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Jeet Kune Do

Filipino Kali

Kuntao Silat

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Head Butts, Knees & Elbows

The Most Barbaric Tools On The Body

In trapping range, we can utilize the most barbaric tools on the body (headbutts, knees, elbows) that have the capacity to take an opponent out of commission. The three most explosive, injurious moves to end fights fast! If you stay out in long range and trade bombs (punches and kicks) with someone, the bigger, stronger, faster, younger person usually wins. On the other hand, when we talk about slamming our head into someone’s face, or driving a knee into the groin, size and strength become irrelevant.

Knees

Knees are one of the most formidable and dangerous tools of Filipino Kali. In Tagalog, knees are called “Tuhod”. The knee strikes are delivered to different parts of the human anatomy with devastating results:
1. To attack the groin
2. To attack the head (often from different types of clinch positions)
3. To attack the legs
4. To attack the body

Leg Destructions using knees to counter attack kicks are a signature move of Panantukan and Pananjakman, as are Sandwich Knees to the head. Knee strikes are a great way to finish fights!

Elbows

In the Filipino Martial Arts, elbows are usually thrown in combination. A Kali man can hit in combination with both elbows at an incredible speed. The main targets for the elbows are the hands, the bicep or tricep, the deltoid, the collarbone, and the face and head. The elbow is also used to defend against kicks or knees.

Elbow techniques are often prized as serious fight finishing techniques and they can inflict quite a lot of damage either by the concussive force (often compared to getting hit by a baseball bat) or by the elbows edge.

Limb destruction is commonly performed with 2 tools at the upper body area, these being the hand and the elbow. Of these the elbow is by far the more potent weapon in terms of destructive impact, but the hand has the reach & greater adaptability. Common methods in which the elbow is employed is by using the point of the elbow on the fingers of the fist, or driving into the bicep or pectoral. Against a kick the point of the elbow is dropped onto various points on the leg, or the fist strikes the inside of the thigh on entry, depending upon the range. This usually renders the limb completely useless on the first shot, and stuns the opponent. The only drawback to using the elbow is that, due to its position (halfway up the arm) unless you are attacking the opponent’s outstretched extremity, you must clear and cover a large gap to employ it. This method demands the perfection of evasion, entry and trapping skills, as you will not be able to close the gap without them. That said, the elbow has awesome maneuverability & destructive power on the inside line, serving for attack or trapping as well, and second only to the knife at close range.

The Filipino martial arts including Eskrima, Arnis and Kali are all primarily weapon’s based systems with the main focus being on the use of stick, double weapon methods, blades, swords and short-knives. In most of these systems, the empty-hands curriculum is based on movements derived from the weapons arts so as not to waste valuable training time.

Likewise, it allows the practitioner to be adaptable and universal with his techniques as there are a wide variety of cross-over movements which require little or no adjustment. For further personal research Filipino empty-hand techniques often goes by various names such as Pangamut, Panantukan (dirty boxing), Sikaran or Pananjakman (low-line kicking).

Head Butts

A head butt is a strike with the head, typically involving the use of robust parts of the cranium as the area of impact. Effective head butting involves striking a sensitive area of an opponent using the forehead, such as the nose of an opponent. It can be considered a very effective but risky maneuver as a misplaced strike can cause greater injury to the person delivering the head butt than to the person receiving it.

Head butts can be used from close range such as from the clinch, or on the ground. They are typically applied to the head of the opponent, since the head is often a readily available target and has several sensitive areas. An effective head butt can be performed with a forward, rising, sideways or backwards motion; each being effective from different positions.

Parts of the cranium with thick bone and high local curvature make for good weapon areas, and these include the forehead near the hairline, the outboard curved part of the parietal bone, and the occiput. Ideal targets are usually the fragile areas of the head, including the bridge of the nose, the cheekbones, the hinge area of the jaw, the temple, and the top edge of the eye socket.

Hitting the opponent's teeth or mouth is likely to cause mutual damage. The chin of the enemy is also a generally bad position to head butt unless striking from below up into the bottom of the chin, similar to an uppercut.

The Jeet Kune Do Head Butt
The head butt is one of the world's most brutal techniques in fighting, when it comes to the street or in the ring. Head butts in the ring have stopped many a great boxer, and these are not intentional head butts. The boxer who uses knees, elbows, shins and holding with hitting is a very big threat to your person. Knowing how to defend becomes very smart thinking. Here is some things to help you on your way.

Warm-ups tilt head forward, back and side to side. You must strengthen your neck for the strikes. Isometrics push, forward back side to side. wrestling bridges are great for strength and flexibility.

Drills: work with a heavy bag. Place your hand on the bag, to pull it in to strike with a head butt go easy working on hitting with the top of the forehead. keep your mouth closed and jaw tight work at forward head butts, to the side and back.

