for folks here as well.
The original question was:
I thought this was worthy of investigation. I have some workable techniques for defending against a standing hair grab, but I hadn't done any serious work on hair grabs on the ground for a while. Being inside someone's guard negates most of the standard standing techniques. I promised to do some experimentation and report back.
As promised, I did the first round of testing yesterday with a purple belt friend of mine who likes working on street scenarios. We started out with the original question (freeing yourself from the hair grab inside someone's closed guard) and then rolling in various positions with hair grabs allowed. Since this is obviously a street context, we added in strikes and (simulated) eye gouges , just for fun.
My friend has relatively short hair. I could grab it, but couldn't get a super secure grip. I'm about a month overdue for a haircut, so he was able to get really solid (and painful) grips on me.
Results:
With regards to suggestions made by others in the original Reddit thread:
Framing on the face is just a battle of wills to see who can take more pain. Not very effective, unless your hair is short enough that your opponent can't get a solid grip
Punching can work if your opponent doesn't know good punch defense from guard. If he does, then his regular punch defense is just that much more effective with the extra control on your head. There's no fun in figuring out how to beat an incompetent opponent, so let's pass that one by.
Peeling fingers doesn't really work because they aren't in an exposed position.
Stuff that did work:
Tripoding up and getting a good grind with my head into his face. It changes his priorities from holding me down with my hair. If he still held on, then a can opener* or an up-down choke forced him to relinquish my hair in order to defend.
When my partner tried to just statically hold me down by my hair, I was actually able to get a wristlock if he was holding at the top of my head rather than on the side. I'm not going to advocate this though because it takes a fair amount of sensitivity and understanding of wristlock mechanics to make it work. My purple belt friend was not able to make it work. Also (as I'll discuss in a minute), the static hold is not the best way to use the hair grab.
As we progressed, my friend figured out that the most effective use of the hair grab is to be active with it - pushing and pulling to create or close distance, adjust angles, or set up strikes, switching grips, twisting the head, etc. This forced me to be really on my game with my positional pressure.
Hair control from open guard is way more annoying that hair control from closed guard. You can really break someone's posture if you have your feet on their hips and a good fistful of their hair. Hair control + far sleeve control is probably ideal, but I need to do more investigation.
The scalp on the side of the head and on the back of the skull is more sensitive than on the top of the head, making hair control there more effective if the opponent's hair is long enough.
From bottom of side control a double handed grip on the hair(one hand on each side) allows you to press his head away and make space for recovering guard. (If you are on top and someone does this to you, be ready to transition to knee mount.)
If you have mount, hair control allows you to repeatedly bash their head on the ground. Doesn't work so well from side control.
Hair control can be used to make guard passing more difficult. As noted above, the key is to keep it active. If it's being used against you, pressure passing is your friend. Posturing up is difficult at this point. (On the other hand, if you maintain posture from the start it will be difficult for your opponent to get hair control without getting punched in the face.)
Hope this helps. If anyone else does this experiment I'd be interested to see what they discover.
* (Contrary to popular belief, there is actual technique to using the can opener and it can be used against larger opponents.** )
** (Within reason, I don't know that I would try a can opener on someone who was 60 pounds heavier unless they were really clueless.)
The original question was:
I thought this was worthy of investigation. I have some workable techniques for defending against a standing hair grab, but I hadn't done any serious work on hair grabs on the ground for a while. Being inside someone's guard negates most of the standard standing techniques. I promised to do some experimentation and report back.
As promised, I did the first round of testing yesterday with a purple belt friend of mine who likes working on street scenarios. We started out with the original question (freeing yourself from the hair grab inside someone's closed guard) and then rolling in various positions with hair grabs allowed. Since this is obviously a street context, we added in strikes and (simulated) eye gouges , just for fun.
My friend has relatively short hair. I could grab it, but couldn't get a super secure grip. I'm about a month overdue for a haircut, so he was able to get really solid (and painful) grips on me.
Results:
With regards to suggestions made by others in the original Reddit thread:
Framing on the face is just a battle of wills to see who can take more pain. Not very effective, unless your hair is short enough that your opponent can't get a solid grip
Punching can work if your opponent doesn't know good punch defense from guard. If he does, then his regular punch defense is just that much more effective with the extra control on your head. There's no fun in figuring out how to beat an incompetent opponent, so let's pass that one by.
Peeling fingers doesn't really work because they aren't in an exposed position.
Stuff that did work:
Tripoding up and getting a good grind with my head into his face. It changes his priorities from holding me down with my hair. If he still held on, then a can opener* or an up-down choke forced him to relinquish my hair in order to defend.
When my partner tried to just statically hold me down by my hair, I was actually able to get a wristlock if he was holding at the top of my head rather than on the side. I'm not going to advocate this though because it takes a fair amount of sensitivity and understanding of wristlock mechanics to make it work. My purple belt friend was not able to make it work. Also (as I'll discuss in a minute), the static hold is not the best way to use the hair grab.
As we progressed, my friend figured out that the most effective use of the hair grab is to be active with it - pushing and pulling to create or close distance, adjust angles, or set up strikes, switching grips, twisting the head, etc. This forced me to be really on my game with my positional pressure.
Hair control from open guard is way more annoying that hair control from closed guard. You can really break someone's posture if you have your feet on their hips and a good fistful of their hair. Hair control + far sleeve control is probably ideal, but I need to do more investigation.
The scalp on the side of the head and on the back of the skull is more sensitive than on the top of the head, making hair control there more effective if the opponent's hair is long enough.
From bottom of side control a double handed grip on the hair(one hand on each side) allows you to press his head away and make space for recovering guard. (If you are on top and someone does this to you, be ready to transition to knee mount.)
If you have mount, hair control allows you to repeatedly bash their head on the ground. Doesn't work so well from side control.
Hair control can be used to make guard passing more difficult. As noted above, the key is to keep it active. If it's being used against you, pressure passing is your friend. Posturing up is difficult at this point. (On the other hand, if you maintain posture from the start it will be difficult for your opponent to get hair control without getting punched in the face.)
Hope this helps. If anyone else does this experiment I'd be interested to see what they discover.
* (Contrary to popular belief, there is actual technique to using the can opener and it can be used against larger opponents.** )
** (Within reason, I don't know that I would try a can opener on someone who was 60 pounds heavier unless they were really clueless.)
