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Back for the first jujitsu of the new year. What a great session. I was the only one there with Master Bellman for the first 10 minutes or so and he showed off his new bonsai project. A 50 year old one about 2 feet tall and as thick as my wrist. Some really interesting discussion of the topic.
But the main event was so much better even. He lead off showing a bunch of new techniques that he had been developing and tinkering with. The first was a counter to an attempted bear hug from behind. As the attacker's hands come into view the defender steps back on their left foot and drops their center and then drives their shoulder into the attacker. Note the shoulder, specifically NOT the elbow. As the defender's shoulder drops into the attacker, they then drive off their right leg at the same time. The turn to the side by the defender makes it impossible for the attacker to get their arms around them. The shoulder drop and leg drive delivers a powerful full body impact and strike that knocks the attacker back with arms flying apart and some loss of wind from a solar plexus displacement. An astoundingly simple technique that is one of the reasons this dojo has the profound hold on me it does.
We then went to a counter for a front choke that involved a powerful rising arm strike. The defender puts his right wrist in neutral as if for a ridge hand strike and then steps forward with the right foot and drives the right arm across the body and up at the attacker's right tricep just above the elbow on the ulnar nerve. A very effective technique that just really hurts and makes holding on impossible. Then the defender circles their right arm around and outward with an assist from the left hand and deflects the attacker across his own body as the defender steps to the left and past the attacker. A good downward sweep can really throw the attacker off and did in a few instances flatten them.
Master Bellman had me grab him in a double lapel hold and then reached over the top of my left arm with his right arm and grabbed my right lapel. He then drove his right elbow downward into my left elbow and it caved me in like the Sands in a controlled demolition collapse. I was entirely off balance forward and had no ability to exert force in resistance. But then he stepped forward with his right foot and drove and extended his right arm up and across my sternomastoid and trapezius. My head and entire upper body were then kuzushied to the rear and I was left even weaker. Not to mention set up for a couple of nasty head and neck strikes as well as a guillotine choke.
He then used me to demonstrate an escape from a double lapel grab by using the knuckles on the sternum. In this once the attacker grabs, the defender extends his middle set of knuckles and rubs them laterally across the sternum. Oh damn does it hurt. All you want to do is back away from it. Just a slight extension of the arm and the attacker retreats from the pain.
We finished off with some resisting arrest problems to overcome. John, the retired LAPD guy was called to the fore in terms of setting the scenario and the issues and I, once again, was the crash dummy. This involved the arrestee resisting attempts to bring them under arrest in either handcuffs or a non-forceful hold on the arm and wrist for control. So Master Bellman told me to resist. Which I knew was going get me hurt at least a little. But being the obedient kind of guy I am, I resisted. And I got zapped. The first softening up technique was an open hand palm strike with the left hand to the space on the left side of my head between the ear, eye, and along the mandible. Once again, lightning flashed across my brain. It left me weak and dizzy and my right arm was quickly and easily brought up behind my back in a hammer lock. Nothing I could do would have mustered enough effective resistance to prevent it. Then he took a lower key approach and reached up with his left hand and pulled my head down and in a circle. Talk about hitting the easy button. Once again, I lost all ability to resist and my arm was hammerlocked in short order.
Great work today, but I have had the crap knocked out of me and am still a little dizzy and woozy.
Originally Posted by Mark E. Hurling
