25.01.21
My ongoing course on “When Parents Aren’t Around” children’s self-protection kicked off my Monday night teaching. We are currently on a diversion route through grappling in order to understand anti-grappling and then move onto anti-abduction. Grappling is also a very common situation for many children to find themselves in due to its primal nature. Tonight we revised dropping levels, neck-ties, under-hooks, taking the back, over-hooks and double-leg takedowns. From here we explored a few incidental techniques such as sweeps, but our main focus was on the sprawl. This forms the basis for our anti-grappling training as it creates a strong foundation for defending takedowns or being lifted up. Sprawling promotes using low stances in the clinch, dropping the hips back and being proactive in defence. We drilled knee strikes and circling around to the back. I also explained the importance of gripping with one arm around the neck and the other under the armpit.