Krav Maga - Headlock From Behind (Shoulder Position Details)

Your chin positioning and hand pluck are the most important parts of this defense to survive the choke. However, the most important aspect of the defense to actually get out of the headlock is how you use your shoulders.

This video will show you the following important details to shoulder positioning:

1. How one shoulder weakens the headlock.
2. How the other shoulder allows you to escape the headlock.
3. Using the side headlock escape as a backup plan for this defense in case you make a mistake.
4. How to avoid getting stuck the side headlock.
5. Over-rotating the shoulder is better then under-rotating it.
6. A variation that works better on stronger, larger attackers.

Additional videos and information about our self defense, fighting, and fitness programs are available at http://www.kravmagatraining.com/

The videos on this YouTube channel are NOT a replacement for actual instruction. They do not teach techniques, but instead isolate and fix problems within the technique or its individual components. The videos are designed to help the student who has already learned the technique under the instruction of a qualified instructor.

Important Note: These videos are specific to the techniques and curriculum taught to the students at our facility. Students from other Krav Maga schools and organizations are more than welcome to watch and use these videos and we hope they find them useful! However, variations may be taught that are different from the techniques taught at other Krav Maga locations. This doesn't mean one variation is wrong or the other is right. They are just variations...plain and simple. The most important question for any technique or defense should be this: Does it work for the individual who is performing it? As long as it does, then the technique or variation has merit, regardless of where it comes from! That's the number one principle that we emphasize at our school.

Transcript:

"Hi guys. This is Randall. This is Nick. We're with KravMagaTraining.com. In this video we're going to go over the headlock escape from behind. And specifically, I want to address your, how you use your shoulders properly because, I believe, that's the most important part to actually escaping or getting out of the headlock.

So this is what I'm talking about. Nick's going to be the bad guy. He sneaks up behind me and he puts on the headlock. This is the bar arm style, forearm going across the throat. I'm going to turn my chin towards the hands. I'm going to pluck the thumbs and pin them down here. However, if he was doing the carotid artery version, chin goes down here. Let's not do the rear naked choke. Just, yeah, there you go. I'm going to pluck two hands into this position. It doesn't matter which headlock it is. It could have even been that rear naked choke. The point being is that they all funnel to this position right here.

Now, in my opinion, the chin positioning, tucking the chin down, and plucking the hands, what that's primary purpose is for is to make sure that you don't get choked out. So you don't go, get unconscious and let this bad guy do what ever the hell they want to do to you afterwards. But in my opinion, that's not good enough to get, actually get out of it. It's just to survive. So as long as I keep my chin in the right spot, I pluck, pin, he can't choke me out. It's going to bide me time to get out of this.

Now this is where the shoulder movement becomes essential because, in my opinion, especially if you are dealing with a much stronger guy, this is how you're going to get out of it is using your shoulders properly.

Now the first thing is, whatever arm is attacking you, in this case it's going to be Nick's right arm, the same side shoulder needs to raise up. I don't like to keep my shoulders even because he's structurally a lot stronger. As soon as I raise the shoulder up and his elbow goes up and his shoulder goes up, it weakens his position. It makes it a little bit easier to defend this.

Now the real important shoulder though is this one. My left shoulder. This is the one that's going to allow me to get out of this. So what I need to do is I need to make sure the shoulder is in line with his sternum. The biggest mistake beginners make is they tend to crunch down like this and when they rotate their shoulder into the body they get stuck in the side headlock like this. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I can always go to that escape..."

"Krav Maga is heavy on the "martial"and not much into the "art". We aren't always pretty, but we get the job done."

Krav Maga Worldwide Official Training Center - Self Defense * Fighting * Fitness - Pompano Beach, FL (South Florida).