Grip strength in custody and control...

[Guest Claemore70]

Been at the academy for several weeks now and was involved in the hand to hand training.  Nobody, including the instructors were able to release my hands from their own.  They tried everything from pulling to punching the top of my hands, and couldn't do it.  The deal was the tops of my hands had grown muscle from my forearm work and presented a shield from the punching.

[Guest Luke Reimer]

What?! Are you saying that you can grasp the wrist of any of your unarmed combat instructors and he cannot release it? This is just hard to picture. It's a simple question of leverage. I mean, you may be strong, but surely no body could be _that_ strong. I'd bet one of my precious grippers that I could remove my hand in an instant.  Didn't they try to lever their forearms through your thumb?

[AP]

I agree, there is a leverage technique we use in Wing Chun that it does not matter the size or strength on your hand. as a person who can close the master for reps, the smallest person in class can remove my hand with proper form. in fact, my instructor can use this as a joint lock by pinning my gripping hand to his arm and not alowing me to relese it...

[Guest kINGPIN]

There is a move from either Wing chun or Praying maintis Kung fu where you grip the hand that is gripping your forearm and rotate the the grabbed arm with a little pull.  Does not matter how strong you are, it is purely leverage, and the guy ends up in an arm lock.  I might have to go and teach the instructors a few moves.  

[Guest Claemore70]

The situation was like this:  A bearhug (me doing the hugging), and I was grasping my own wrist.  The instructor was the one being hugged, and barring any elbow strikes, stomps, or bites, the instructor was not able to pry my hands loose.  Later, after my hands had gotten tired, and I was working with another student, he was able to get a hold of a pinkie and start bending it, and I had to release.  But that was a couple of hours later.

[Guest Claemore70]

Just reread my original post, and I see that I wrote about grabbing "their" wrists.  That was a goof up, I meant my wrist.  And as far as other techniques go, you would be probably correct, but they (the instructors) must use the techniques that P.O.S.T. authorizes.  One of the techniques we did work with was a wrist grab, I worked with a female, and because my fingers could completely close around her wrist, she could not remove me.  The technique worked on the idea that the thumb is the weakest digit, and you would simply roll your wrist against the aggressor's thumb, while at the same time striking the soft spot between the thumb and forefinger.  It was not easy for the instructors to get out of my grip, but they could on that one.  I believe that is because their wrists were thicker, and I could not completely close around them.  I am still of the opinion that strength and heart will almost always win over technique.

[Roark]

My friend Bryan is very strong, and after training

long and hard, we gathered at the gym to witness

his attempt at deadlifting 300 lbs on the trap bar.

He pulled 35 consecutive reps!

He also trained in various forms of the martial arts

including the ultimate fighting style, being instructed

by one of the Gracie(spelling?) relatives.

At first Bryan weighing over 200 was handily defeated

by a much weaker 150 lb man, but after Bryan caught on

to the nuances of what he was being taught he began

winning, and even fought his instructor to a draw. But

he told me that technique will defeat strength in such

matters. But when technique is nearly equal between

opponents, then, of course, strength will be the deciding

factor, and on occasion his strength prevented his

body parts from being manipulated in certain ways by

his opponents.

The only other knowledge I have of such matters is

when in high school physical education class those I

wrestled would compliment my strength- little consolation

because they had just defeated me.

[AP]

bearhugs can be diffucult to get out of. you have to sink your hips, squat down and push backwards into your opponent(kinda like doing a machine hacksquat) at the same time you have to push down with your hands (like a tricep pressdown).  what can make this difficult is if your opponent is heavier and much stronger than you are. then they can squeeze tightly and even lift you up off the ground. this was probly the case, so then you have to focus on how they are gripping. in any case strength never hurts for these type of things but remember, technique puts your strongest point against their weakest- can you say that your hands are really stronger than your opponents legs?

also on the wrist grab- the twist and punch isn't very effective, my sifu could more easily bruise my wrist and hands than make me let go, the leverage move works much better