Academy of Jeet Kune Do Fighting Technology
Athens
Greece
Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do Instructor
Vagelis Zorbas
Headbutts
Headbutts
or How to be a Nutter, article by Gerald Moffatt
Introduction
I decided to write about head butts not only
to indulge my boundless ego and sense of self-importance but also because
I feel they are neglected techniques, Most MAs think they know how to do
head butts, but really don’t. Few MAs ever practice or train for
headbutts - offensively or defensively. (Other techniques in this category
are biting and eye gouging.)
I will talk about head butts primarily with
respect to stand-up situations (head butts with groundwork are a whole
different realm). This stuff is just one man’s opinion - I would be very
interested in any input, comments, arguments, etc. from other nutters. I
will try to cover the main types of head butts, basic mechanics, setups
and combinations, and a bit on training.
I categorize head butts into four main
types: forward, rising, sideways and backwards. There are also variants
and hybrids (e.g., diagonal butts). In understanding how to do head butts
it is important to recognize that they are primarily (but not exclusively)
head-versus-head techniques. Accordingly, it’s important to know which
parts of the head make good weapons and which make good targets. Let’s
divide the head into the face (eyebrows down) and the skull. The face is
exclusively a target area (unless you’re a lot tougher than I am). For
the skull the rule is simple: thick bone and/or high local curvature make
good weapon areas, while thin bone and/or flat areas make good targets. A
prime example of a weapon area would be the forehead near the hairline
(unless yours has receded), while the temple is a good target area. The
targets are quite localized - for instance, some parts of the forehead may
be moderately vulnerable (not prime targets but often the most available
ones).
Basic Mechanics
I will initially discuss headbutts from a
more-or-less static position (no stepping) , between two opponents of
roughly the same height, and with no holding - later I will offer some
comments applicable to when these conditions do not apply.
Forward Headbutt
The forward headbutt is the one that
everyone is sure he knows. When you consider how much practice it takes to
develop a powerful, well-timed, and accurate soccer header (which has very
similar body mechanics) you may be less sure. The strongest and most
common way of doing it uses a mix of two main body motions, a head bow and
a stomach crunch, optionally augmented by a knee dip (or step back, etc.).
The head bow is more-or-less the same as a sneeze. The stomach crunch is
like a sit-up but done explosively. The weapon area is near the hairline
(if done straight on). Be sure to keep your mouth shut (closed but not
clenched). It is possible to add more power to the front headbutt by
dipping your knees (i.e., a slight body drop) just before impact. This dip
also helps align you to the prime facial target area rather than going
forehead to forehead. The dip can also help set up many followups such as
a rising headbutt or an uppercut. (With footwork added, a step back
instead/plus the dip also sets up a followup knee.) The ideal places to
land this headbutt are the bridge of the nose, the cheekbones, or the top
edge of the eye-socket (eyebrow ridges are tough, but not as tough as your
forehead). The middle of the opponent’s forehead is an inferior
secondary target but one that is usually readily available. If the
opponent isn’t square on, the temple, especially near the outside corner
of the eye, is a very vulnerable target or sometimes (it’s rather far to
get to) the hinge area of the jawbone. Besides the powerful disorienting
effect of any head blow, any of these strikes can chip or fracture bones.
Another prime ‘benefit’ of the headbutt is that it is a wonderful cut
generator - many opponents freak out at the sight of their own blood and
head wounds bleed profusely. Hitting the opponent’s mouth and teeth is
effective and will probably break them, but this often results in mutual
cuts. Because of this, I would not normally aim lower than the
opponent’s upper lip (but you take what you can get). Almost any
opponent who isn’t asleep will duck his head as you strike (a very few
may turn sideways) - to avoid getting his ‘defensive headbutt’
(planned or otherwise) aim a bit low (the knee dip or step can help here).