The head butt is to be used with eye rakes, thumb pikes, elbows, knees, traps and follow up with chin head twist takedowns in using the head butt use the top of your head or higher forehead and back of head. you will find you don't have to hit very hard to get a reaction.

Head butt should be use as an intermediate technique than a finishing move, you should follow-up with something else. Head butt uses when the levels close of the lines of attack close, trapping hands, wrist grabs, bear hugs, grabs from sides.

Immobilize your opponents arms; strike to face it is better to go forehead to face. Then face to face. With supported head butt grabbing head, or unsupported head butt you don't grab. What not to do hit with the face practice angles head to head not forehead, body ramming, spearing, head at different angles, you must have a strong entering, and finishing technique.

Head Butting Applications
1. With respect to the holds I discussed, it is obviously possible to mix-and-match them. For instance, the neck hook with an elbow grab is a street version of the collar-and-elbow wrestling tie-up.

2. There are many other holds that can be used with head butts; I’m fond of butting after trapping. Traps, pummeling, etc. can also be used to release the opponent’s holds and then counter-butt. For instance, there are many escapes from the double-lapel grab.

3. A *major* point to note with respect to head butts is that many of the positions are symmetrical - if you can butt him, he can butt you. This puts a big premium on timing, control of the opponent with bumps and holds, and defensive reactions when you lose the initiative. If you train and practice head butts, however, you will be light years ahead of both streetfighters and (most) martial artists in being able to ‘flow’ with your head butts and complementary techniques. The average fighter can only deliver a head butt as an isolated ‘singleton,’ if he even tries one at all.

4. Defense against the head butt mostly consists of moving (slightly) away, moving far away (breaking the range), staying so close (touching) that there is no room to butt, blocking with the hands, stop-hitting or countering with the head or shoulder (or palm-heel, etc.), and applying smothering pull-ins and deflections such as I described earlier.

I’m going to elaborate a bit on some of these defensive aspects. A major defensive method to prevent butts is to put your head against the opponent’s head. But you usually must do more than just touch heads - otherwise the opponent can quickly pull away to get room to butt. You must either press so that your head follows his if he attempts to get separation for butting (sensitivity required), or you must push his head to the limit of its range of motion so he can’t pull away to butt (strength required).

Moving (swaying back, turning) your head away from a butt must be done in a flowing manner - otherwise it opens you up and gives the opponent the distance he needs to initiate another butt or other blow. Think in terms of slipping, bobbing, and weaving from boxing (for instance, incoming butts should ‘just miss’ not ‘miss by a mile’). If moving stops working, ‘clinch’ with your head - that is, go back to a tight head-to-head (or head-to-chest) position. These days I’m trying to borrow a page from Bruce Lee and apply fencing theory. For headbutts, this might mean cutovers, presses, beats, disengagements, linear, circle, and half-circle parries, etc.

If things are going badly you can try to break off the butting duel - push away for greater range. For instance, the double shoulder/lapel grab usually allows you to exercise this option. You can also suddenly push away even when you’re winning the butting duel in order to sneak in an over-the-top elbow, etc. Mixing short and very-short range and the techniques that go with them really confuses an opponent. Very few MAs appreciate the subtle distinctions between these two striking ranges (adding grappling further complicates the picture). (My classification system for striking ranges and corresponding typical techniques goes: long range = kicking only; medium range = ‘outside’ punching/shorter kicks; short range = bent-arm blows, elbows, knees, trapping; very-short range = head-butts, shoulders, palm-heels. The ranges are obviously not sharply-defined and exclusive but a continuum and blows can be used outside their ‘home range’).

5. A plug for the shortest striking technique using the hand: the palm-heel. When even short hooks only land as rabbit punches and the uppercut is crowded out, the palm-heel can still be used effectively. Use it not just as a pure strike, but as a ‘grazing’ strike, as a (bastardized) pak-sao/slap, a push/strike, or a pure push.

6. A few words about blocking with the hand(s). The hand(s) can be used to stop or cushion a butt by absorbing the butt as it comes in (think of catching a fastball bare-handed - you would absorb it, not put your hand up rigidly). If your hands are already on the opponent’s head you can resist by tensing/pushing whenever he tries to butt (sensitivity required).

I’m not a believer in eye strikes on the fly. (Although bil-jee is a great move, it’s not to my taste - it’s too natural for the opponent to duck and too easy to break a finger). To get the opponent’s eyes, start with your hands already on his head/face or block the opponent’s butt with a double palm-heel, fingers curling horizontally to the outside - then reach the fingers a bit further back, stabilize the opponent’s head, and gouge his eyes with your thumbs. Butt him on the bridge of the nose if he pulls his head back to decrease the pressure on his eyes (or on the temple if he turns away).

