Maintaining your footing is one of the fundamental notions that we learn to deal with in self defense as well as in all sports, in general!
Indeed, not being able to remain strong on your feet makes it difficult to react during a fight, and even more difficult not to fall. This is all the more important that falling puts the defender in a particularly dangerous position…
There are many reasons why someone can fall during a fight, so we will only take one example to illustrate our article, that of a strangulation from behind considering that the attackers aims at pushing his victim backwards in order to bring him to the ground.
Avoid falling by keeping your center of gravity under control
Quite simply, the lower your center of gravity, the harder it is to make you fall.
It’s common sense. You must have realized a long time ago that it is easier to unbalance a tall person who weight the same as you than a small person.
If you understand this concept related to the center of gravity which is approximately between the navel and the pubic bone, you will also understand that depending on where you push your attacker, it will be easier or harder to unbalance him.
To put it simply, any backward pushing motion above the shoulder girdle (shoulders) will result in an imbalance.
This is typically what happens in a strangulation from behind (“commando” or “sport” type, whatever).
Here, the aggressor can quickly and easily put his victim off balance if she is standing, by pressing backwards on her anterior-posterior axis.
You can compensate for this imbalance by adjusting your center of gravity in a very simple way.
Indeed, all you have to do is to move from a “standing” position to a “low” position, i.e. a wide position, closer to the ground, with your legs spread out, in diagonal (one leg in front, one leg behind, creating an angle of about 45° with respect to your initial transversal axis).
This position which is difficult to describe on paper ensures maximum stability and also allows good access to the genitals!
By shifting this way, the attacker’s backward push loses becomes much more useless, especially if you manage to spread your weight forward, although it is not as easy as it seems in case of a real strangulation.
The big mistake when a beginner tries to move from a “standing” position to a “low” position is to arch backwards, or to bend down while keeping his feet on the same line.
In the first case, it becomes even easier for the attacker to throw the victim off balance, as his center of gravity is completely shifted.
In the second case, the backward push remains fully effective because although the victim has lowered her center of gravity, she has not modified her transverse axis.
During training, it is relatively easy to fix this fault. However, in real life, it is much more tricky to rebalance oneself while trying to clear the airways that are still blocked by the aggressor’s arm.
This is why it is also recommended to use one’s body weight during the transition from “standing” to “low” position.