It is possible to land repeated forward
headbutts using the technique as described above - however, after each,
you must withdraw your head quite far back in order to ‘recock’ and
this gives the opponent some chance of retaliating. A fast, but weaker,
forward headbutt (especially for the second and following strikes in a
series) can be performed as follows. After the first strike the body is
left leaning slightly forward. For the second and later butts the stomach
crunch will be less pronounced. The head is moved forward and back with a
forward thrusting motion that I can best describe as ‘walk like an
Egyptian.’ Because of the forward tilt of the body, these butts are
directed slightly downwards, rather than purely horizontally. There is
little or no knee dipping with this technique. This quickie forward
headbutt fits in well with butting combinations.
Rising Headbutt
To perform the main version of the rising
headbutt imagine that you have just completed the main type of forward
headbutt previously described and are frozen in position. Your knees are
bent, you are inclined forward slightly with your stomach contracted and
your back rounded, and your chin is (nearly) touching your chest. It’s
better if you start even lower - with your hairline touching the
opponent’s chest. Now straighten up and unwind explosively. When first
training, exaggerate the lift of your head until you can just see the
ceiling above you through your eyebrows. You don’t just stand up - you
thrust up. The striking area is again the hairline or perhaps slightly
further into the hair. Be sure to keep your jaw shut with this butt. The
impact is not always a pure strike with this headbutt - there can also be
a large smearing component (which is a tremendous cut generator). If the
opponent keeps his head down, then the blow will land as a mixture of
strike and smear - if the opponent’s chin is up, it will be mostly a
striking impact. With the smearing version, you can sometimes get cut from
the opponent's teeth - oh well, every technique has risks! Here's an
important detail. To ensure that you ‘get under’ the opponent’s face
or chin, stay very close - make sure that you ‘wipe the sweat’ off
your forehead on his shirt as you rise up. Otherwise he can lean/sway his
head back and you'll just graze or miss him entirely.
Now for a common variant of this technique.
From the (low) start position described above, turn your head to look
towards your left (or right) shoulder before you start the butt. Turn your
head to the straight ahead position as you rise. It’s like tracing the
shape of a ‘J’ from bottom to top as you strike. You may hit with the
same spot as before (hairline at the middle of the forehead) or more
outboard on your forehead (anywhere at or above the slight knob on your
forehead above each eye near the hairline - a previous poster [Thanks,
Chas, for reminding me it was you] once said to imagine you have small
devil’s horns.) The J version works well from a clinch.
Sideways Headbutt
The sideways headbutt is performed by
briskly tilting the head sideways. The striking surface is the outboard
curved part of the parietal bone on the side of the head. The striking
zone is a line (it’s not really that crisply defined - more of a band)
starting about 3 inches directly above and slightly behind the ear-hole
and extending forward from there roughly 3 inches. In order to locate the
exact striking zone on your head, apply the earlier rule regarding areas
of high local curvature. The main thing is to strike with an area high
enough on the side of the skull - lower down on the side of the skull, the
temporal bone and further forward, the temple area, are each pretty flat
and these are therefore prime target areas for headbutts.
There are two variants of the sideways
headbutt: the long and the short. The long headbutt tilts the head from
the base of the neck, as if you were trying to touch your ear to your
shoulder with a snapping strike. The head and neck tilt as a unit. The
short headbutt is performed by mainly tilting just the head, kinking the
neck. It’s as if you were trying to touch your ear to the base of your
neck rather than your shoulder. The long sideways headbutt has a bit
longer range and is arguably more powerful. However, I generally prefer
the short version since it brings my striking area further down on the
side of the opponent’s skull as well as making it difficult for the
opponent to counter-butt the side of my skull.
For an even stronger strike, the force of
the sideways headbutt can be increased by turning your head away from the
direction you will strike before starting the headbutt. This adds the
force of head rotation to the primary motion of tilting the head as you
turn back to straight ahead.
