Shield Defense

[KAS]

I wish I could remember the specific article by Richard Ryan in Black Belt Magazine that discussed this, but here goes anyway...

Are any of you familiar with the basic forearm shield defense espoused by JKD instructor Richard Ryan?

About 6 months ago I started incporating the shield defense into my inconsistent practice. After years of conditioning different defensive strategies, I have found that the shield defense has all but taken over my defensive strategy in under 6 months. It just feels so natural and effective. Gone are my days of Pak Sao and Tan Sao =) Now when someone throws a playful attack my way I find myself moving into a shield defense before I even have time to think about it, and rarely does anything penetrate.

As I practice it, the forearm shield basically consists of both arms brought in front of the chest at about a 45 degree angle. There are four primary applications of this as follows. Note that this defense still adheres to the principles of sensitivity, economy of motion and redirection...you should not meet force with force.

1. For a circling attack like a hook punch or haymaker, your forearms thrust into the bicep or forearm of the attacking hand. This operates like a stop hit but keeps you covered if you screw up.

2. For straight punches that need to be parried you can redirect with your fore arms or simply use the appropriate arm to throw a sweeping elbow to intercept and redirect the attacking arm.

3. You can drop one of your forearms to cover your ribs / kidneys much like a boxer does.

4. When it really hits the fan you can drop your body, cover your face and torso and move in and through their defenses.

Not sure how safe this would be against weapon (especially knife) attacks, but then I believe in simultaneous attack and defense, so it isn't like I would just sit back and try to defend over and over again

[poidog]

I'm not sure if I'm understanding the 'shield' properly, but is it similar to the 'spear' as taught by Tony Blauer?

[KAS]

I'll admit that I am not an expert on Blauer but from what I recall...isn't his S.P.E.A.R more of a system than a technique? I thought it stood for Spontaneous Protection Enabling Accelerated Response?

From what I do know of Blauer, the shield defense that I am refering to does seem condusive to the flavor of self defense that he practices. The shield uses the forearms and works very well with flinch reflexes.

Do you have a link to something that talks about Blauer's spear defense technique?

-Kyle

[KAS]

Actually that sounds like a very core component of the shield that I am refering to. You mention a sort over cover-up-and-drive-through technique and that is deffinately part of it.

With the forearms raised there are also other defensive maneuvers like pushes, eye guages, eye covers, forearm parries and sweeping elbow parries. By using your forearms, instead of using more traditional hand-bassed parries, you are able to transition to a cover-up-and-drive-through approach much faster. At least for my own mind and body using my forearms in this way seems more natural. I was born with the reflex to cover my head with my arms when I am in danger, but I had to train up my kung fu blocks and parries

In any case I don't think that any extended blocking / parrying engagement is realistic in a self defense situation. Lord knows I am not going to stand and block...I am going to strike back as soon as possible to eliminate the threat. The shield (and the spear that you mention ) seem to support this idea well.

Thanks for your input and giving me some more material to chew on!