Grab
Techniques
Shaolin Kempo, like many Hawaiian Kempo systems tends to
emphasize standing grappling. First, in any street or
especially a multiple attacker scenario, your preferred
first defense - the ability to run away like your pants
were on fire - is compromised when you have someone in your
guard. Second, groundwork is a lot of effort, and given the
influx of hobbyists, mixed gender classes and children, I
think many instructors found it too awkward and unpopular
to teach these things, and produced a crop of next
generation instructors without these skills.
The techniques can typically be broken up into a four part
sequence: The distraction, the release, the damage and the
finish. The distraction is a simple strike to 'give the
grabber something else to think about other than grabbing
you.' The release is the actual removal of the grab. The
damage is the collateral striking done once free, and the
finish could be a reversal, a takedown, or a powerful
finish strike set up by the damage. Defenses were taught
against common attacks (and initially some that were maybe
not common, but easy to get out of as give the students a
principle and a taste of success) such as the lapel grab, the double wrist grab, the front choke, rear choke and the side
headlock. With the advent of the UFC, and like events,
the weakness inherent in a complete lack of groundwork
became evident, so many schools are adding in at least
a bit of takedown defense such as the sprawl, or even
adding a groundwork curriculum. Although prolonged
'position' battles are not what you want for self
defense, given the dangers of additional third parties
in non-sport contexts, it's imperative to have
knowledge in this area as a good groundfighter can
take a 'standup only' practitioner right out of their
element and render them essentially helpless in short
order.
