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Escaping the Headlock




One of the most common grappling attacks in the street, or the controlled arena, is the headlock, in some shape or form.

To the skilled exponent it can be a powerful finishing technique when executed correctly.
To the unskilled it is a hold they seem to naturally slip into during the course of a struggle at grappling range, whether it be standing or on the ground. Sometimes the headlock is referred to as the schoolboy hold because l imagine that everybody at one time or another were caught in this hold in the playground or executed it on someone else.

Even the roughly applied version of this hold can be dangerous and will give you problems escaping. The side headlock when clamped on can constrict the carotid arteries running up the side of the neck and slow blood flow down to the brain, making a sleeper hold. Also if the head is trapped with one hand the attacker can pound away with their free hand to your face causing considerable damage.

You can also be thrown heavily to the floor and be pinned in a worse position. There is also a danger of your attacker running you in the side headlock head first into a wall, door, table edge, etc, etc. The front headlock can become a powerful choke to the windpipe or a severe neck crank if twisted.

Fortunately most untrained fighters will just roughly squeeze or hold ;the head neck while trying to maneuver you into a strike. If you react in the early stages of the holds you can have a good chance of escape even from a much larger and stronger opponent. The longer you leave it the harder it will become to escape and even the novice fighter may succeed in securing a strangle or choke on you.

We will look at a few methods of escapes from the side and front headlocks. l have used these in live situations and in pressure tests in the Dojo and nine times out of ten they have worked. Hopefully they may help the novice grappler in defending these holds.

As the side headlock is applied you can immediately drop your inside hand up and over attackers shoulder and either pull back on the hair, claw eyes, rip up nostrils or hook the mouth, at the same time your other hand can grab and squeeze the testicles or pinch the flesh high on the upper thigh.

As grip begins to slacken on you hook behind their knee and lift up and tilt them up and back for a throw. If opponent is too heavy to lift fall back with them and immediately start Atemi, striking any vital body part that is open, then escape.

If opponent hangs on to you after the lift and throw, settle your body weight and get a foot over their body to stop them pulling you across theirs.
Then grind your forearm into their neck or jaw line or knuckle press the mastoid cavity behind ear, or gouge at an eye to break hold from around your neck.

When broken you can escape or finish with a lock or strike of your own. Other options. Again from the standing side headlock you have other options. If your head is pulled tightly in opponents chest, turn your head and sink your teeth into the pectoral muscle and bite hard, this will give you a release.

Dropping to your knee and bring up a stiff forearm blow to the groin from the rear can complete the move. Alternatively your front hand can finger spear to opponents eyes if they have been careless with their own head position, or you can uppercut hook punch their groin, simple but effective moves usually the best.

If you reach behind opponents back you can hook clamp their free arm and wrist to prevent them punching you. If you keep your forearm tightly clamped to their backs it is very hard for them to break free from your grip.

A pure Ju Jutsu technique that can work as a surprise move goes like this, if opponent headlocks you low and drops their weight you can reach and grab their groin from the front, step your front foot around between their legs and drop for a rolling throw taking opponent across your falling body to the floor, you will end up on top of them where you can finish with strikes, etc.

The front headlock again can be foiled early with an uppercut punch, forearm or grab to testicles, this works well. Many years back l trained with members of the Israeli anti terrorist squad on a special course. Part of the training was to pressure test you by free fighting bare handed with no rules, anything goes, I don't recommend this to everyone.
During ;my fight l was caught in a front headlock by one of these Israelis, who politely whispered in my ear in broken English 'If you struggle, l break your neck'. Nice chap. l immediately shot in the groin punch followed by a grab which broke up a very tight hold. He did succeed in opening a cut under my eye as he tried to gouge it on the way out like l said nice chap. but I was out and fit to fight another day.

Again biting will work a treat. If you first grip and squeeze the flesh on the back of thigh and kidneys you can loosen up the hold long enough to turn your head and bite the body. From there you can shoot for the legs to execute a takedown, where you can follow up. If you are taken to your knees with this hold you must keep grabbing for the groin and look for an opening to escape or grab and break a finger to aid your counter.

If you go to the floor with a skilled grappler in a headlock you will have problems if you don’t immediately make a move. Once they settle into one of these holds it can be near on impossible to escape. There are many different floor escapes, but really are out of the scope of this article.

If you want to learn these techniques then seek out a good Judo, Ju Jutsu or grappling instructor who will show you. But in overview if you react early look to gouge for eyes, nose, mouth, attack throat or groin or bite any available target, this should give you some sort of opening.

ln closing let me emphasize again that the headlocks are extremely common in fights whether it be a mugging or a one to one encounter. If you are serious about defending yourself on the streets and being a well rounded martial artist you must learn to defend these holds to have any sort of chance. Good luck in your training.

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