Leg locks in a self-defense context

In the past Leg locks tended to be looked down upon in the BJJ community. Historically, there are three reasons this was so.

1. They were seen as cheap because they generally only were used when nothing else better could be done. When someone could not pass guard, or stay on top, or finish from the top, leg locks were the answer. It was a mark of someone who was not that good at jujitsu.
2. They cause a lot of needless injury in training. Leg locks are mostly applied against the knees and ankles, which are much weaker in construction than other body parts, and there is a much narrower window of the start of the submission to the point of injury. With a kimura for example, unless there is some underlying physical condition, most people can take a lot of movement and articulation before things tear and break. With the knee especially, only a very tiny range of movement can blow out the ACL and leave someone needing surgery and long recovery.
3. Until recently, they were more of an “add on” to jujitsu, and therefore there was a lack of congruence with those attacks versus the typical BJJ offense. In other words, with most proven attacks like a straight armbar or a rear naked choke, it came out of positional dominance. With leg locks, they more generally were sudden moves that either worked spectacularly, or failed miserable because they were not positional based. That has changed over the last few years, mostly through the work of the “Danaher Death Squad” and the Renzo Gracie gyms, but it was true for most of the past.

These issues with leg locks do matter for self-defense as well. Obviously the injury part is important. None of us can afford to be on crutches for six months because we needed ligament reconstruction after a session of drilling leg attacks. And that idea of them not being integrated into the conceptual matrix of “position before submission” is key because while if it fails in competition or training, it is just an ego crush, but for self-defense it could be your life.

But along with those concerns, there are two other problems that need to be taken into account with leg locks when we are dealing with the self-preservation idea.

The most pressing is that to do almost any reliable leg lock you need to use both your arms to control and attack the legs. But when you do so, that leaves your opponent’s arms to be completely free to do whatever he wants to include defending and countering your leg attack, as well as striking, or the crucial part that he can deploy and use a weapon.  We don’t see leg locks in MMA to the extent that we do in grappling only matches because just adding the striking component makes it more complex and difficult. Just imagine how much worse it could be if the person getting locked could pull a gun, knife, etc.

The other problem is sort of a corollary to the above paragraph. While leg locks can be extremely painful and can sap the will to fight from someone (as someone who has been injured by leg locks, I can tell you there was not much I wanted to do afterwards but hold my knee and try not to scream), you are relying on a lot of pain to end the fight rather than damage. Yes, having your knee blown out can end the fight, but since you are already on the ground, and it does not affect the arms, if the other person can overcome the pain they are still capable of fighting at a high level. That is not so true with arm attacks since turning a two armed fighter into a single arm one can be a good way to diminish their capacity to continue, and it is obviously not true at all with chokes and unconsciousness. And some leg attacks don’t even cause injury but are pure pain compliance, such as calf crushers.

One place where leg locks can work even in a streetfight/self-preservation scenario is when we stop looking at it as a technique to finish, but rather as we look at all other submissions in BJJ – as a positional control first, and only after that as a finish in and of itself. For example, my friend Craig Douglas of Shivworks has shown video from his flagship ECQC coursework where students have used the set up of a leg lock to control the other person and instead of finishing with the leg attack, the student instead deployed a weapon. Think of the ashi-garami control that John Danaher shows as integral to his system of leg attacks. This is where the idea of leg attacks have been mated with the BJJ principle of dominant positional control before the submission and it makes the use of leg attacks a bit more functional outside of grappling mats.

Neither of these two issues should completely preclude the use of leg locks, but they need to be understood and addressed. Understand when they should be used, and when they should not. I would also not make it a priority for people under purple belt level. I think the normal focus on positional dominance and limb control, as well as high percentage fight finishers like chokes should be the main focus until the student is at least with a few stripes on his blue belt.

All aspects of BJJ should be trained to some level, but that does not mean that each aspect is equal in efficacy.

I am super pumped to announce that on April 1-3, 2022, I will teaching my fundamental coursework in Nashville, TN at the amazing Royal Range USA firearms facility.

Not only is it my first time in Nashville, it is also my first time at Royal and I cannot wait. Not only am I looking for the touristy stuff to do in the city, I am excited more than I can say to be at such an amazing location. I had a FaceTime tour and the place is jaw dropping.

