Being tackled to the ground can be a terrifying turn of events for anyone.  Probably why the charge and tackle is one of the 30 most common types of street attacks.  Successfully defending against such an attack requires a combination of mental and physical countermeasures, including:

 

1. Mental Conditioning.  Stay focused mentally. Stay calm.  You have less than 1 ½ seconds to orchestrate your actions and now is not the time to panic and freeze.  More likely than not, your mental curriculum should include:
   • AWARENESS.  Now is not the time to be oblivious.  Surprise is the best friend of the tackle-attacker.
   • ANTICIPATE:  You need to be Spinal Tuned.  In other words, your mind and body should be prepared at all times to act.  At some point before the attack, you need to have a plan of action, germinated by the self-thought:  “What would I do if such and such happens?”
   • TACTICAL BREATHING.  “Breathe, don’t freeze.”
   • SURVIVAL PSYCHE.  If all of the above is in place, the primal thought in your mind should be “I knew this could happen and I am ready for it.”

1. Balance is always an advantage.  Feet shoulder width apart, your power foor slightly rearward, giving you not only a wide but deep platform.  Knees bent and your nose directly over your center.  More about balance in a future post.

 

1. MOVEMENT.  Evade the tackle with good tactical movement (GTM).  GTM includes quickly moving diagonally, never straight backwards.  Moving linearly back is slow – the attacker will easily overtake you – but it is easy to trip over your own feet.

 

1. COUNTERSTRIKES.  In a wide open environment evasive movement is crucial.  A J-Step often will keep a tackler at bay.  However, in a closed environment, your movement will be restricted, so you are going to have to stop the attacker with a strike or two, depending upon how he attempts the tackle.

 

1.  
   • HIGH TACKLE/NARROW ENVIRONMENT:  Palm Heel Strike to the attacker’s forehead or chest to slow down the attack.  Follow up with other strikes.
   • MID LEVEL TACKLE/NARROW ENVIRONMENT:  As the bad guy attempts to tackle you around the waist, lower your center as you drive both forearms hard onto his Supra Scapular Nerve Motor Points (where the traps connect to the sides of his neck).  This should slow him down.  Now, with his head still lowered (as it will be when he attempts the tackle), grab the back of his head and drive it downward while driving an ascending knee strike into his face.
   • LOW LEVEL (ANKLES OR LOWER SHINS) TACKLE/OPEN OR NARROW ENVIRONMENT:  Defeat this pernicious tackle attempt by quickly sprawling both feet backward, thereby evading his grasp, and simultaneously driving your body and both palm heels against his rear shoulders.  You will end up on top of him, and he should end up face first on the ground.  Never stop hitting and kicking him until you can escape.

 

A CAVEAT HERE:  You cannot hope to learn genuine Survival Skills in a blog.  These will work best in a hands-on self defense program.  The suggestions above come from my PPCT GAGE (Ground Avoidance and Ground Escapes) Program.  I also teach these and other techniques in my self defense course for women, men and teenagers as well as my Disruptive Student Management course.

 

Until the next time.  Stay Safe.

 

Hammer

 

 

 

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