Defense against hair pulling

5 year(s) ago • 983 views • 11 replies

Black belt 1st degreeVerified314 forum posts4290/1000

I wanted to tap into the vast wealth of knowledge here to get some ideas for responses to the following scenarios:

1) child (say ages 5-10) starts getting dragged by the hair by an adult, what response(s) would you teach the child?

2) older kid to adult (say 12ish and up) is grabbed by the hair and is getting pulled again by an adult

For both scenarios, I’ve seen some videos suggesting to grab the hand and sit.

https://youtu.be/D8Dho9B45-U

https://youtu.be/a5Y0QAw_JqU

I think grabbing the hand and sitting could be useful, since it makes harder to drag a person. However, I don’t agree with trying to do a wrist lock or arm bar, especially in the scenario with a smaller child (link 2). Instead maybe upward heel kicks to the face?

Darren Huang

Purple beltVerified

32 forum posts1520/400

5 year(s) ago

Grab the hand and pin it to your own head to prevent injury to the scalp.
Sit to make it harder to be moved (and to make yourself a smaller target).
Use elbows to protect face.
I don't feel wrist locks/arm bars are going to be super practical options if there's a large strength gap or if the attacker is attacking/dragging you from behind - I'd agree that upkicks would be the best option here until the attacker releases their grip.

Edited 5 year(s) ago

Philip Dunlap

Black belt 3rd degreeVerified

1043 forum posts59560/1000

5 year(s) ago

Best option I can thing of is grab the hand, trap it to the head and dive hopefully hurting the wrist.. It's a hail mary attempt because honestly child versus adult the whole idea of stopping the adult is wishfull thinking.. If the dive does not woprk kid should go limp and scream fire and endure the pain making the adult try and drag a limp body by the hair and chances re the hair will tear out..

There is really no practical solution in this..

PS scream fire because studies have shown people respond to the word fire faster than violence

Nick TyauOP

Black belt 1st degreeVerified314 forum posts4290/1000

5 year(s) ago

Best option I can thing of is grab the hand, trap it to the head and dive hopefully hurting the wrist.. It's a hail mary attempt because honestly child versus adult the whole idea of stopping the adult is wishfull thinking.. If the dive does not woprk kid should go limp and scream fire and endure the pain making the adult try and drag a limp body by the hair and chances re the hair will tear out.. There is really no practical solution in this.. PS scream fire because studies have shown people respond to the word fire faster than violence

Agreed. I’m thinking the best thing in a child scenario is to cause as much delay as possible until someone notices. I don’t think joint locks are practical or realistic.

Grabbing the hand would seem to offload some of the pain and sitting/lying down creates dead weight.

John A. Byrne

Black beltVerified

1013 forum posts6370/1000

5 year(s) ago

For 2 - I'm a fan of a doublegrab attackers wrist with both of tori's hands - drop your center, then turn away to the outside- a lot of times the torque gets them to release and you have their arm to either run away - or hold if you want / fall into a arm-lock (waki-gatame)

I'm a fan of running personally unless I can't...

Edited 5 year(s) ago

Brad Neumyer

Purple beltVerified

128 forum posts1515/400

5 year(s) ago

I would also suggest kicking the shins from the ground as part of the response if the reach for an upkick is not feasible.

Nick TyauOP

Black belt 1st degreeVerified314 forum posts4290/1000

5 year(s) ago

I would also suggest kicking the shins from the ground as part of the response if the reach for an upkick is not feasible.

Yes I was thinking I something similar. Even if it doesn’t do a lot of damage. Anything that makes things more difficult for the abductor

Paul Cunningham

Black beltVerified

102 forum posts2920/1000

5 year(s) ago

Here is a possible solution, like many of you have mentioned adult vs child really complicates the situation.

Definitely grab the hand first to relieve the pain from the hair pull. Secondly sit down and then try wrap legs and one arm around one leg of the attacker or both if possible, this starts to inhibit the attackers ability to walk.

Then probably most importantly, make as much noise as possible to try get help.

This is always a tough one...

Nick TyauOP

Black belt 1st degreeVerified314 forum posts4290/1000

5 year(s) ago

Here is a possible solution, like many of you have mentioned adult vs child really complicates the situation. Definitely grab the hand first to relieve the pain from the hair pull. Secondly sit down and then try wrap legs and one arm around one leg of the attacker or both if possible, this starts to inhibit the attackers ability to walk. Then probably most importantly, make as much noise as possible to try get help. This is always a tough one...

I like this idea too if wrapping legs around the arms. I think I’ll start experimenting with some of these.