Check out their website and the video tour:

https://www.royalrangeusa.com/

Some of the things covered are:

Surviving/defending/escaping from the bottom

Getting back to your feet / staying upright

Defending against strikes on the ground or clinch

Denying the attacker weapon access – understanding technique, positional hierarchy, and timing

Proper role of “dirty tactics”

Multiple opponents

Essential training principles, methods, and drills

Underlying concepts and mindset for the clinch in a self-defense context

Dealing with the sucker punch/ambush

Fundamentals of the clinch

Controlling the entanglement

Disengaging and making distance for escape, weapons access or orientation reset

Performance coaching and troubleshooting

Structuring and balancing your training for a real world lifestyle

Sign up here:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/immediate-action-combatives-course-nashville-tn-tickets-169686076623?fbclid=IwAR2Vunem7nMFy2XT3dz0SxRT7wA_HrtFGFnPbo3ETH5XCalG9wWjuo-YbW0

Things are busy on the seminar side! Which is great, but I keep forgetting to get things updated to let folks know, so here is the latest for the next few months:

Close Contact Handgun, Oct 8-9, 2021 Chino Valley, AZ

https://independencetraining.square.site/product/close-contact-handgun/10?cs=true&cst=custom

Entangled Handgun (the only one until September of ’22) Nov 5-6, 2021 Chino Valley

https://independencetraining.square.site/product/entangled-handgun/20?cs=true&cst=custom

Immediate Action Combatives, Oklahoma City January 14-16, 2022

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/immediate-action-combatives-real-world-application-in-a-weapon-based-env-tickets-167916238991?ref=eios&fbclid=IwAR0IU5GVJwdUIOv4lqDeA4JXqcin3iNxxcNm3lSet6YMa1jy3HvfYupVrwM

Immediate Action Combatives, Sterling, VA February 25-27, 2022

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cecil-burch-immediate-action-combatives-tickets-172156995207

Immediate Action Combatives, Nashville April 1-3, 2022

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/immediate-action-combatives-course-nashville-tn-tickets-169686076623

We all have time  constraints. Unfortunately we live in the real world where we have to deal with  jobs, family, social obligations and some dedicated leisure time. Somehow in all of that we have to figure out how to slot in training. And to make things worse it’s not just one kind of training we have to slide in,  but rather a lot of different kinds of training. We have shooting, medical, legal issues, strength and conditioning, empty-hand combatives, and other ancillary aspects. It can be daunting trying to figure out how it all goes together.

One tool I use it’s something I call the 80/20 principle. The 80/20 principle is better known as the Pareto Principle which essentially says that 80% of consequences come from 20 per cent of causes.   This idea is popular in the business world to help guide allocation of time, energy and resources. For my purposes I don’t quite follow that definition. For me, the 80/20 principle can be understood as this: make sure that at least 20% of your training time is devoted to stuff you don’t like. Simple, right? Here is how it can be applied. 

 As an example, many people prefer strength-building to cardio conditioning. Let’s face it, strength work is easier even if you’re pushing heavy weights. There’s something seductive about the simple metric of “I pushed more weight more often, therefore I’m stronger”, and that is reinforced by seeing muscle growth and mass as a result. Strength training is important but it is not more important than cardio. In a self-defense context, you had better have enough cardio in reserve that you are able to exert the strength you have for as long as needed. Otherwise, that strength is useless as you will not be able to access it.  Do some self-defense encounters only last a couple seconds? Sure, but far more last much much longer, and even the very short ones will put so much stress on your respiratory system that it will feel like the fight lasts hours. More cardio capacity is better. Period. 

So go ahead and put time into building your strength.  Spend 80% of your time working strength but make sure you put at least 20% towards hardcore cardio conditioning. That way you at least attempt to cover your bases and to minimize weaknesses.

Another example can be found with our grappling skill sets. For BJJ,  the choice can be wearing a gi (a heavy cotton dedicated training uniform ) or wearing a no-gi outfit (typically a rashguard and board shorts). Both of these options teach you different things and both are useful. However most people much prefer one over the other. For myself, I really dislike no-gi as it is based much more on  physical attributes such as strength, speed, mobility and explosiveness and far less on things like mechanics and leverage and position (which we always have throughout our lives and are not dependent on how physical we can be). However, no-gi does teach you intrinsically important aspects to grappling (which I covered in a previous article) and if I ignore them I would be making a huge mistake. Therefore my answer is the 80/20 principle –  I will spend 80% of my grappling time wearing a gi and  I will try to ensure that 20% of my mat time,  I’m doing no-gi. That way I don’t lose out and I make sure that I’m a complete fighter/Grappler.

So this is just a general guideline but it can be applied in anything including firearms end defensive shooting. Hate dry fire? Understandable but make sure at least 20% of your time with Firearms it’s in dry fire. This kind of metric is easy to track and to keep a training log that builds you for success in the long term. 

I will be teaching my foundational coursework for the first time in Tacoma in September. The weather should be great, and we will have our own private facility. The host is a solid guy who has went to a lot of work to make sure everything is going to be perfect, so come on and join us!