Rear Headbutt
The rear headbutt is performed by
snapping/tilting the head backward - the head motion itself is somewhat
similar to the rising headbutt but instead striking backwards. The strike
will be more powerful if you start with your head tilted forward, chin
(nearly) touching your breastbone - although this risks telegraphing the
technique. The ideal striking surface is the bump on the occipital bone
just below the crown of the head, but the whole occiput is pretty strong.
The blow can be directed straight back or diagonally back to either side.
The movements that can be added to this
headbutt are in the grey zone halfway between how to make the technique
land harder and how to set it up. The main supplementary movement is to
tilt forward at the waist or hips prior to delivering the blow. This body
bend is generally done not just to increase the force of the subsequent
headbutt but also to get free from some hold applied by the opponent, or
get ‘working space’ between his head and yours. For maximum force
(some might say utter overcommitment) you can bend your knees and then
thrust/arch back as if you were attempting a backwards somersault.
Although the rear headbutt can deliver a
very hard blow to the opponent’s face/head, I think this technique has
been oversold. I mostly find it can only be landed on the stupid or unwary
- and how did such a person get behind you? It also exposes the neck to
chokes.
Diagonal and Linked Headbutts
What we’re now about to discuss covers
diagonal and linked headbutts but also wanders a little into training
methods. The diagonal headbutts rely heavily on Chas’ horns as striking
weapons. The diagonal headbutts blend the movement of the forward or
rising headbutts with the head tilts and rotation of sideways headbutts.
I’ll discuss them in terms of an imaginary opponent directly on front of
the headbutter.
You can perform the forward and rising
headbutts alternately in a pure up-and-down fashion as if you were
mimicking the body language of a ‘yes’ (and I suppose you could invent
a pure side-to-side rotational headbutt that mimicked a ‘no’). A
better method, I think, is to practice linking the forward, rising, and
diagonal headbutts by moving your head as if a spot on the middle of your
forehead was tracing an imaginary ‘figure 8’ or alternatively an
‘infinity’ symbol. I find the infinity version especially good for
diagonal headbutts using the horns - be sure to practice it both rising up
(‘goring’ the opponent with your imaginary horn) and dropping down
(striking the opponent with your horn) at the crossover part (X) of the
infinity symbol. You can occasionally add (one or more) pure forward
thrusting headbutts (the ‘Egyptian’ kind) into the middle of the X.
You can also incorporate a pure downward or rising butt from time-to-time.
Hell, you can even link the figure 8 and infinity moves. By now your head
should be reeling - literally. The whole thing starts to feel a bit like
knife or stick methods from the Phillipines or Indonesia. And you can
actually apply these moves in a real fight; however, you don’t deliver a
great long intricate sequence - just a brief ‘excerpt.’
An important warning: Never practice this
training method outdoors - you could find that you are viewed by some
large bird as having successfully performed a mating ritual.
Other Headbutts
Before we move on from the types and
mechanics of headbutts, let me state that what I’ve discussed so far are
the main types but I don’t pretend my list is exhaustive or
encyclopedic. For instance, there are some long-distance ramming
techniques with the head, about which I know nothing. I also know little
about using the head for guntings, but at least I know that I don’t know
(and that’s the beginning of wisdom according to Socrates). Maybe Chas
or other gunting specialists will add info.
Setups and Applications
There are many ways to apply headbutts, but
they usually can’t be launched against skilled opponents without first
setting them up. And it’s hard to talk about setups without also
discussing specific applications, so I’ll bend the two topics. Setups
include several subtopics: footwork, grabs and controls, helper moves
(shoulder bumps, etc.) and complementary moves (uppercuts, elbows, knees,
etc.)
