When practicing self-defense techniques in Jiu-jitsu, we often have to play the role of attacker so that our partner can play the role of defender (described in more detail in my post, The Importance of Role-playing in Martial Arts Training). In our dojo, our students are quite friendly with each other, and as a result, they sometimes have a tendency to take it easier on each other when playing the attacker role, particularly the newer students. This phenomenon was happening on the mats the other day.

A Side Headlock Gone Sideways

A number of my students were working on defenses against various types of headlocks. I noticed that many of them were struggling to get a feel for the technique. Something looked odd about the way a couple of them were doing it so I stepped in and had one of the students in question do the attack on me, in this particular case, it was a side headlock, so I could demonstrate the defense again for them. As I suspected, the student playing the attacker role was only taking on the position of the side headlock, but not really applying it with any intent.

“Grab me like you mean it,” I told him, encouraging him to grab harder and harder until it felt more like a real attack. I then demonstrated the technique. I then asked the students, “Are you ALL taking it easy on your partners with the headlock attack?” A few students nodded. I explained that the technique depends on the realism of the attack, meaning that if the attacker doesn’t grab with intent, you don’t get the physical cues and signals that help make the defensive tactics more effective. I then grabbed one of my students with intent and told him to do the technique. He performed it well. I asked him how it felt and he reported that it was much easier this time.

Finding the Right Balance

Of course there is always a balance with these things. We are NOT “real” attackers and don’t want to harm our partners, so the intent is only physical in nature, and even then only to a degree in which safety is maintained. With less experienced students who are not as comfortable yet with physical contact, you might walk them through the experience verbally so you don’t surprise them in a way that makes them uncomfortable. Likewise, if you’re working with someone with more experience, they may direct you to grab them harder or even in slightly different ways to challenge their technique more. Whatever the experience level of the student though, you still have to grab with enough intent that the application of the technique makes sense.

Do you have any experiences in which the level of force applied (or lack of it) affected your technique? Please feel free to share them in the comments. 🙂

Tags: role of the uke