Cost is $250 and there are only 6 slots available as of this writing, so I would suggest getting a deposit in ASAP. You can contact the host at:

gregyonkers@yahoo.com

Immediate Action Combatives

Real World Application of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Wrestling, and Boxing in a Weapon-Based-Environment (WBE)

Contrary to popular belief, many empty hand fights and those involving weapons, end up entangled, either standing or on the ground. No amount of pontificating or self-proclaimed “expert” posturing will change this simple fact. If you ignore this reality, you may very well find yourself in a situation you cannot handle with disastrous consequences. This course is designed to give the layman a realistic and functional set of concepts, techniques, methodologies, training drills and experiences that will prepare them for a worst case grappling scenario. All techniques and concepts are high percentile applications which span a wide spectrum of confrontations. Training consists of presentation, drilling and Force-On-Force evolutions providing attendees with immediate feedback regarding the efficacy of the skills learned. The goal of this course is not to create a “ground fighter” or grappler. The objective is to provide attendees who have limited training time and resources with solid ground survival and escape fundamentals geared toward the increasingly violent weapon based environments they may live, work and/or travel within. And all techniques/concepts are from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Wrestling, and Boxing and are combat proven over the past 80 years by thousands and thousands of practitioners, including the U.S. Army.

These methods are for everyone regardless of physical condition – young, old, male, female, athlete or not – You DO NOT have to be a professional fighter to perform at a functional level. This will be a class about physical training, but it is NOT boot camp. Participants may go at the pace that is comfortable for them, while trying to push the envelope of their own individual performance.
Requirements: loose, comfortable but durable clothes, mouthpiece, cup, notebook, and an open mind. Boxing or MMA gloves are strongly encouraged, but are not mandatory. Blue Guns and matched holsters, and training knives are a good idea, but there will be loaners available.

Surviving/defending/escaping from the bottom

Getting back to your feet / staying upright

Defending against strikes on the ground or clinch

Denying the attacker weapon access – understanding technique, positional hierarchy, and timing

Proper role of “dirty tactics”

Multiple opponents

Essential training principles, methods, and drills

Underlying concepts and mindset for the clinch in a self-defense context

Dealing with the sucker punch/ambush

Fundamentals of the clinch

Controlling the entanglement

Disengaging and making distance for escape, weapons access or orientation reset

Performance coaching and troubleshooting

Structuring and balancing your training for a real world lifestyle

For the next edition of my articles looking at various historical events and how it relates to self defense, we’re going to look at one that involves an exceptionally well known person to those in the Firearms community (at least those who take time to study these things). While his exploits are fairly well-known, there are some interesting facts that tend to be overlooked, and as we go over and examine these overlooked facts, I’m relatively sure that there will be some hurt feelings. I can’t help if that is so, and I can only address the facts and speak as truthfully as possible.

We’re going to take a look at Lance Thomas and one of his multiple gunfights. Mr. Thomas is truly a warrior and a hero. A normal everyday citizen (a jeweler and watch repairman by profession) who was faced by criminal violence again and again and yet came out on top every time. There are so many lessons to be learned by paying attention to his story. Not the least of which is his mindset in dealing with violence and the willingness to prepare to face it.

For anyone not familiar with Mr. Thomas, before reading any further I strongly advise you to take a look at the following video. It is a short 10 minute overview of his story and includes him speaking his own words. Listen closely to his answer to the interviewer’s question about why not just give the robber what he wants. Incredibly empowering. 

In this article we are going to look closely at the third of the five gun fights Thomas was involved in. On December 4th 1991, a man and woman entered Mr. Thomas’s watch shop where the woman inquired about watch repair. As Thomas went to look at the watch in question, the man – Valdeas O’Neal – jumped over the counter and jammed a Glock into Thomas’ neck. 

Now before we go any further I want to set the scene properly.  Lance Thomas had already been involved in two other gunfights, one of which involved him going up against 5 criminals. He had already embarked on a strength and conditioning program so that he would be physically fit enough to face bad guys. He had also set up his shop to make it as difficult as possible for bad guys to enter or to easily move around and attack. Thomas spent hour after hour game planning every conceivable way criminals could enter and how they would be able to attack him, and he had worked out every conceivable option in advance. Also, as you could see in the above video, the countertop over which Thomas interacted with customers was not just a small table or small counter. It was long, heavy, and wide and the front was not open to the customers. You can also see in the video there’s a heavy piece of wood across the front of the counter making even more of a barrier. 

Let’s contemplate this for a moment. Lance Thomas was as prepared mentally, emotionally, and physically as it is possible for a human being to be prepared for violence. It was not new to him and he had thoroughly thought it through. He had more experience with gunfights and violence then probably 90% of  law enforcement officers in the country. It’s safe to say that his mindset was secure, as was his environment. Not only had he wargamed every conceivable situation, the actual set up of his shop was ideal for defending himself and keeping bad guys at a distance.So he was personally prepared, and he was about as prepared tactically and strategically as anyone could be. 

