Blue Belt Technique
This technique works for someone grabbing our right wrist with his/her left hand (hence, a direct wrist grab). Again, the hand that we worry most about would be the opponent’s free hand, which in this case, would be the right hand. As such, what we want to do in this technique is counteract that free right hand so that we don’t get hit with a punch.
While many Kenpoists teach and practice this technique for a static grab (that is, someone just grabs our wrist and stands there), in reality, this is not realistic. The catalyst in this technique is a wrist grab followed by a pull forward.
Our immediate response is to rotate our wrist outward, while moving our left hand under the opponent’s grabbing hand. At the same time, our left hand grabs the opponent’s right wrist and pulls down (height cancellation by putting weight on the opponent’s feet) as we simultaneously step in with our right foot into a right neutral bow and execute a right hammerfist strike to the opponent’s groin. By stepping forward with our right foot, we are taking an angle of least resistance, assuming a non-static attack. Also, make sure as you strike with the hammerfist to the groin that the opponent’s left arm is against our chest (could be an elbow break), thereby further canceling the opponent’s width and ensuring that the attacker cannot collapse his left elbow directly into our chest if that gap is available.
A good graft at this point would be to go directly into Crossing Talon, albeit on the opposite side as taught in the Orange Belt technique curriculum. Should we choose to continue on with Gripping Talon, the next part of the move calls for a right inward elbow to the opponent’s left ribs, followed by a right outward elbow to the right ribs. This elbow pattern is the same as that executed in Triggered Salute (Orange Belt technique), except that we are now working the outside of the opponent’s body. Should the opponent drop considerably from the initial groin shot, we can skip the elbow strikes (instead of trying to force them into the targets) and just continue on with the technique at that point. In any case, after the elbow strikes, we then do a left rear crossover towards 1:30 as we simultaneously execute a right back knuckle strike to the opponent’s left ribs. We the step our right foot to 1:30 as we land into a right reverse bow, which acts as a buckle to the opponent’s left leg. In-sync with the right planting foot, we add a right looping wrist strike to the opponent’s right side of the neck. This sets up the opponent’s head for the right knee strike. After the knee, we add in a right heel-palm to break the opponent’s left elbow at the same time that we plant into a right front cross-over, and then continue on into our standard cover out.
