Leg Grabs For Judo & Self-Defense

In 2013, the rules of IJF competitive Judo changed, disallowing any grabs to the legs, or the pants of the GI (the blue or white uniform that competitors wear). Whilst, I understand the reasons for doing so, what was lost, were a number of throws, and controls that from a self-defense perspective were extremely useful, and effective. As I don’t teach competitive Judoka anymore, and my focus is purely on self-defense and reality-based fighting, I still teach and allow grabs to the legs and the pants in my training. In this article I want to look at some of the ways, in which controlling the pants (or trousers, for those in the UK), can be used in self-defense scenarios.

One of the useful skills that Judo taught me, was to be able to think clearly, when being thrown and rag-dolled around. Fights are dynamic things, that involve movement, and if you’re not used to people pushing, pulling you and throwing you around – often by grabbing your clothing – it can be an overwhelming experience, with all of your conscious effort and bandwidth being taken up, with just trying to stay on your feet and maintain your balance. Trying to workout an appropriate response to your situation, when all you can do is to try and stay on your feet, can be difficult. Sometimes, you need to slow an attacker’s movement down, or prevent them from moving entirely. One of the attacks, where this can be necessary, is when somebody has you in a side-headlock, with your head trapped under their armpit, and they’re throwing you around, possibly punching you and/or trying to throw you onto the ground etc. Often, this part of side-headlock attacks are removed when defenses are being taught, or only the initial balance break of the attack is addressed, with the idea that the attack immediately gets interrupted by some form of counter-strike to the groin etc. What gets lost is the repetitive nature of the attack, where the assailant repeatedly pulls your head down and around, often making it difficult to land a decent enough strike to prevent their continuous attack – just as we want to make attacks, in a continuous unbroken fashion, so we should also assume that our assailant wants to do the same. One way to slow down and stop the attacker’s movement should a groin strike fail to do so etc. is to grab on to your attacker’s pant leg and root their leg to the floor. You can also use this rooted leg, as a support to help you to regain your balance. Once done, you can start to make your escape.

You can make use of the pant legs in a similar way, when you are in a clinch situation where somebody is trying to throw knee strikes. This wouldn’t be my primary way of dealing with knees in a clinch, but there may be times that more conventional defenses and solutions fail to be effective – especially if your attacker, has a good control of your head, and is throwing you around, as they throw their strikes. In such situations, grabbing the pants (doing so at the belt-level, will work for this), and pulling down on them will restrict your assailant’s movement, and ability, to both throw you around, and/or make their knee strikes. This also sets you up well for making knee strikes into your attackers Quadriceps, as they will now be static targets, that will absorb all the power of your strikes – due to the fact that they will be rooted and cannot reduce the impact by moving with the strike i.e. riding it. If you can deliver forceful strikes to your attacker’s legs, you will deaden them, making it difficult – and in some cases impossible – for them to put weight on them and/or move; the benefits of this in a fight are obvious.

If you are on the ground when dealing with a standing opponent, controlling your attacker’s legs by taking hold of the clothing, may be a way to reduce their opportunities for delivering kicks and stomps, along with a means of disrupting their balance; trying to get a direct grip on a leg can be difficult, as the shin bone and calf muscle, is much larger than the wrist and forearm, and so it may be easier to grab the pant leg and try and control the leg this way. Once you have a grip, you may be able to climb up their leg, so as to get back to a standing position - using your attacker’s as a support to help you get back to your feet. In real-life situations there are rarely magic solutions to situations, that immediately and automatically solve every problem for you. Often surviving a violent altercation, involves doing things step-by-step, rather than all at once, and this is especially true if you find yourself in extremely disadvantageous positions e.g. such as being on the ground, whilst dealing with a standing attacker (who has little reason to follow you to the ground). In such a situation, grabbing a pant leg, may be the first step in getting you to a better place.

There are of course many great throws and pickups that involve taking hold of the legs, either directly or by using the clothing. One of the nice things about many of these throws is that they can be executed when you are facing, or to the side of your attacker, without having to fully turn your back to them, that many other traditional throws require. Also, because you are looking to control one or both supporting limbs, the moment you grab on to the leg, your assailant is in danger – even before they experience the breaking of their balance. It is also very difficult for an attacker to try and remove your grip, once you have it in place, as in most cases they will need to reach behind them to do so. There are obviously dangers too, with grabbing the legs – one notable one being that your hands and arms are tied up and can’t be used to block or strike with. However, the damage that you can cause to somebody with a good pick-up, means that there are times, when it is worth doing so; as nothing hits harder than concrete.

I was disappointed at the IJF’s decision to ban such grabs and throws, as they had always been high-earners for me in competition, and suited my game; they were also techniques that I’d found very useful when working the door – as a smaller person, larger people would often try to “crowd” me, which made them vulnerable to such pick-ups; throwing was a great equalizer for me, when I had to face people who could take a punch and didn’t mind getting hit – and there’s a surprising number of such people who understand that getting hit with a punch that renders them unconscious is remote, and so it’s worth taking a few if they believe they can hit harder (if you train in a manner that when you start striking/punching your partner stops attacking, you may find yourself in for a shock). Using clothing grabs on the legs, is a useful tool to have and be aware of, even if it isn’t part of your primary game-plan.