And yet even with all those advantages, Lance Thomas found himself involved with the bad guy in actual physical contact with him. Or, in other words, he was inside the range that we would consider an entangled fight. A gun jammed into your neck and a man telling you he’s going to kill you pretty much defines entangled fight in a weapons based environment. And for all his prior planning, Thomas did not truly prepare for it, and the only reason he did not pay the ultimate price for that failure was sheer, unadulterated luck. 

I hammer this point home here because so much of the advice in the self-defense community is wrapped around the idea of being situationally aware or having your head on a swivel and that that will take care of all issues and allow you plenty of time and distance to get your gun out and use it at extended range. Yet here is a man who defines situational awareness and having your head on a swivel and being prepared for violence in every conceivable way but he still found himself in contact with the bad guy.  And let’s not overlook the fact that O’Neal was 6 ft 5 and 250 lb. He’s not somebody who’s going to sneak around in a small shop and suddenly appear as if by magic. Mr. Thomas knew he was there and even with every possible preparation in the book he still found himself in the range of an entangled fight.

The point to remember is that more often than not, the criminal decides at what range the violence will occur, and you need to be prepared for that, rather than live in a fantasy camp where things will always go the way you want/think. 

As the Glock was pressed into his neck, Thomas jerked his head aside and grabbed the SIG P225 that was close at hand. He was instantly shot through the neck! As author Paul Kirchner writes in his terrific book “The Deadliest Men”, O’Neal then hesitated. Why? No one knows. Rather than firing more rounds immediately, he stopped for a moment. Thomas then fired three rounds from his SIG which then malfunctioned (most likely because the gun was in some contact with part of O’neal’s body – that is my hypothesis based on seeing thousands of students go through Force-on-Force training evolutions where that exact thing happens time and again), and as he went for another gun close by, O’Neal fired two more shots which missed, and then Thomas shot him dead with the other pistol. 

While he won the encounter undoubtedly because of his proper fighting mindset and willingness to fight no matter what and not give up, he only survived because the universe smiled on him. The bullet through his neck did not hit anything vital, but it could just as easily have done major damage and killed him. He might easily have bled out before medical aid arrived. Thomas was also blessed that O’Neal paused after firing the first shot. If he had fired multiple rounds without a pause, it is very likely Thomas would have been severely injured or even killed. And then, because he never prepared or thought about the close range fight, when Thomas’ gun jammed, he was able to grab a second gun and end the fight solely due to the fact that O’Neal’s later rounds missed him. If one or both had hit him, the fight could have ended the opposite way there as well. 

Fortunately, Lance Thomas survived, and ended up in two more gunfights later, where he also was victorious. However, the point I am trying to convey stands. He survived this gunfight mostly through luck, because he was not prepared for a contact fight involving firearms. And those events happen often, and far more than some want to believe. Learn from the good things Lance Thomas did, but also learn from his mistakes because if it happens to you, I strongly urge you NOT to rely on the universe smiling on you in the moment. 

INTEGRATED FIGHT METHODOLGYPhoenix, AZ 8/6-8/2021I am super, super happy (more than I can describe) to announce a special seminar this August in Phoenix. I will be joining up with two of my closest friends, Chris Fry and Larry Lindenman to teach how to integrate multiple skill sets into a cohesive fighting package for self-defense.

Many people give lip service to blending different skillsets to protect your life, but rarely do we get the chance to actually work it and learn how to practice and maintain this vital aspect on your own. You cannot just take a bunch of various techniques and throw them together into a blender. That way leads to zero integration. We will spend 2 1/2 days teaching you how to do it the right way.

We will cover a range of modalities to include MUC (managing unknown contacts – Craig Douglas’ concept), using a small folding knife, small impact weapons (sap and blackjack), standing clinch, basic takedowns and throws, dirty boxing (striking while entangled), and weapon disarms and retention. We will be focused on how these disparate methods blend together to help ensure we can dominate against a violent criminal attacker. At the end of each day there will be a scenario training evolution to help the student pressure test the relevant techniques, and help to ingrain them.

Friday will be three hours from 6-9, and Saturday and Sunday will be 9+ hours with two hour blocks.

This is a very special and unique event that will teach things not often taught. And it will be fun as well! Cost is only $400 and can be found here:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/integrated-fighting-methodology-tickets-150993723291?fbclid=IwAR0H6GuwiOIpt9i8XIF303SOBOWptU0-LbRAe2Tez57qWVpccwy1ipJmWXw