Grabbing the wrist is often the first step of an attack. The attacker is subconsciously aiming to take away your ability to hit back. It could be used to pull you closer to them or to prevent you from resisting (e.g. flailing or punching).

Here, I’ll teach you one move to help prevent any person from grabbing you in the first place (if your reaction time is fast enough) and two techniques to release yourself from the grip.

As the person reaches out and attempts to grab your wrist, you would perform the first two movements in Section 8 of Si Nim Tau. (A video of this will soon be available on my Youtube channel).

Imagine the person is trying to grab your left wrist. You should straighten the left arm that is being grabbed and place your right hand facing upwards on your left elbow. From here, just as the person is about to grab your arm, you would pull your left hand back towards your body whilst twisting it and push down your right hand from your elbow to where your left hand had previously been. 

The purpose of this is so that not only do you move your hand away from them, but you also hit their arm (just above the wrist) away in one smooth motion. This should be done before your wrist is grabbed, otherwise, it will not have any effect. Furthermore, making an impact with your hand on their arm would leave them in pain for a little bit of time, providing you with an opportunity to follow up with an attack, such as the Wing Chun punches we previously discussed.

As I have mentioned in the past, though this technique may seem simple in theory, it is vital that you practice this with a partner so that you become confident enough to be able to use this on the streets, if you ever have to.

“I fear not the man who has practised 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practised one kick 10,000 times.”

Bruce Lee

A video of this technique will soon be uploaded to my Youtube channel and linked below