From the Ground Up

How to defend yourself at your most vulnerable

By Yael Grauer   
Photography Erin Nicole
MUA Vicki Martin 

For a PDF of this magazine feature click here

It’s every woman’s worst nightmare. Being stuck in a parking garage with an unknown assailant, or worse, waking up to a strange man with bad intentions standing right there. Finding yourself helpless in the face of imminent danger, with little or no chance of escape. How do you turn the odds and learn to defend yourself in this type of situation?

Michael Ellefson, a self-defense instructor and BJJ brown belt instructor at the Midwest Center for Movement, stresses the importance of developing a proper self-defense mindset and habits. Taking precautions to avoid potential danger is the best solution, whether that involves walking home with a friend or listening to one’s intuition when something doesn’t feel quite right. It is these crucial components of self-defense that he believes will best protect people.

 Awareness and avoidance definitely includes escape. Courtney Pratt, a BJJ instructor at Bushido-Kai, points out that escaping a dangerous situation if possible is clearly a wise decision. “My Sensei, Ray McKinnon, who has many years teaching self defense and is a multiple degree blackbelt in Japanese Jiu Jitsu has a fabulous saying; ‘the best block is a city block.’ Obviously meaning, if you can get as far away from that sort of situation, do it,” she said.

When running isn’t an option, mindset and the will to survive is crucial. Cliff Byerly, LAPD police officer, former Marine and lead training for Blauer Tactical Systems, emphasizes fear management and mindset as necessary tools for women who find themselves in these types of situations. “The female has to give herself permission to fight back,” he said.

Unfortunately, the desire to fight back if necessary isn’t always enough. Knowledge and skill also come into play. That’s why many women are turning to training in ground-based combat sports such as submission wrestling and Brazilian jiu jitsu.

Pratt, who teaches grappling to women, believes the skills she teaches transfer quite nicely to self-defense since students learn body awareness and are less likely to panic with someone on top of them. “I think any woman who puts that effort in to begin training is so much more further ahead if something were to happen,” she explains. “Simply being familiar with weight on top of you and problem solving in a whirl of movement allows them to be more calm than one would be who was never in a grappling class. Obviously, movements become second nature as we train more often and consistently.”

In addition to learning techniques, Byerly believes it’s important to use scenarios in training which help women understand how they end up on the ground (often by being knocked down), an approach he uses in the courses he teaches to build mental imprints.

Although one can develop ground defense skills extensively, going to the ground can leave one vulnerable to attack. When should you drop to your back in a self-defense scenario?

Ellefson pointed out that an individual might decide to go to the ground to avoid getting taken to a secondary location. “The way I describe it, when I teach a self-defense class, is that the secondary crime scene is the place where your worst nightmare’s going to happen,” he said. “There’s your scenario. You’re getting attacked in a dark parking lot by someone trying to take you to an open van door. Are you going to hit the ground and have them drag you like a bag of wheat, or would you stay standing and let someone physically superior try to take you into the van?”

Cliff Byerly echoed the sentiment, pointing out that bad guys don’t want to get caught or injured so fighting back is the better option, and this can include intentionally going to the ground. “Let’s say a women is being dragged towards a vehicle by her arm. I recommend her grabbing the attacker’s wrist and sitting down--like a very controlled cement friendly break fall, then use her legs to kick the center line of the attacker, kind of like peddling a bicycle.”

“As proven by BJJ, a smaller person trained in aspects of ground fighting can wear out a larger individual and in the process sustain little or no damage,” said Ellefson, though
he points out there is a stark contrast between BJJ as a sport and using BJJ principles as self-defense on the ground.

Trying fancy techniques should be limited to the gym and competitions, and not the street. “To pull off a meticulously executed technique when your adrenaline is through the roof and you are in fight or flight reflex… you’ll want to use gross motor skills to escape that kind of scenario, not try to pull in a sweet triangle on the dude.” Ellefson said.

Byerly agrees. He points out that complex sports-based techniques are often overridden during a real attack, when cognitive thought flies out the window. He also recommends against the closed guard as typically practiced in BJJ. “In BJJ you are looking for position control and then submissions. In a ground fight, we want an open or combat guard. Using your shins to create space and push away danger. The close quarter tools that work standing up like your elbows, face rakes and palm strikes work just as well from a grounded position. The goal or end state is the same. Overwhelm the attacker with violence of action so you can get back to your feet and get away,” he said.

Ellefson agrees. “Even in the basic position, your guard, sport guard is not the best self-defense guard you can have,” Ellefson explains. Instead he recommends keeping an open guard with your knees in, to allow you to use your hips to keep an attacker at bay if they try to grab your legs, or kicking to create space to get back.

If you do find yourself in a closed guard, controlling your attacker’s head and keeping them as close to you as possible is a good approach to prevent effective strikes. Ellefson teaches the basic scissor sweep and knee press sweep to create space to get away, as well as escapes from mounts (such as the oompah). “The elbow escape is dicey when not accompanied by dirty shots to the ribs,” he said, so he teaches short rib strikes to the floating rib to disrupt the attacker. “The entire mindset is to escape, not cause permanent damage,” he said. Ellefson also emphasizes falling correctly by tucking the chin and slapping the ground as a counterbalance, to protect one’s head. “If you’re knocked down, it’s important not to give up your back when falling. You also want to get on your hip, rotate, kick, create space, stand up and get away.”

Pratt believes the best self-defense techniques adapted from sports jiu jitsu are those which allow you to remove yourself from the situation, such as a sweep. “Transfer the weight and get out of there,” she said.

Using ground techniques for self-defense has, indeed, helped women survive zero-sum scenarios. “Coach Blauer’s SPEAR SYSTEM Woman’s Self-defense video has an awesome story about Shannon who fights back after being stabbed and raped and escapes with her life,” Byerly said, though he’s also heard other accounts from women who successfully defended themselves from the ground. “I work with a female that was knocked to the ground and when the guy moved in she up kicked him in the face leaving the guy unconscious. She got into her car and drove down the block where she called and waited on the police,” he added.

Training the ground game is not only empowering and fun. It could also save your life.•