Krav Maga Yashir Boston - Baseball Bat Attacks

Krav Maga Solutions to Sticks, Batons and Baseball Bat Attacks

Baseball bats, sticks and batons, are relatively large/long weapons that aren’t easily carried about the person like a knife or gun etc. You can’t simply put such types of weapons in your pocket. This means that attacks using them usually occur in very specific scenarios e.g., somebody retrieves a tire iron from the trunk/boot of their car, or comes out of their house carrying a baseball bat that they keep by their front door for “home defense” etc. However, an individual may pick up a piece of piping or scaffolding that they find in their environment, or realize that a snooker/pool cue in a bar that they are at, could be used as an “improvised” weapon etc., and so you find yourself having to deal with somebody using a bat-like weapon etc. This is why Krav Maga presents techniques and solutions for dealing with bat and stick like weapons.

Whilst somebody armed with a knife may only have to make contact with their weapon in order to be effective, somebody armed with a stick-like weapon needs to generate power with it, if they are to cause blunt-force trauma. Whilst Krav Maga does present solutions to individuals “stabbing” with a stick/baton (much of which comes and derives from defenses against bayonet attacks which are taught to the military), when looking at civilian self-defense scenarios, Krav Maga recognizes that most untrained individuals are likely to “swing” such weapons rather than stab with them etc. This means that an attacker will need to have the room and space to generate any power. Sometimes simply denying this renders such weapons ineffective e.g., if you can get between two parked cars you limit the way such a weapon can be used, and unless trained your assailant is likely to be restricted in how they use this weapon – this can be to your advantage if they become weapon-centric and continue to focus on it, rather than realize that in this environment it is ineffective and so discard it etc.

In dealing with any type of attack there are two things which need to be accounted for. These are where the focus of the attack is, and how the power of the attack is generated. In any type of stick attack the focus of the power – when swung – is towards the last third of ifs length e.g., a baseball hitter such as Ted Williams or Carl Yastrzemski (of the Boston Red Sox), would look – if wanting to gain distance/a home run - to be striking the ball towards the end of the bat etc., as this offers the greatest leverage/power. As the point of impact moves out of this last third and towards the hand(s), the power decreases exponentially e.g., if you move your head (the target/focus of the attack), inside of the last third, even if you failed to make a block or intercept it with your hand, the power would in all likelihood not be enough to result in a concussion or serious injury etc. This emphasizes the importance of the body defense component of Krav Maga defenses i.e., that as well as any hand movement involved in a defense there should also be a body defense. Simply moving towards an attacker who is swinging a bat will significantly reduce the power of the attack.

This idea/concept of hand-defense/body-defense is fundamental to all Krav Maga techniques. If you are interested in learning how it applies to both armed and unarmed attacks in practice you can attend one of our beginner’s Krav Maga classes at our studio just north of Boston. We are a short drive up I-93 and have free on-site parking. To register please use the button below.

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