Footwork
Now footwork is a huge subject all by itself
and moreover it tends to be style-specific. I’m only going to touch on a
few aspects. The main areas of footwork applicable to headbutts are:
entering into close range, positioning the head for a blow or increasing
its power, and setting up followups. Everyone knows to use a preemptive
forward headbutt if a (prospective) opponent is mouthing off at close
range. Or a close position suitable for butting may just arise naturally
during the course of a fight. Otherwise you must get close enough to butt
him and to do that you can use whatever entering methods are in your
style. A few suggestions for entering (assuming you’re both in left foot
lead):
1. Slip his left jab over your right
shoulder (or fold inside his hook), step forward with your left foot
(about eight inches to about 11 o’clock position - the right slides up
afterwards to narrow your stance), bend forward, dip the knees, and put
(that ‘put’ can be a forward headbutt) your forehead on his breastbone
or your cheek on his chest (looking to the outside). You’re now set up
for a rising headbutt. The forehead-on-breastbone (with your hands on the
inside) is a wonderful position for inside punching (a good place to be if
you’re the smaller man) as well as for butts. Use the cheek-on-chest if
you favour clinching before butting. (You can sometimes do a ‘rear
headbutt’ from the cheek-on-chest. Bend your head forward so you’re
looking down and then unwind to strike the bottom/side of the opponent’s
jaw with the back of your head. Your cheek stays in light grazing contact
with the opponent’s body throughout the delivery.)
2. Slip the jab etc. as above but step in
deeper and more diagonally to the left. Don’t bend or dip, just right
sideways or diagonal butt as you tie-up on the inside.
3. Do a wrestling-style penetration step
(don’t hit the knees) with the left leg going deep. Rise up a bit when
inside and again go for forehead-on-breastbone or cheek-on-chest. (You can
also rise up as if you had tried for a snatch double, gave up, and were
just coming up into a clinch - don’t stop and clinch but keep rising,
resulting in the ultimate rising headbutt. If he leans back to avoid it,
go for a takedown - or step in further and forward butt.) You could
instead have simply gone for some version of a wrestling tie-up that may
result in a forehead-to-forehead or cheek-to-cheek and you could than
initiate a butting duel form there (although you must get your hips closer
first).
I also should mention that in a wrestling
tie-up you can sometimes ‘post’ with your head (forehead or even top
of the head) in head-to-head or head-to-chest position. You mustn’t
linger here or you will eat uppercuts, get snapped-down, etc. but it can
be a good starting point for butts.
4. One of my favorites: the drop-shift.
Starting at medium range slide the left foot back about 10 inches and then
take a full step forward with the right foot - you are now in right leg
lead and deep inside. This move is a distant relative of some of the
triangle stepping methods (although it comes from western boxing).
With respect to footwork applicable once you
get to (or if you start at) the inside, I’ll mention two:
1. Step back with one foot and bend your
knees as you tilt your head forward. This is usually a defensive reaction
to the opponent’s forward headbutt so he strikes his forehead on your
forehead or top of head, but it can also be done as an attack by pulling
the opponent’s face into your head/forehead (using a neck hook, etc.).
It works well against a taller opponent. A natural followup after the
headbutt is to knee with the leg that was drawn back, or you could add a
rising headbutt in between the forward butt and the knee.
A typical combination based on the step back
is: forward pull-in headbutt with left leg stepped back, left knee to
groin (belly, leg, etc.) with knee somewhere between a front knee and
roundhouse knee and your head leaning past the left side of the
opponent’s head, place left foot on ground (forward) and sideways (or
diagonal) headbutt to opponent’s head just as your weight comes down on
the left foot. (You might have had a double lapel grab throughout this for
control.)
2. If you start with your feet fairly close
together as you stand in front of the opponent, step forward diagonally
with one foot or the other and forward butt him. (Your foot goes out
diagonally but your body and head go nearly straight forward.) With a
longer step you could take your head past him and then land a sideways (or
diagonal) butt. Again, some form of grab helps ensure that the technique
lands. (If you don’t have a grab and he turns/leans away from the
sideways/diagonal butt, nail him with a hook, uppercut, or palm-heel with
your far hand.)
Helper Moves
The helper moves I want to talk about are
shoulder strikes, bumps, and pushes; the rising shoulder; and the elbow
roll. (I won’t cover ordinary hand/arm pushes and shoves.) These moves
have a larger sphere of application (both offensively and defensively)
than just helpers for head butts, but that’s the only context I’m
going to discuss now.
