How to make the arms go limp when faced with double wrist grab?

[Prince_Alarming114 144]

Pinan Yondan for extra win

 

[windwalker099114 145]

I had been double wrist grabbed once and in the face of overwhelming strength from the other guy doing the grabbing, I couldn't move both my arms. I've heard that you can just "go limp" to be able to free yourself but what is the science of going limp?

Think of it as a "coupling"

The grab creates a coupling between the two people. Rather than directly opposing the force used to maintain the grab, the coupling allows that force to become part of the interaction.

From the perspective of coupling, the Taiji principle of 不丢不顶 用 意 (bù diū bù dǐng yòng yì) can be viewed as:

不丢 (bù diū) — not breaking the coupling.
不顶 (bù dǐng) — not rigidifying the coupling.
用 意 (yòng yì) — using intention to guide the interaction through the coupling.

丢 (diū) means to lose or disconnect. Once the coupling is broken, force, information, and influence can no longer be transmitted through the connection.

顶 (dǐng) means to press against or oppose directly. When the coupling becomes rigid, force is met with force and resistance is immediately generated.

用 意 (yòng yì) means that the action is directed by intention, not by muscular effort. The mind leads; the body follows. The rotational action enters through the coupling without immediately revealing its direction. Because the force is not met head-on, additional counterforce is not added until after the effect has already begun.

As a result, the force maintaining the grab is incorporated into the rotational interaction and returned through the same pathway. The grabber's own force becomes part of the mechanism producing the effect rather than something that must first be overcome.


In this sense, 不丢不顶 and 用意不用力 are not merely tactical instructions. They describe maintaining a functional coupling through which force, torque, and information can be transmitted without either losing the connection or turning it into a contest of opposing forces.

In practice, this means you do not pull away from the grab or tense against it. You maintain the coupling, introduce rotation through whole-body intention, and allow the interaction to develop through the connection rather than against it.

like this

 

[Flying Crane]

You don't need to go limp, but you have to relax. The only place where the opponent is strong is where he's grabbing, and if you tense up you just give him a way to transfer that strength to control the rest of your body. Leave the wrists where they are and move around them:

P.s.: Everybody gangsta till somebody actually grabs both your wrists in "the street"

Hey, Yoshinkai, that’s the lineage in which I train

 

[Branko Knezevic18]

I had been double wrist grabbed once and in the face of overwhelming strength from the other guy doing the grabbing, I couldn't move both my arms. I've heard that you can just "go limp" to be able to free yourself but what is the science of going limp? In an adrenaline rush situation, I can't just switch off the tense feeling in my arms to go limp. At least for me it's not that simple. So what is the easier way to suddenly enter limp mode? Has it go something to do with freeing the dantien point in the stomach? Or does it require some sort of relaxation in the brain? I really don't know how to enter relaxed/limp mode.

I had been double wrist grabbed once and in the face of overwhelming strength from the other guy doing the grabbing, I couldn't move both my arms. I've heard that you can just "go limp" to be able to free yourself but what is the science of going limp? In an adrenaline rush situation, I can't just switch off the tense feeling in my arms to go limp. At least for me it's not that simple. So what is the easier way to suddenly enter limp mode? Has it go something to do with freeing the dantien point in the stomach? Or does it require some sort of relaxation in the brain? I really don't know how to enter relaxed/limp mode.

I don't think "going limp" is the answer by itself.

If someone grabs your wrists, your options depend largely on how well you can organize and coordinate the joints of the entire body—not just the arms. The shoulders, elbows, wrists, spine, hips, knees, and ankles all contribute to creating opportunities for escape.

In my experience, the important issue is not maximum relaxation or maximum tension, but the ability to rapidly adjust the amount of tension being used. Sometimes you need enough structure to redirect force or alter the line of pressure; at other times you need to release unnecessary tension so movement remains available.

