The Art of \"Throwing\"

This semester sees us introduce some basic throws into our Krav Maga syllabus. Many people are unaware that in the early days of Krav Maga, Judo was taught alongside the program and that when individuals graded in Krav Maga, they also graded in Judo. There is a reason that the majority of military close combat systems (are based on or) have a Judo component to them: throws, chokes and strangulations are effective fight finishers that a smaller person can perform against a larger and heavier opponent. Another major reason is that most fights rapidly progress to a grappling or clinch type range – an attacker will always try to eliminate time and distance from their assaults, so being able to work in close gives a person a real advantage.

Although the Chinese martial arts contain throws, it was the Japanese systems of Ju-Jitsu that really turned them into an art and systematically studied ways to effectively throw people. The ground is the largest and hardest punching surface that you’ll ever be able to find (much better than a fist), and it never misses. A 150 lb person will not have the same striking power as a 250 lb person but they’ll be able to throw as hard and if not harder than their heavier counterpart – something I’ll explain later in this post. The Japanese arts (like Krav Maga) are all about finishing a person: Japanese Karate has the concept/idea of “One Punch, One Kill”, whilst Judo and Ju-Jitsu are concerned with joint breaks (not joint-locks), incapacitating throws and chokes/strangulations that leave an individual unconscious. Throwing is a great way to physically finish a person and also cause them to mentally remove themselves from the fight i.e. there is nothing more obvious than who is the superior fighter, when one person is left standing and another finds themselves on the ground.

There may be “lucky punches” but there are never “lucky throws” and as such throwing takes a bit of time to get the hang of – as does punching/striking correctly. Moving yourself and another person in a dynamic context is the pinnacle of physical mastery. We teach our throwing from realistic self-defense scenario’s, recognizing that strikes are necessary to enable you to perform a powerful and finishing throw. In my time working professional security I have probably “finished” more fights through throwing than by any other means – I’ve had people walk away, refuse to fight on but in terms of actual finishing, throwing remains top of the list: nothing hits harder than concrete.

A throw consists of three distinct phases: breaking a person’s balance, “fitting in” or positioning yourself ready for the throw and the execution of the throw itself. Balance breaking is a key self-defense concept/idea. Whenever I attempt any disarm (knife, gun, stick etc.) I attempt to break my aggressor’s balance. It is much easier to take a gun off of someone who is 100% concerned with gaining balance rather than thinking about the gun itself. When throwing someone, taking a person’s balance, is what gets them ready to fall (this is why the larger a person is the harder they fall – 250 LB moving downwards hits the concrete heavier than 150 LB’s). When you perform a hip throw, you are not lifting a person’s weight, merely presenting their moving weight with an obstacle that “trips them up” or gets in their way.

Fitting in, is the way you position yourself ready to execute the throw – this will only work if a person’s balance has already been broken: it is this which gives you the time to position your body accordingly ready to make the throw; as well as making the throw itself easier – because the person is already falling. The execution is merely the final piece, that should be simple and effortless whilst at the same time causing the real damage. When we reap the leg, after an attack with a knee, we do so after moving the person out of balance, and then stepping through to get in position. By the time we reap/”cut away” the leg, the person should effectively be falling. The reap should add the last 10%, which sees the person 3ft in the air and waiting to crash.

We have a small number of throws to focus on this semester and by the end of it you’ll be performing them like professionals. You are learning and equipping yourself with some of the greatest equalizing techniques out there.