The shoulder strike is such a beautiful
inside move that it brings tears to my eyes (and if you do it right it
will bring tears to your opponent’s eyes). The shoulder strike is
comprised of many elements: hip twist, shoulder twist, shoulder roll, leg
turn and dip, twisting ‘sit-up’, and body lean. That’s a lot of
subtlety to pack into one technique. Put up with me while I walk you
through its components (in exaggerated practice form).
Practice the hip and shoulder twist by
standing with feet shoulder-width apart and twisting to alternately bring
you shoulders to right angles with the line between your feet. At first do
it without moving your feet, which requires twisting your shoulders more
than your hips. Then let just the rearward foot twist on the ball of the
foot. Exaggerate the foot twist until on each turn the big toe of the rear
foot points to the middle of the other foot (getting more hip into it and
‘leading’ with the hip rather than the shoulders). Now instead of an
even-weighted twist, shift weight to the forward leg each time, bend the
rear knee and raise the heel.
The twisting sit-up part is done just like
the supine version - now we’ve involved the belly muscles (recti,
obliques, etc.). The shoulder roll part brings just the shoulder forward
(and slightly in) without involving any other body motion. And the body
lean is a simple forward tilt about the hips or waist.
Practice the shoulder moves on the heavy bag
three principal ways (but with different mixes of the component motions):
as a strike into (the centerline of) the bag (from short to very short
range), as a near-centerline push (in backwards and diagonally-backwards
directions) starting with contact with the bag, or as a bump to the right
or left side of the bag (does a bag have sides?) in order to keep it
centered in front of you. Try adding small steps as well.
You may have some trouble keeping a bag (or
opponent) centred using just shoulder bumps. You can improve your control
by adding an elbow roll. The elbow roll is easy to do but tricky to
describe. I’ll break it into parts, but remember the following is
explanatory, not a fighting application. The first (and main) part is
rotation of the upper arm. Take a boxing stance, left leg forward, hands
eye level, elbows bent about 90 degrees. Rotate your left arm clockwise
(only in the shoulder socket) about 180 degrees until your forearm is
roughly vertical, hand pointing down. Your elbow moves only a little,
rising perhaps 2 or 3 inches. Now perform the same move but also try to
move your elbow horizontally further towards your centerline (depending on
your flexibility this will be zero to a few inches.) You may also find
that you spontaneously tend to add some shoulder roll - that’s good.
With the elbow roll the bumping/pushing surface is the outside (almost
back) of the upper arm. Now you don’t have to rotate the arm into
position to get the benefit of the elbow roll - you can just start with
your arm already down. You seldom do an elbow roll by itself - you usually
add a little to a lot of shoulder twisting or rolling as well. Although
illegal, this move is quite popular with boxers who fight on the inside.
What you give up (temporarily) with the elbow roll is good hand striking
position, although there are fighters who can do a pretty fair job
starting with the hand down. You can practice alternate left and right
shoulder-bumps/elbow-rolls starting with your hands down and leaving them
down throughout - good on the heavy bag.
By raising the elbow, doing more
snap/follow-through and less push, and similar small adjustments, you can
eventually develop a seamless progression of the elbow roll into the
conventional horizontal or diagonally-downwards elbow strike (e.g., elbow
roll - raise elbow - elbow strike). Or you can deliver a rising or
diagonally-rising elbow after a roll (e.g., rotate the left elbow back
counterclockwise, then go forward and up). For instance, if the opponent
pushes back against your elbow roll, suddenly let him ‘win’ by
relaxing the elbow roll, using his force to help power the rotation of
your elbow back for a rising strike on the inside. You should also
practice speedy ‘recovery’ of the hand to standard guard by way of
blows such as backfist, hook, sidearm strike, etc., so you never get stuck
in an awkward position after an elbow roll. (Damn, this keeps expanding;
it’s becoming a treatise on inside fighting, not just headbutts.)
