Kenpo Karate: Captured Twigs

Captured Twigs is a kenpo karate defensive technique used to defend against a bear hug from behind. The attacker attacks from behind, bear hugging the defender and capturing his arms in the bear hug. The defender pins the attacker's hands in place by grabbing with his left hand.

Then the defender steps to 9 o'clock with his left leg and squats into a horse stance, bringing with him the attacker, who now has to bend to keep the bear hug in place. As you step into the horse stance, your right hand should be in a hammer fist and striking the attacker in the groin. This will obviously stun the attacker.

This stunning technique should make the attacker loose his grip on the bear hug. At this point the defender lets go and gets the attacker's right hand away with a palm block. Also in this instant the defender will step his right foot into the 5 o'clock position.

Next the defender strikes with an elbow strike to the attacker's chin. After that right hand checks the attacker's right arm while the left hand guards the face and the right leg goes to a cat stance. And finally the defenders does a right snapping knife-edge kick to the inside of the right knee. That is Captured Twigs.

Now if yo have to defend against this, the prime objective you have is to guard your nuts. You may take several shots to the balls if you are not careful and make sure your opponent is completely in front of you the whole time. When your opponent steps into the horse stance, quickly move behind him to avoid the groin shot.

At this point you will be bent over. Depending on your relationship with ground fighting, you may want to knock out his knees and pin him to the ground. If not, you may be able to strike him in the balls from behind.