Below, you will find reflections from the stand-up grappling practice that I led at Fit Factory Jiu Jitsu, 3814 Boyd’s Creek Highway, Sevierville, TN on October 21, 2024.
Do you know how to use your head?
Before I bore you by analyzing the load bearing structure of the cervical spine and its associated musculature, lets can consider our direct experience. Any time an opponent is able to apply pressure to the top, or especially the back, of our head, they can control us. This experience must inform how we orient ourselves towards our opponents. By keeping our cervical spine in at least slight extension, we limit our opponent’s access to the top and back of our head. Bonus, this is its preferred orientation for strong posture.
I typically cue people to imagine the bridge of their nose as a gun sight and to keep that sight aimed at the chest/throat of their opponent.
If the bridge of your nose is pointing at their hips (or heaven forbid, their feet) then your spine will have come out of extension and the top or back of your head will be readily accessible.
That has posture covered, now let’s look at placement.
At close range, when we are making head contact with our opponent, we want to be preferentially using our forehead as opposed to the crown or the side of our head.
There are three main locations where I encourage people to place their heads. I’ve listed them in order of increasing control over our opponent but decreasing ease of access.
Forehead
This includes the lateral arc of their head from one temple, across their forehead, to the other temple.
The lateral positions are preferred (assuming you’re winning the grips and can sustain the orientation) and will afford a slight leverage advantage versus the front of the forehead.
Note that all variations of this position leave the head exposed to counterattack from the opponent’s hands.
Front-corner neck pocket
This is the “hollow” where the neck meets the trap, just above the collarbone.
This position exerts less of a lever action against the opponent’s head, but can be worth the trade because it brings your hands closer to their torso and your head is less vulnerable to counterattack by their hands, allowing you to camp the position more consistently.
Front armpit
When we shoot for a snatch single, this is where we aim to put our head. It can also be used to setup a duck-under or rear bodylock.
This is the strongest of the three locations because it allows you to wedge up and in to the opponent, lengthening that side of their body and forcing their weight into one leg, making them easier to off-balance.
Additionally, it is even harder for them to counter your head position with their hands because it is effectively inside the range of the near arm and almost all the way across the body from the other arm.
In recent practice, I’ve been emphasizing the necessary considerations for finishing takedowns. With every takedown, my personal goal is to bypass my opponent’s guard, finishing in a dominant top position. This means that I must secure control on the feet and keep that control all the way through the transition from standing to ground.
This cannot be done without patient, intelligent handfighting and patent, intelligent handfighting necessitates using your head.
Good Hunting,
Charles