The last shoulder technique is the rising
shoulder. It’s easy to describe and the move is very useful (don’t let
the shortness of the discussion convince you it’s trivial). The move is
a simple shrug of one shoulder with possibly a bit of forward roll. You
can add to it by first dipping the knees and then thrusting up. Or you can
pull the opponent down towards it first. It works great against a shorter
or same-height opponent, particularly in the cheek-to-cheek position.
In closing this section, I want to emphasize
the value of shoulder moves and elbow rolls. I jokingly used to say that
if you’re good enough at shoulder moves, elbow rolls, and headbutts you
can beat up an opponent on the inside while keeping your hands in your
pockets.
Grabs and Controls
Because head butts are short-range
techniques, grabs and controls are a major part of keeping the range,
feeding the opponent into the butts, shoulder strikes, or other blows, and
defence. Now grabs and controls can encompass a wide variety of
techniques: trapping, chin na, wrestling tie-ups, judo grips, Thai head
controls, etc. I’m not going to even try to tackle the fancy ones, but
instead I’ll try to give an inkling of some applications of three simple
ones, neck hook, double lapel grab, and double elbow grab (and even these
aren’t all that simple).
Neck Hook
The neck hook is a key technique in at least
two martial arts, Thai boxing and wrestling, although it is applied
somewhat differently in each. I’ll try a hybrid explanation.
Bend your (right) wrist into flexion with a
lot of ulnar deviation as well. Slightly cup your hand with fingers
together and thumb alongside. Now put your forearm across the left side of
the opponent’s shoulder where it joins the neck and hook his neck
(there’s no grab) with your wrist and the meaty base of the hand
(little-finger side). Pull forward and down. Here’s an important detail.
Keep the ulnar surface of your forearm touching/pressing against his
clavicle and your elbow well down and on your centerline. It is anathema
to let your elbow flap to the outside. Don’t just pull - ‘hang’ some
of your weight on him (but don’t rely on him for support) - to do that
you’ll have to bend forward a bit. Your elbow is bent 90 degrees or so
and points straight towards your centerline.
Some variants and applications: You can use
more elbow bend and go for a cheek-to-cheek tie-up. You can push with the
forearm on his clavicle. You can pull the opponent into your headbutt
(several varieties). You can release the neck hook and forward/rising
elbow him in the chest (the exact reverse of this is a good way to get the
neck hook in the first place). You can push him to your left or, less
effectively, pull him to your right with fingertip pressure, to set up
headbutts (or elbows, knees, etc.). (I’ll ignore fancier stuff such as
shucks, but you can do them too.) You can suddenly snap him down or, do a
weaker snap intended to ‘fail’ and forward butt him when he pulls up
and away.
A few more points: You can pull him into
your left shoulder strike (the pull starts to include a palm-heel guide
part-way through) or, less effectively, into your right shoulder strike.
Defensively, if he attempts to forward/diagonal butt you, the pull-in to
either shoulder can smother his attempt. Release him unexpectedly and
side-butt him.
Two more ways to get the neck hook: A
wrestling style forearm-to-clavicle block as he shoots/rushes or, deliver
a (say, left) jab that he can easily slip over his right shoulder and hook
his neck as you retract the missed jab. You can also use a double neck
hook (very ‘Thai’). This allows you to do side-to-side moves that
completely break his balance and leave him open for all kinds of hurtful
things. It’s like a slower-speed version of a terrier shaking a rat. Be
sure to keep your elbows together in front (most defences/escapes come up
the middle). (FYI, the reverse neck hook is also a great move, but it
doesn’t lend itself well to head butts.)
