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readers already know, we shot the photos for the first three takedowns at
evening outside on a small patch of green beside a parking lot in a small town,
a village actually. So just to round things off, because Takedown #4 will be
the last takedown presented, at least for a while, I’ve chosen to set the saint
of takedowns, Sensei Mahoney, and his nemesis from the dark side, Anthony
Fritz, in front of a more rustic setting – a cityscape at night.
We
loosely refer to Takedown #4 as the “sentry takedown” because it does appear as
though someone were sneaking up behind a sentry with the aim of taking her
down. Kids in my classes appreciate the reference. It suggests that they’re not
straying too far from the comfort of the video games they often find themselves
absorbed in.
Actually,
this takedown can be seriously employed in a military scenario along with the
obvious options, from capture and control to rapid chokes and even more rapid
neck breaks.
Forgive
me but I have to get this memory out of my system. Grade 9 Latin class (yes,
Latin…no, not during the time of Julius Caesar although I am rather going on in
years). We were all lazy on a lazy afternoon, sort of slouch back gaze down
lazy, and if we all had had our shirts off, we could have maybe seen if there
was any way a belly button could be made to wriggle without much physical
effort or mental strain, a rebellion of sorts against the Latin declensions
pounding our ears. Pueri pueri erunt…boys will be boys.
Our
septuagenarian Latin specialist was prowling between the rows of seats, reading
aloud, the same gentleman who a month earlier managed to catch his teeth with
one scoop of the hand as they fell out of his mouth mid-sentence, so we
appreciate both his stealth and his quickness.
But
I digress. Here are the meat and potatoes of this takedown –
1. In following the principles of biomechanics, I
was taught to approach in a straight line from my uke’s back however not with my chest facing his back directly but with
the side of my body facing his back. The reasoning behind this: to minimize the
amount of body area the uke could
likely strike in retaliation. The groin, the solar plexus and heart, the throat…are
all kept out of harm’s way.
2. In a polite class setting, we were taught by
Shihan Forrester to place the palms and fingers of both hands across the uke’s
forehead and pull his head backward…while bending our arms and pushing the back
of his shoulders forward, obviously to disrupt his balance. That was in a polite class setting. Discretionary
conduct is advisable; this takedown can be dangerous, in particular if the head
is snapped backward and downward rather quickly. In the most extreme
circumstances, both hands turn into claws where the fingers dig into the eyes,
the sides of the nose, the cheekbones and the sides of the mouth. You can guess
the rest.
It is important to note that the hand-forearm brace position also
prevents the uke from turning around.
3. As you can tell from Mahoney’s position of
stability vis a vis Anthony’s bent back posture, Mahoney is now able to come up
with a few “endings” to the takedown. He can, if he wishes – and I hope he
always does because Anthony is really at heart a good soul – merely throw
Anthony down into the bushes, allowing the young man to display his knowledge
of the back breakfall. Or, if Anthony has done something really abhorrent,
throw the young man down and strike him on the head. Or, the nastier things…chokes,
neck breaks…the list goes on.
Takedown #4 can be a dangerous plaything. Self defense is what it
is…defense. Don’t crank up the volume if there are noise laws in place.
The three previous takedowns can be seen here -
TAKEDOWN #1
TAKEDOWN #2
TAKEDOWN #3
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