I am attacked with a rear bear hug and my arms are free (not trapped by the hug). The good news is I have hands free to strike with. The bad news is that those arms would have made excellent insulation against having my ribs cracked by the bear hug.
I kick both feet out sideways and drop my weight straight down into a horse stance while my elbows crash on their grip. This allows my mass as a whole to drop straight down to wedge against the hold. If the hold was already fully applied the elbows may not break you free but if the hold was not fully set it will prevent the hold from being finalized. Next (whether I succeed or not with the clear motion) I adjust my stance and position to my right and squat down their right leg locking their knee with my tail bone. I reach under and through my legs and grab their right foot. Using their leg as the lever, my tailbone as the fulcrum, I lift up and they go down. At this point I have the option to explosively drop my weight on the knee and break the knee. Now I pivot clockwise and swing my right leg over their right leg (which I am still holding) and then stomp them in the groin. Game over.
Although the initial elbows crashing down is a crane versus snake action, the reliable control of your opponent occurs from the leg lock take down that follows thus the technique is classified as a snake controlling snake method. Of course, if the elbows were applied at an early stage of the grab and thwarted the hold from being achieved (which is great but we are not counting on that...) then we could classify this as crane defeating snake technique.
Lesson One: Marriage of Gravity. The dropping of the weight has three benefits. First, the process of dropping down allows the body mass to wedge against the strength of their grip. Especially if the hold has not been fully completed this makes securing their grip much more difficult. Second, the elbows driving down into your opponent's forearms gain power from the dropping of the body weight. Third, this lowers our center of gravity thus stabilizing the base for the leg lock soon to follow.
Lesson Two: Tracking. To accurately find our opponent's knee to lock we use their left leg as a "slip in slide" to guide our bottom to their knee. A fairly unique example the tracking principle of following a limb to arrive at our intended target.
Lesson Three: Fulcrum and Lever. By locking the knee we use it as a point of pain to motivate the movement of our opponent. But we also change the fulcrum of their (available) movement now to the hip joint. By pulling on the back of the heal of their left leg we are at the very end of the lever relative to the fulcrum (hip) and thus have a position of maximum leverage to simultaneously lock the knee and encourage the take down through the mobility of the hip joint.
Additional Tips:
1. The initial elbows crashing down are not relying on the shocking pain in their forearms to free. Rather it benefits from a combination of the frictional pull of the elbow motions contacting their arms and how this interacts with your properly postured body dropping straight down to create a wedging effect against the hold. Poor posture will significantly reduce the effectiveness of this action.
2. Depending upon your hip flexibility, scooping up their left foot from the squatted position may be difficult. A slight shifting (lunging) towards your right inner thigh will help give you the mobility you need.
3. When spinning around to stomp the groin make sure to have your left leg slide over to the right and establish contact with their left (which you are currently holding) before spinning to stomp. This will ensure you are in perfect position for the groin stomp and adds an additional check to the leg you are holding.
Methods of Drill:
1. Explore using the fundamental concept of this leg lock take down from variations of the rear bear hug -- arms free. This can be used when the arms are pinned obviously but see what other close range grabs from behind you apply this leg lock from.
2. The feel of sliding down the leg to find the knee and then pushing the hips back to establish the lock requires drill on a variety of partners of different sizes on body types to ensure you are able to tailor the technique correctly to the situation. Thus this should be drilled in a technique line with one person staying at the front of line while being attacked again and again by a variety of partners.
3. This drill looks even weirder then it sounds.... so watch that nobody is around who is going to photograph this and tag you on facebook! To practice the feel of breaking the knee (an option depending upon the degree of threat) use a rattan staff and practice squatting on it. One end will be held by your hands while the other end is braced to the floor. As you drop your weight the staff will flex. Don't use a hardwood staff for this... and remember that rattan will only flex so much before it breaks!
4. Lay a heavy bag or kicking shield on the mat and practice the turn then stomp to the groin. Make sure bend the support leg while stomping to transfer maximum effect. Also pin point the force to the heal of the right foot.
5. Compare and contrast the leg lock of this technique with "Slicing the Peach" and then explore using the common concepts of these two techniques from a variety of scenarios is both stand up fighting and when you are already on the ground (and your opponent is still standing or perhaps on the ground with you.)
What's in a name? The attack is a bear hug -- and we drop the guy down. Also, we throw him down by dropping our own body weight. And once we throw him down, if we want to break his leg then all we have to do is drop some more (while bracing the leg with our hold).
