Neck Break...wait, what?

[joesteph]

Ah, found it. Here is the link: http://video.aol.co.uk/video-detail/womens-self-defense-neck-break/2285485387

It's Mallory Senne, who does women's self-defense and has excelled at Aikido. Here's the focus on breaking the neck from another of her videos, this one on eHow/Expert Village:

http://www.ehow.com/video_4949105_self-defense-neck-breaks.html

The video you directed us to, Cathal, has her first move as the first move application in Soo Bahk Do's Chil Sung Il Ro Hyung, which is also taught as a defense from being seized from behind.

But the second move in SBD is a takedown, not a neck break. I like the joint lock, but the only way I can see using that neck break is if you're kicking him like mad where he is and he just shrugs it off. How? He's on drugs, what else.

[sensei8]

Here's the focus on breaking the neck from another of her videos, this one on eHow/Expert Village:

http://go.karateforums.com/?id=378X600&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ehow.com%2Fvideo_4949105_self-defense-neck-breaks.html

I still don't see it as a viable effective technique! Has she ever actually done it? I wonder what medical doctors say about this 'technique'?

[joesteph]

I'd posted that the first move (that Cathal's video link went to) was also the first move in a Soo Bahk Do hyung, that move to flow into the next, which is a takedown.

I spoke with my teacher tonight, and I did the first move, but instead of moving into takedown position, seized her fingers as though I were to perform a joint lock. (There was no need to go further.) She agreed that it was another application of follow-up from the first move, but to follow that lock with a neck break she considered way overboard. In the position the uke is in in that video, as I described it to her, he could be kicked in the stomach and you take off, or you could break one of his fingers and take off, but to wrench or actually break someone's neck isn't something my teacher, who is a fourth ("sa bom") dan would even consider.

[bushido_man96]

I don't imagine that in an altercation that the neck is going to be that easy to manipulate. If someone grabs your head, I imagine that most of us would tighten our neck muscles, especially if we feel that the head is beginning to be manipulated. So, I don't know how practical that would be.

[Nobodysaidbella]

I doubt that neck break would be entirely effective. And certainly not as effective as, say, an armbar imo.

As said earlier, imagine the legal ramifications for killing someone. I've been told that if you have a black belt, you can be charged with possession of a deadly weapon.

[tallgeese]

There's no special charge anywhere in the US for being a trained fighter of any sort. That's been floating around MA circles for years and it's simply not true.

Can your training and experience come into play when using legal statute to determine a "reasonable" response? You bet.

Bear in mind; however, that this does NOT rule out any sort of use of lethal force by a trained ma-ist. If you are faced with a deadly force threat then you can and SHOULD respond in kind. Taking mental prep for applying such tactics off the table ahead of time can put one at a disadvantage when you actually have to use them.

It will also be more likely to set one up for PTSD after the fact.

Best to accept and prep for the fact that one might have to apply movements that could cause great bodily harm or death. Again, I'm not sold on this particular tactic, but I think some of the underlying thought process that's developed on the thread is more important.

[DWx]

Aside from the moral and legal issues of whether its right or wrong to do the break, (personally I think its irresponsible to teach any SD without consideration for appropriate level of response), I don't think its all that practical what she's doing.

Once she's got the attacker in the joint lock, why let go to break the neck? Pressumably if she managed to get the attacker on the floor and hold him there through the joint lock, isn't it a bit stupid to the let go and attempt to grab the head? So much could go wrong, the attacker only needs that split second on freedom to grab her legs and take her down or get back up and attack her. She'd be much better off doing something like a knee kick to his face or stamping on his achilles while maintaining control over him through the lock. And as others have said the neck break isn't really all that practical either, to me she doesn't look like she has the strength to force a reasonably muscley guy's head to twist fast enough.

[tallgeese]

Personally, I'm not even a fan of thinking of the finger thing as a "lock". Any sort of tuite manuver was designed to break joints. Not control them for protracted periods.

I tend to think of them along these lines. If I have to move someone with one, that's ok. But I never rely on one to actaully lock or hold anything.