From USKMA Chief Instructor, Mark Slane.
The first technique a student learns when attending one of my krav maga classes is the front choke with the pluck. I love to show this one first because all of the concepts of krav maga are included. The first concept is to get rid of the danger is quickly as possible. When we feel pain our hands automatically go to that pain. When we are choked our hands start for our throats even before we know what’s going on. This cuts down on practice time, is more likely to come out of this under stress, etc. A natural reaction is always going to be quicker than a learned motion. The second concept of krav maga is to always defend and attacked simultaneously. The person choking us probably doesn’t have their legs crossed but is standing wide open. As our hands are busy doing the defense our legs are free to send that front kick to the groin. Not only have we gotten our first attack in (keeping the attacker in the OODA loop) but that attacker’s going to loosen the grip even that much more because of that groin kick. The third concept is to go off like a bomb and beat the idiot down until we are safe. So the pluck is in our defense because it is a natural motion that comes out of us and has that extremely effective groin kick to loosen up the attacker that much more. Before the attacker is recovered from that kick we are already into elbows to the head, kicks to the knee, knees to the throat etc.
I have seen several Krav Maga and organizations take the pluck out of their choke defenses. They give several reasons for this. One is that they do not like having several different choices for a choke defense. I totally agree with this thought however, all chokes aren’t created equal. Are we being choked in place? Is there a lot of momentum that has us being thrown forward or backwards? Is the choke from the front, behind, side, or some other odd angle? Lastly, how do we know that we will be standing when we are choked? We can certainly be laying in bed, on the ground, sitting in a car where we have a seatbelt on with doors closed.
One reason that i have heard to get rid of plucks is that standing still and being choked is an unrealistic attack, that we will always be pushed backwards with force….they seem to think that we have to suspend reality because, in their understanding, no one would “stop” when they choke you. As SGT Brannon Hicks (the co-lead instructor of the USKMA) says “The reality is that they are revealing inexperience with attacks in the real world. The reality is that in my career, one of the most common attacks in domestic violence in particular occurred when a man would choke a woman and pull her in close, like face to face to intimidate and terrify. The bicep to ear movement doesn’t work well in that instance because the attacker collapses in and bears his weight forward. It also makes it nearly impossible for a much smaller or weaker person to generate any significant rotational power, whereas the groin kick is easily accessible and the pluck does enough to buy fractions of a second and precious air. So they are right about the pluck not working well if you’re being driven backward. I point this out all the time. Again, regrettably, they’re teaching people from a point of inexperience that a very real and common attack is unrealistic.
If they rely on small muscle groups to do the pluck, they are doing it wrong. Their understanding of the pluck appears fundamentally flawed.”
I have heard several instructors talking about the groin kick being ineffective. This always makes me shake my head. Again, quoting SGT Hicks “On the matter of striking the jaw rather than going for a groin shot, this thinking is exceedingly narrow. Who is attacking and who is being attacked? Am I to believe that if my 12 year old daughter “cracks” a 200 lbs man in the jaw, she’s going to do enough damage while being choked that this will exceed the damage caused by a groin shot? I’ve crushed a lot of guys nuts on the street and found it to be incredibly effective. Conversely, I’ve beaten guys about the head until my hands and elbows nearly broke and swelled up by grapefruits. Keeping in mind that i’ve knocked a lot of men out in sport competition. I’m not sure what his balls are made of, but human balls are incredibly soft targets lol So, yes, striking to the jaw against a man of similar size might be very effective. Would that be the same if a 5′ woman were doing that against a 6’3″ man? Could she even reach him? I doubt it. I’m confident that she could kick him in the nuts though. I have heard instructors making a point about guys being cracked in the jaw during sports and they stop as opposed to taking groin shots and shaking it off. I don’t know what sports they are watching but MMA is 15-25 minutes of guys getting cracked in the head and pressing on to keep fighting, but if they take one good groin shot, we know what happens. Break time. They fall down.”
I guess my point is that there is no one size fits all technique and to talk in absolutes is usually a mistake. Our litmus test when trying any technique is how will it work for a very small female against a very large, strong male. The rip at the choke as she kicks to the groin is still the best we’ve seen in that situation. Too many organizations do what works for the head honcho and forgets that they are teaching small females to defend against that honcho! BE SAFE!