Hajutsu: Escape Methods

One of the movement section of our taijutsu training explores the idea of hajutsu- escape methods. These movements illustrate various ways of freeing oneself from being grabbed, restrained, or held in place. An important point of these form-skills is to be able to get moving again, that when restrained the important point is that you no longer control the distance or the timing, and getting free to start moving again restores that, it is not about fighting with or countering the training partner at this point.

But there is another layer of understanding in these skills (waza), the understanding of what happened before it, what was happening that allowed one to be grabbed or restrained by the training partner.

Martial art awareness.

While we are training to escape from the restraint, we are also working on awareness drills and distance drills exploring options on what happens before, working on those skills to prevent the grab or restraint in the first place.