Welcome to Lesson #5 in your Self-Defense Basics Course!
In this lesson, we talk about dropping your weight as an effective way to increase your power and your options.
Video and transcript for you!
SELF-DEFENSE BASICS COURSE
Lesson #5 – Transcript
Welcome back. Ando again from Happy Life Martial Arts. This is Lesson #5 in your Self-Defense Basics Course.
Back in Lesson #4, we talked about sprinting and shuffling, both of which keep your weight up and moving. But that’s only half of the story when it comes to self-defense training.
You also want the ability to drop your weight and feel heavy, even if it’s just for a split-second.
Have you never tried to pick up a cranky baby? Or drown a cat?
Sorry—I mean, bathe a cat? Even a tiny creature can be very difficult to hold and control when they relax, and drop their weight, and move all over the place.
Well, I’d say you should be just as difficult to hold and control as a baby or a cat! Hopefully even more difficult.
So, don’t just think of fighting as pushing and pulling on a horizontal plane, also consider moving on a vertical plane, rising and dropping.
Now, today, I just want to focus on dropping, not rising. But if you want to add some rope jumps or box jumps into your life, go ahead. But for basic self-defense, I’d rather just focus on keeping my feet on the ground.
No, I’m not saying you’ll never need to jump in a self-defense situation—you may need to leap off a building to grab on to a helicopter… or hurdle all of the bodies of the people who didn’t take this Basic Self-Defense Course, but one thing at a time.
GRAVITY
Okay, good news. If you ever need to defend yourself, you have back up—it’s called gravity.
Heavyweight boxing champ Jack Dempsey talked about using gravity when he described what he called a “falling step”. Here’s the basic idea…
Imagine your friend is sitting on the couch and you jump up and land on him. Now imagine sticking out your elbow and landing on him. You just lost a friend.
Thanks to gravity, even a wild six-year-old child who only weighs 50 pounds could cause me pain and damage if he drove his whole body into a soft part of mine.
Of course, he’d be sorry. I don’t take crap from anyone…under the age of 10.
So, the first way that dropping your weight can help you defend yourself is that it adds more mass to your movement.
The second way it can help you is that it allows you to move your body without moving your feet.
Now, I don’t mean leaning. Yes, leaning will add more power to your technique, because you’re putting more mass behind your movement, but there’s a higher risk of throwing yourself off-balance when you do that.
Instead of keeping your weight up high, dropping your weight down low lets you shift your body from one foot to the other with more control.
Pretty cool. Now you have two different ways to manage the distance in a self-defense situation…
If you move your feet—that’s shuffling. If you move your body, well, that’s shifting.
Which brings us to stances. You know all those fancy poses you might see in a Kung Fu movie? Well, all they’re really doing is throwing their weight around and then moving their feet to catch that weight so they don’t fall down.
Up, down, all around, it really doesn’t matter—it’s all just shuffling and shifting. But hey—you don’t have to be fancy to be effective, so let’s keep it simple and keep it moving.
Ready? Here are four exercises to help you develop your ability to drop your weight and drive it. I hope you like them. Actually, I don’t care if you like them, you should do them anyway.
FROG STRETCH
First, let me ask you this—how low can you go? Some cultures spend a lot of time sitting very low to the ground, others don’t. I recommend spending some time each day sitting as low as you can go. Try this.
Drop like a frog and just hang. Maybe binge watch a show on Netflix, maybe eat a bucket of chicken, whatever you want.
Now, if the only way you can get down this low is to be on the balls of your feet, that’s fine for right now. But I would love it if you could work up to getting your feet flat on the floor and still feel comfortable.
This is a great way to loosen up your hips and your lower back.
If you want to make this a little more challenging, place your elbows inside your knees. Now, straighten your legs and drop back down.
This look easy, but it’s actually awful… at least for me! So, go for a couple sets of 10 and call it a day.
SQUATS
Squats are a great way to develop overall body strength and postural alignment. So, if you’re already lifting weights, great.
But I’m not a bodybuilder and I’m not a Cross-Fit coach—obviously!—so, I’m not interested right now in regular squats. I’m interested in squatting in the stance that we practiced from Lesson #3.
Take your stance and just lower your body, bending your knees and keeping your head straight.
Try not to tense up when you do this.
Focus on the movement, not the muscle.
If you want to mix it up by dropping to a knee, even better. Do that.
Hey, hey—be careful with your knee. I don’t want you dropping and smashing it on the floor. Lower yourself with control.
FAST DROPS
Okay, now let’s talk about speed. In self-defense, the question isn’t just how low can you go, it’s how fast can you get there?
I need to be able to drop my weight explosively. Not by trying harder, but by simply letting gravity do its thing. Let’s play with this a little.
The fast drop is exactly what it sounds like. Just drop your weight as fast as you can. I don’t want you to hurt yourself, so just try dropping 4-6 inches.
If that feels good, try dropping a foot or two. Pretend that you’re in an elevator and someone suddenly cuts the cable. Drop your weight and catch it on purpose.
Why are we dropping to a knee?
Well, we drop to a knee because you might need to either bring a bad guy down or stop yourself from falling. Instead of stumbling, you drop.
This is a very stable position, but don’t stay there. Always get back on your feet as fast as you can.
DROP AND DRIVE
Okay, we already talked about shifting your weight from foot to foot. So, let’s start with that.
Drop down and just move your body back and forth, keeping your back straight.
Now, let’s add a shuffle to that. Drop and drive forward.
This is a must for self-defense. This is you at your strongest.
For example, if your car runs out of gas, you probably won’t stand up on your tip-toes to try to push your car to the gas station.
To move the car, you would drop down, put some mass behind your movement, and then drive forward. Well, if you want to move a bad guy, you have to do the same thing.
Let’s try it again. Drop your weight and then drive it forward… and backward.
Cool. Now, let’s try it from side-to-side. This might even feel a little bit like ice skating.
Uh, not like that. That’s better. Stay in your stance. Just relax and let yourself be heavy.
Your goal is to be able to move anywhere you want to and to be able to move with power.
If you can do that, then you’ll have the foundation you need for an unlimited number of self-defense techniques.
Got all that? Frog Stretch, Stance Squats, Fast Drops, and Ice Skating.
Practice dropping your weight and adding mass to your movements on the horizontal and vertical planes. That will add real power to everything you do. And now, a little philosophy…
A LITTLE PHILOSOPHY…
In self-defense and in life, there’s a time to run and a time to hold your ground. The trick is having the wisdom to know the right time to do each.
My challenge to you today is to find something in your life that you’ve been running away from, not because it’s dangerous, but just because it’s unpleasant.
Someone has been taking advantage of you. You’ve been giving up too much of your time lately. You’re spending too much energy on the people who don’t appreciate you and not enough on the people who do.
Whatever the case, the time has come for you to take back your ground and hold it.
When it comes to fighting for what’s important to you, don’t just drop the weight of your body, drop the weight of your soul… and don’t let anyone move you.
Okay. So, that’s Lesson #5. If you’re finding value in this series of videos, please, share them with someone you love.
Until next time, get down with your bad self and keep fighting for a happy life.
Thank you for sharing these lessons with someone you love!