If I see another knee to the rump (that is, the gluteus muscle), I’m going to pull my hair out. Students who have otherwise completed a solid defense during training find themselves quartered away from control position – angled off near the back of the attacker, and in a rote and mechanical way, fire knees at the bum.
First of all, the gluteus muscles are huge, powerful masses that can absorb all you can throw at them, particularly under acute stress. Second, unlike the throat, jaw line (AKA the horseshoe), eyes, brachial nerve, and groin, the gluteus muscles can and often are trained to become stronger, thicker, and more resilient (that’s what the squatting motion does). Lastly, it’s just silly.
So what do we do about this? And, perhaps more importantly, is this a symptom of a larger problem. The answer is – yes. The solution is the “sight picture drill.” Essentially, the drill allows the student a quick look (sight picture) at an attacker posing in a specific way. For our purposes, the attacker is doubled over and quartered away (where the knee to the a@# so often is thrown). The student then prescribes a combative that fits that specific sight picture. In this way, you can discuss the answers and include instructional advice during the drill.
The drill can progress to include physical combatives, multiple attackers, require faster answers, and so on. The process helps each student to associate an appropriate combative with the sight picture presented.
Check out the video…and try this with your students (it works!).
