Is there such a thing as a simple weapon disarm

The three most important rules about teaching martial arts

Is there such a thing as a simple weapons disarm?

You bet there is. Weapons disarms should not be complicated. If the weapons disarm has a whole lot of steps to it, the chances are it won't be applicable during a violent attack. In your self defense training and education you really have to look at the complexity of a disarm or a technique. There is a law in martial arts called the universal law of escape. This law essentially says that to remove an item from someone's grasp, you must pass that item between their fingers and thumb. Many counter grab techniques do precisely this and I will include a link to a podcast of mine that talks about the universal law of escape. I will even find a link to the universal law of escape for disarming handguns as well. But let's get back to topic.

A disarms should be no more than two or three steps, maximum. They need to be simple and quick and utilize the universal law of escape. There are some simple disarms that are so quick that in a blink of an eye your opponent has no weapon and you do. There are other simple disarms, particularly with a self defense weapon, where they literally either throw the weapon away or handed to you as fast as they can. I will provide a link for some of that video as well. Point of fact, what I'm trying to get to is; whatever disarm you choose to add to your repertoire it needs to be simple in the number of steps.

Also it's required that the technique utilized no strength whatsoever. If you learn technique that is “strength based” than these techniques will not be utilized by the very young or the very old. You always need to learn technique that gets better as you get older. You need technique that grows old with you gracefully. And so if we apply the same outlook to our self defense techniques, with the concept that we might have to be 70 years old when we actually perform them, we need to find technique that can be done with no strength.

I am an engineer by degree. We learn something in engineering school which has stuck with me forever and I applied to my martial arts as well. And I'm not going to be rude to you but I'm good at telling you to “kiss off”. Now this of course is an acronym, which stands for keeping it simple stupid or face failure. I can tell you having from hand-to-hand combat in Vietnam you need to learn to keep things simple. You need to learn to defend yourself under all types of conditions and places. So the techniques need to be simple because many times the places are very complex. Keep it simple stupid or face failure. Look at every technique you have in your self defense repertoire with the eyeball of "kiss off".

I'm sure you will enjoy learning about the universal law of escape through my podcasts. I'm also sure that you understand the "kiss off" comments and how to apply that to your own self defense strategies plus techniques. I will also provide a link that can help you look at some of the techniques, or at lease the nature of the techniques, you might want to include in your repertoire.

Universal Law of escape class <http://asksensei.blip.tv/file/571213/>
Gun disarms <http://asksensei.blip.tv/file/504455/>
More Gun disarms <http://asksensei.blip.tv/file/735183/>

Master Peter Brusso