Double Lapel Grab
The double lapel grab is much maligned as an
inferior technique only used by the untrained or inexperienced. Maybe so,
but it can be polished into quite a sophisticated helper method that is
well-adapted to butting. In discussing the double lapel grab I will assume
that the opponent is wearing a sturdy garment that transmits forces well
to his body (i.e., not too loose or stretchy). Now the actual grab can be
knuckles up, knuckles down, or vertical - I’ll assume the vertical. The
grip can be quite wide (more a shoulder grab) or narrow - I’ll assume
moderately wide. Lastly, the grab can be bent or straight arm - bent arm
is necessary for butting (and generally superior anyway). So imagine
we’re now grabbing the opponent with both hands, with our elbows down
and bent about 90 degrees.
There’re more moves available than just a
straight pull into a forward headbutt. The hands can pull or push to/fro,
up/down, or left/right or in mixtures of these directions and each hand
can act independently. This leads to lots of different combinations -
let’s look at some:
Just like the neck hook, it’s usually best
to hang some weight onto the opponent. The double grab gives you an
excellent ‘feel’ for the opponent’s moves. For instance, if he
starts a (left) knee, you pull his left shoulder diagonally down and to
your right while pushing his right shoulder (less vigorously) up, back and
to the left. This traps his weight on his left foot and points his knee
away from you. Depending on distance, butt him with a forward, diagonal,
or sideways strike on the right side of his face. (If you exaggerate this
move with more push you can twist him to the point that you can
oblique-kick/stomp on his rear knee as you turn him into a choke, go for
osoto-gari, etc.)
One of the main sub-techniques to practice
with the double-lapel grab is the double-arm swing. A description of the
practice method follows. Stand square, legs shoulder-width, with each
elbow touching your side and forearms horizontal, pointing straight ahead.
Pretend there is a rod between your hands always keeping them the same
distance apart. Rotate your (right) forearm horizontally inwards until
your hand touches your ribs - the left hand is forced outboard. Alternate
to either side. Now raise your hands to mid-chest height and do as before.
Next, try underdoing and overdoing where you bring the inward hand so it
lands either on your breastbone or further out near your shoulder. This is
how to use this particular variant against an opponent. You guide one
shoulder of the opponent towards your chest more centrally (and a bit
down) when you wish to forward or diagonally butt him or shoulder-strike
him, but more outboard when you wish to sideways butt him. You move him
even further outboard when you react defensively to his attempted headbutt
or shoulder strike (by taking him shoulder to shoulder). And, yes, you can
even pull him straight in for a forward butt. A good trick is to pull him
in and if he resists let him pull his head back, (even help him with a
push), then forward butt him (or, instead, duck your head, and then pull
him in again, this time onto the top/front of your head or even into a
rising butt.) Or you could have pushed him first and when he resists pull
him in. Any of these moves can be done a bit sideways by pulling/pushing
more strongly with one hand than the other. Experiment and explore.
Double-Elbow Grab
The last move I’m going to discuss is a
double-elbow grab, another ‘street’ move that can be refined and
polished and then used with butting. Grab (i.e., clench the cloth in your
vertical fist) the opponent’s sleeves just above and to the outside/back
of each elbow. (The opponent has lots of counter-moves available but
that’s a different story.) Your control is a bit similar to the double
shoulder/lapel grab. With this move you have less efficient control of his
body but better control of his arms. You can apply most of the same
techniques as for the double-lapel control - it’s best to keep him
pretty close (you can then do stuff to thwart his escapes such as trap his
hand/wrist in your armpit, etc.). The head moves with elbow control often
feel as if you were planting a French ‘bec’ on each cheek of the
opponent (but with forward, rising, diagonal and sideways headbutts).
There are many ways to get the position - one way is to start your hands
at his shoulders in a chest-to-chest clinch and then slide your hands down
to the elbow. You can also flow into it (on one side) after a biceps stop
with your palm/palm-heel. You can also flow *out* of it into overhooks,
etc. - don’t think of this position (or any of the other positions) as
something you obtain and never relinquish or change - the ‘flow’ is
much more important than the individual techniques.