I tend to think of this in terms of skeletal relationships and force vectors rather than simply "going limp." The ability to increase or decrease tension quickly is itself a trainable skill. It usually does not appear automatically under stress unless it has been developed through practice.

 

[Headbald]

we have a technique that when grabbed forcibly by both waist you pull the person in toward you while at the same time delivering doing a front snap kick to his manhood.

Tried to kick him when I was wrist grabbed at both hands. Didn't work. Any "kickable" parts, manhood included was out of reach of my legs.
(Unless you mean I should pull the person towards you right at the very beginning during the wrist grab as early as possible. Is that what you mean? )

 

[Headbald]

You don't need to go limp, but you have to relax. The only place where the opponent is strong is where he's grabbing, and if you tense up you just give him a way to transfer that strength to control the rest of your body. Leave the wrists where they are and move around them:

P.s.: Everybody gangsta till somebody actually grabs both your wrists in "the street"

So I presume in 0:46 to 0:49 the guy on the right managed to twist his arms around the double wrist grab because he was relaxed?

 

[Headbald]

For clarification, what happened was I was pushed onto the ground by someone and when I got back up, his larger sized friend double wrist grabbed me to stop me just in case I wanted to chase after his acquaintance. My feeling at that time was that the overwhelming force of both his arms was too powerful for me to break out of and kicking wouldn't help cause all the targets on that dude was unreachable by my legs. So I was just wondering if going limp or relaxing the body while doing some twisting with my arms can help me get free of the grip. Probably because I heard some people say something like "Weaker strength cannot fight a stronger person so you have to relax and then twist during the relaxed mode." Or something to that effect.

 

[Kung Fu Wang114 145]

his larger sized friend double wrist grabbed me ...

Again, to twist your arms against his "thumb" (not against his other 4 fingers).

Try this on yourself and see how you may feel.

 

[Headbald]

Again, to twist your arms against his "thumb" (not against his other 4 fingers).

Try this on yourself and see how you may feel.

Thanks. Sorry I didn't mention to you that his intention was not to hit me after the wrist grab but only to stop me from chasing after his friend earlier in the thread. I was afraid that people would assume that I wanted to break free just to chase after his friend to beat him up. (After watching your video I think I roughly get the idea now. Is it that the space in between the thumb and forefinger is the weak spot of the grabber's hands?)

 

[O'Malley101 12]

So I presume in 0:46 to 0:49 the guy on the right managed to twist his arms around the double wrist grab because he was relaxed?

That's pretty much it. When your wrist is grabbed, your fingers are on one side of the grab, and your body is on the other side. To escape the grab, leave the wrist in place, make your fingers circle in one direction around the grab, and make your body circle in the opposite direction.

And yes, you need to be relaxed but this does not mean limp. Think about a person with long straight hair: the hair is soft but gravity pulls it down and so it stays in shape. Or when you throw a ball, you're not rigid but you're not limp. It's that kind of feeling.

 

[Kung Fu Wang114 145]

the thumb and forefinger is the weak spot of the grabber's hands?)

It takes less effort to fight against 1 finger (thumb) than to fight against 4 fingers. When you fight against forefinger, you are fighting against the other 3 fingers as well.

 

[Darren1 1]

Tried to kick him when I was wrist grabbed at both hands. Didn't work. Any "kickable" parts, manhood included was out of reach of my legs.
(Unless you mean I should pull the person towards you right at the very beginning during the wrist grab as early as possible. Is that what you me

Tried to kick him when I was wrist grabbed at both hands. Didn't work. Any "kickable" parts, manhood included was out of reach of my legs.
(Unless you mean I should pull the person towards you right at the very beginning during the wrist grab as early as possible. Is that what you mean? )

 

[Headbald]

Thanks. Your video is clear to understand.

 

[Darren1 1]

Thanks. Your video is clear to understand.

that is not me. that is Larry Tatum.

 

[Headbald]

that is not me. that is Larry Tatum.

I meant "your" video as in the video that you posted, not that you appeared in it.