I kick both feet out sideways and drop my weight straight down into a horse stance while my elbows crash on their grip. This allows my mass as a whole to drop straight down to wedge against the hold. If the hold was already fully applied the elbows may not break you free but if the hold was not fully set it will prevent the hold from being finalized. Next (whether I succeed or not with the clear motion) I adjust my stance and position to my right and squat down their right leg locking their knee with my tail bone. I reach under and through my legs and grab their right foot. Using their leg as the lever, my tailbone as the fulcrum, I lift up and they go down. At this point I have the option to explosively drop my weight on the knee and break the knee. Now I pivot clockwise and swing my right leg over their right leg (which I am still holding) and then stomp them in the groin. Game over.
Although the initial elbows crashing down is a crane versus snake action, the reliable control of your opponent occurs from the leg lock take down that follows thus the technique is classified as a snake controlling snake method. Of course, if the elbows were applied at an early stage of the grab and thwarted the hold from being achieved (which is great but we are not counting on that...) then we could classify this as crane defeating snake technique.
Lesson One: Marriage of Gravity. The dropping of the weight has three benefits. First, the process of dropping down allows the body mass to wedge against the strength of their grip. Especially if the hold has not been fully completed this makes securing their grip much more difficult. Second, the elbows driving down into your opponent's forearms gain power from the dropping of the body weight. Third, this lowers our center of gravity thus stabilizing the base for the leg lock soon to follow.
Lesson Two: Tracking. To accurately find our opponent's knee to lock we use their left leg as a "slip in slide" to guide our bottom to their knee. A fairly unique example the tracking principle of following a limb to arrive at our intended target.
Lesson Three: Fulcrum and Lever. By locking the knee we use it as a point of pain to motivate the movement of our opponent. But we also change the fulcrum of their (available) movement now to the hip joint. By pulling on the back of the heal of their left leg we are at the very end of the lever relative to the fulcrum (hip) and thus have a position of maximum leverage to simultaneously lock the knee and encourage the take down through the mobility of the hip joint.
Additional Tips:
1. The initial elbows crashing down are not relying on the shocking pain in their forearms to free. Rather it benefits from a combination of the frictional pull of the elbow motions contacting their arms and how this interacts with your properly postured body dropping straight down to create a wedging effect against the hold. Poor posture will significantly reduce the effectiveness of this action.
2. Depending upon your hip flexibility, scooping up their left foot from the squatted position may be difficult. A slight shifting (lunging) towards your right inner thigh will help give you the mobility you need.
3. When spinning around to stomp the groin make sure to have your left leg slide over to the right and establish contact with their left (which you are currently holding) before spinning to stomp. This will ensure you are in perfect position for the groin stomp and adds an additional check to the leg you are holding.
Methods of Drill:
1. Explore using the fundamental concept of this leg lock take down from variations of the rear bear hug -- arms free. This can be used when the arms are pinned obviously but see what other close range grabs from behind you apply this leg lock from.
2. The feel of sliding down the leg to find the knee and then pushing the hips back to establish the lock requires drill on a variety of partners of different sizes on body types to ensure you are able to tailor the technique correctly to the situation. Thus this should be drilled in a technique line with one person staying at the front of line while being attacked again and again by a variety of partners.
3. This drill looks even weirder then it sounds.... so watch that nobody is around who is going to photograph this and tag you on facebook! To practice the feel of breaking the knee (an option depending upon the degree of threat) use a rattan staff and practice squatting on it. One end will be held by your hands while the other end is braced to the floor. As you drop your weight the staff will flex. Don't use a hardwood staff for this... and remember that rattan will only flex so much before it breaks!
4. Lay a heavy bag or kicking shield on the mat and practice the turn then stomp to the groin. Make sure bend the support leg while stomping to transfer maximum effect. Also pin point the force to the heal of the right foot.
5. Compare and contrast the leg lock of this technique with "Slicing the Peach" and then explore using the common concepts of these two techniques from a variety of scenarios is both stand up fighting and when you are already on the ground (and your opponent is still standing or perhaps on the ground with you.)
What's in a name? The attack is a bear hug -- and we drop the guy down. Also, we throw him down by dropping our own body weight. And once we throw him down, if we want to break his leg then all we have to do is drop some more (while bracing the leg with our hold).
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