7. For equal-height opponents all the head and shoulder techniques work. For moderate mismatches in height the taller man will find it hard to position himself for rising strikes while the shorter man gives up downwards strikes to the face of his opponent (he should target the breastbone instead). The rising strikes are tricky - for a slightly shorter man they work magnificently, but if he is just a bit shorter than that they start to be hard to land with power. A pull-in of the opponent’s face into the top of the head works well for a moderately shorter man; for that reason a taller man must be alert to avoid any defensive duck or butt when he butts downward. The shoulder strikes can be used by both, but usually work a bit better for the taller man (especially true for the rising shoulder).

If an opponent is much shorter, the taller man may only be able to use shoulder strikes, not headbutts - the much shorter man has only the butt to the chest (the shoulder moves would still work but they don’t have good targets). However, the head-on-chest is (ignoring grappling) one of the best places for a small man to be in a fight. (And grappling just makes it different, not worse.)

Training Methods
Let's look at training methods. Most of this is fairly obvious except perhaps for a few small points. There are two schools with respect to training head butts: heavy and light impact. I'll reveal my prejudice now and tell you I'm of the light-impact school. Some people have heads of stone (do they operate from a nexus halfway down their spine?) while others get killer headaches from even medium contact. Regularly butting full power onto heavy bags, etc. is too much for me. I'm afraid I'll become like the punch-drunk fighter in Jerry Lewis' sketch who says, "I've had...uh...forty-two fights and...uh...I've won 'em all...uh...except forty-one."

In point form:

1. Neck strength is an obvious asset when executing head butts. Exercises include isometrics, head straps and weights, rubber bands, self-resistance (hands against head, etc.), and partner resistance. A particularly valuable solo exercise is the wrestler's bridge (forward, backwards and transitions). Once you gain sufficient strength statically, be sure to dynamically work the neck through its entire range of motion with the bridges - flexibility is important as well as strength. A good partner exercise is to single-neck-hook' each other and really hang your weight on the hook while moving around, snapping down, resisting, etc. - go easy the first few times or your whole back and neck will really ache the next day. (And remember, it's an exercise, not a contest.)

Neck strength is important for wrestling but the defensive benefits for striking arts are often overlooked. A strong neck helps the head and body move (nearly) as one when the head is struck - this results in less 'whiplash' to the head and 'sloshing' of the brain inside the skull.

2. It's worthwhile to Shadow Box with the head using, for instance, the linked butting exercises I discussed earlier. Try to practice the head moves together with the rest of your short-range repertoire (palm-heels, elbows, shoulders, knees, etc.). This helps develop rhythm and coordination.

3. A solo exercise I recommend for head butts is light-contact using some sort of Speed Bag. (Speed bags are too lively for shoulder-strike practice unless you have lightning reflexes.) There are two types that I think are good. For each type you can use a commercially-available bag or the roll-your-own kind.

The first type uses a head-sized inflatable ball (very like a soccer ball or basketball) suspended on a taut bungee cord above and (important) also below so it returns fairly quickly when hit. It's very convenient to be able to adjust the height so you can practice against simulated tall, medium, and short opponents. Be sure to sometimes mix in the odd palm-heel, elbow, or head pull-in with your head butts.

The second type is like a boxer's speed bag (in fact, one of those would work pretty well). It also uses a head-sized inflatable ball. The ball is suspended only from above, quite close to the ball. The apparatus may also include a (removable) backstop a few inches behind the ball from which it can rebound; the bag motions with and without the backstop add variety. I have only seen adjustable-height versions of this type of bag on expensive professional-boxing models. This second type of bag is much faster than the first type and will really sharpen your butting reflexes. (If it's too fast, try deflating the ball a bit to make it deader.)

4. Heavy Bag work is great for shoulder strikes but I would go easy on head butts. Even if you favor light-contact, however, occasionally do a *few* full-power butts to get the feel of them. Be extremely careful (especially before your technique - and your neck - are very strong) to avoid a fast-approaching swing of the bag hitting your head - you can seriously injure your neck. As for breaking boards or other objects with a head butt, you can do this if you like - I'll abstain.

5. The last training method is Light Sparring with a partner. You both wear full-contact type headgear complete with chin, cheek, and face protection. I like plastic face shields for face protection better than wire grids but shields *are* rather 'steamy' and claustrophobic. The protection lets you do light *not heavy* sparring - don't overdo it! Wear a chest-guard if you're going to include shoulder strikes or butts to the chest. And don't forget your mouthguard! Even with padding and only moderate impact you will gain an appreciation of the power of a good headbutt.
 

Counters

Countering Head Butts
1. jam the line
2. slip to side
3. slip and shoulder strike
4. stop the grabbing hand
5. ride it in to clinch
6. circling hand with follow ups

Countering Knees
1. Long range: scoops/pats, inside-outside with stepping
2. Close range: Elbow deflection, driving downward elbows, hand jam to hip

Countering Elbows
1. Parallel cut
2. cross cut
3. parallel cut with pass
4. cross cut/pass
5. plum neck cut
6. cross lift
7. Palm jam
8. catch with cross lift
9. parallel lift
10. catch lift with trap down