CRASH THE GAP, THEN STRIKE WITH FULL BODYWEIGHT!

I ALWAYS ADVISE COMBATIVES STUDENTS TO CONTINUOUSLY BUILD A GAP — A SPACE OR DISTANCE — BETWEEN THEMSELVES AND THEIR ATTACKER TO INCREASE THE POWER OF THEIR ELBOWS AND KNEES. HOW SHOULD YOU GO ABOUT DOING THIS? I’LL EXPLAIN.

- KELLY McCANN

Maintain control of the other person and shove him away from you to build the gap. If you can’t push him away, push yourself away. Then violently jerk him back into your strikes — in other words, “crash it.” If you can’t, yank yourself into him, leading with a knee or elbow strike.

If you don’t create gaps, your strikes end up just pushing against your attacker rather than impacting on him.

To better understand this concept, consider a car crash. The worst type of crash is a head-on collision in which the aggregate closing speed of both vehicles is much greater than in a crash with a stationary object.

You should strive to create head-on collisions when you fight. You may be wondering, Yeah, but wouldn’t we both get hurt equally? No. Because in this human example of a car crash, you’re colliding your knee or elbow with your opponent’s unprotected face, ribs, groin or thoracic cavity.

Continuously jerking an attacker into your strikes helps you establish control and dominance over him by keeping him off-balance.