How badly a front over-the-arms bear hug can hurt you?
An attacker who grabs you in a front over-the-arms bear hug can either bend you backward and throw you down or lift you up and throw you down by sweeping your legs aside with his foot or by throwing you back overhead (judo uranage, wrestling suplex). To prevent any of these calamities, you need to simultaneously lower your hips and move them back away from the attacker’s hips.
Why move your hips away if for most of the grappling techniques you are urged to get your hips close to the opponent to throw him? Even in this attack, the attacker has to get his hips close to yours to slam you, so why not get your hips close and then do unto him as he would like to have done to you.
First, in a fast attack, when in an instant his arms lock your arms and waist in a vice grip, you will not have enough time to get your hips low enough to upend him before you are bent backward.
Second, your ability to lower your hips will be limited by his vice grip around your arms and trunk. But because he does not hold you around your hips (it is difficult to get such a hold), your hips have some freedom of movement to the back. Combining a slight lowering of your hips with simultaneously pressing with your hands on his hips while moving your hips back puts your center of mass away from him and makes any throw very difficult.
Sometimes the above actions are enough to break free from the attacker’s hold. If not, then after frustrating the attacker’s first assault, you will be in a position to either kick his shins and thighs until he collapses or do any of the techniques shown on the video Basic Instincts of Self-Defense.
Recommended reading:
Self-Defense Tip #12 — Front Under-the-Arms Bear Hug
Self-Defense Tip #24 — Realistic Defenses vs. Phony Defenses: Grappling Attacks
To learn more techniques, see Basic Instincts of Self-Defense.
Self-defense tip from Thomas Kurz, co-author of Basic Instincts of Self-Defense and author of Science of Sports Training, Stretching Scientifically, and Flexibility Express.
Self-Defense Moves
To learn how your natural reactions can instantly defeat any unarmed attack, see the video Basic Instincts of Self-Defense.
Defend Against Weapons
To learn how the typical street weapons (club, knife, razor) are used by an experienced streetfighter and how to practice with them, see the video Self-Defense: Tools of Attack — Club, Hatchet, Blackjack, Knife, Straight Razor.
Mental Toughness
To learn mental techniques that let you calmly face any threat and act rationally in the heat of a fight, click here.
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