Teaching self defense techniques to people with arthritic joints in hands and elbows

Question

I had a talk with a pupil a couple of weeks ago about, who complained that she did not have the finger strength to grip an attacker for a subsequent sweep, because of arthritis. My suggestion to her was to use the elbow joint instead, which she tried and found slightly easier, but still not optimal.

This has started a thought process for me: as the question Self Defense with One Arm Full also states, you never know what situation you will be in if you are ever attacked.

I like to grab the attacker, as a way to disable that limb/steer his/her next attack - but without grip strength, what kind of controlling operations could I implement?

I am aware of kyuhsu as an alternative, but I make my pupils aware that if their attacker is affected by e.g. drugs, they may have a higher pain threshold.

Jabs to the thorax, to stop the attacker I would not prefer for an initial control - I see this as an escalation.

Answer 1

Self-defense has to be individual. If this person cannot grab with their fingers, any technique that involves grabbing with the fingers simply does not make sense.

My personal intuition would be to build more around trapping (entangling) the arm for direct (hard) control and balance manipulation, and use a more simple and (soft) grip strategy where you slide along the arm and "get stuck" at the elbow or wrist with a pincer grip between thumb and fingers (mostly 2nd and third, pinkie nad index are not involved much). This is much easier on the joints and requires a lot less grip strength than grabbing cloth. And it is enough for guiding opponents' movements and manipulating their balance. Another plus point is that it works perfectly without clothing.

So basically, you either trap limbs completely or you use a pincer grip with less hard control (keeping where you want it) and more soft control, where you do not stop movements but redirect and steer them the way you want. This requires much less strength and joint stress.

Go-ju Ryu - hard-soft.

Edit to address the sweep: You can, for example, redirect a straigth right-hand punch diagonally with left, entangle with your right arm, and use your left to turn the head with an open hand strike and control the throat for backwards-force. If you have good timing and tai-sabaki (re-positioning to the right side of your opponent) while doing that, it is quite easy to sweep their right leg with your left using this position and control. Also, you are pretty safe there.

Mind, you need to control the shoulder on the side you sweep to move it forwards/sideways. Whether you do that with a (lapel) grip on the chest, a diagonal arm entanglement, a straight arm entanglement/grip, or even an underhook does not matter much for the mechanics of a sweep. The main difference is the different relative body position and direction of the sweep for each type of shoulder control.

Answer 2

Might it be easier if they grab a different part of the arm or perhaps the sleeve? For example it's easier to grab the wrist further towards the hand. Grabbing half the hand and half the wist is even easier. You could also try having them grab the sleeve.

What works is going to depend a lot upon the individual. This is the point of the Japanese Expression Shu Ha Ri as found in many Japanese martial arts.

I am sure you are familiar with this but for any other readers:

Shu is the first stage of learning where you imitate the instructor.

Ha is the second stage of learning where you adapt and experiment with different ways of doing the technique as you understand it better.

Ri is mastery where you adapt the way you do the technique to work best with your own body.

It's great that as an instructor you are thinking about this. Ultimately though it's for the student to learn how to do the technique for themselves.

Famously among Shorinji Kempo students there is a 9th dan who lost his arm below the elbow. He can still do most of the techniques, but has to be a lot more brutal when he does wrist locks. I have a pdf of a magazine excerpt (with translation) where he has a breakdown of how he adapted his techniques.

I'll include a link to this as an edit if I can find one.

Answer 3

Your question reminds me that children are occasionally taught techniques using open tegatena so as to specifically avoid grabbing. This is done for the purpose of teaching the shape of the movement, rather than the technique itself, since among other reasons this reduces the technique to a more basic level without interference from a poor posture by uke, and reduces chances of over- or under-performance of a movement which might injure.

But your question also reminds me that arthritis - which I suffer horribly from, albeit in the hips - is but one of a myriad of things that can go wrong. One may have a sickness, or injury, or a hand that is occupied (eg, holding a child or a weapon). In these situations, one must take care to understand the underlying focus of the technique and then adapt when the optimal body part used to effect the technique is not able to perform its function. Hands and fingers can become jammed, smashed, cut, burnt, or over extended during any altercation. Maybe even you have a weapon, are you going to give that up to effect a grab?

Your instruction would be incomplete without coming up with scenarios that a student might encounter - injury typically, but an ailment like arthritis is just as good. What does a one-armed student do? Or a student without a hand? Or Leg? As such, this is an excellent question to bring up.

There is no easy answer, since no one answer covers for all scenarios, but you could make the argument that the opponent's own momentum should dictate how they are handled.

So, using your example, some throws which you might have done by sweeps and grabs could be effected by lowering to the knees, forcing the advancing opponent to trip over you. In fact, that lowering of your body by kneeling can often be substituted for many grabs and throws. As you are an instructor, I trust that you could easily come up with many scenarios which you could swap out the grab for a kneel, a spin, a duck, a step here or there. Where you might have issued an atemi to slow the advancing opponent, you omit it in order to keep them moving so that they entrap themselves.

This won't easily work all the time, and you might have to break rules here and there. Perhaps, one hand is no good, but other is fine, so maybe issue a technique allowing a shift to the other side might work.

An example of breaking a rule: instead of stepping away from an opponent, you simply turn the torso to the direction of the would-be step. Try this when you have no functional issues, and your instructor is liable to spend time making corrections about stepping. But if a student cannot turn and step, and turning the torso is all that can be done, then that's what will have to do, even at the cost of having to muscle through a technique.

As it is, I am myself exploring how to adapt with occasionally debilitating arthritis. No more kneewalking or suwari waza for me. And my taekwondo kicking days are all but over. So I am curious as to what other answers you may get.