Head-Butting Applications
1. With respect to the holds I discussed, it
is obviously possible to mix-and-match them. For instance, the neck hook
with an elbow grab is a street version of the collar-and-elbow wrestling
tie-up.
2. There are many other holds that can be
used with head-butts; I’m fond of butting after trapping. Traps,
pummeling, etc. can also be used to release the opponent’s holds and
then counter-butt. For instance, there are many escapes from the
double-lapel grab.
3. A *major* point to note with respect to
head-butts is that many of the positions are symmetrical - if you can butt
him, he can butt you. This puts a big premium on timing, control of the
opponent with bumps and holds, and defensive reactions when you lose the
initiative. If you train and practice headbutts, however, you will be
light-years ahead of both streetfighters and (most) martial artists in
being able to ‘flow’ with your headbutts and complementary techniques.
The average fighter can only deliver a headbutt as an isolated
‘singleton,’ if he even tries one at all.
4. Defence against the headbutt mostly
consists of moving (slightly) away, moving far away (breaking the range),
staying so close (touching) that there is no room to butt, blocking with
the hands, stop-hitting or countering with the head or shoulder (or
palm-heel, etc.), and applying smothering pull-ins and deflections such as
I described earlier.
I’m going to elaborate a bit on some of
these defensive aspects. A major defensive method to prevent butts is to
put your head against the opponent’s head. But you usually must do more
than just touch heads - otherwise the opponent can quickly pull away to
get room to butt. You must either press so that your head follows his if
he attempts to get separation for butting (sensitivity required), or you
must push his head to the limit of its range of motion so he can’t pull
away to butt (strength required).
Moving (swaying back, turning) your head
away from a butt must be done in a flowing manner - otherwise it opens you
up and gives the opponent the distance he needs to initiate another butt
or other blow. Think in terms of slipping, bobbing, and weaving from
boxing (for instance, incoming butts should ‘just miss’ not ‘miss by
a mile’). If moving stops working, ‘clinch’ with your head - that
is, go back to a tight head-to-head (or head-to-chest) position. These
days I’m trying to borrow a page from Bruce Lee and apply fencing
theory. For headbutts, this might mean cutovers, presses, beats,
disengagments, linear, circle, and half-circle parries, etc.
If things are going badly you can try to
break off the butting duel - push away for greater range. For instance,
the double shoulder/lapel grab usually allows you to exercise this option.
You can also suddenly push away even when you’re winning the butting
duel in order to sneak in an over-the-top elbow, etc. Mixing short and
very-short range and the techniques that go with them really confuses an
opponent. Very few MAs appreciate the subtle distinctions between these
two striking ranges (adding grappling further complicates the picture).
(My classification system for striking ranges and corresponding typical
techniques goes: long range = kicking only; medium range = ‘outside’
punching/shorter kicks; short range = bent-arm blows, elbows, knees,
trapping; very-short range = head-butts, shoulders, palm-heels. The ranges
are obviously not sharply-defined and exclusive but a continuum and blows
can be used outside their ‘home range.’)
5. A plug for the shortest striking
technique using the hand: the palm-heel. When even short hooks only land
as rabbit punches and the uppercut is crowded out, the palm-heel can still
be used effectively. Use it not just as a pure strike, but as a
‘grazing’ strike, as a (bastardized) pak-sao/slap, a push/strike, or a
pure push.
6. A few words about blocking with the
hand(s). The hand(s) can be used to stop or cushion a butt by absorbing
the butt as it comes in (think of catching a fastball bare-handed - you
would absorb it, not put your hand up rigidly). If your hands are already
on the opponent’s head you can resist by tensing/pushing whenever he
tries to butt (sensitivity required).
I’m not a believer in eye strikes on the
fly. (Although bil-jee is a great move, it’s not to my taste - it’s
too natural for the opponent to duck and too easy to break a finger). To
get the opponent’s eyes, start with your hands already on his head/face
or block the opponent’s butt with a double palm-heel, fingers curling
horizontally to the outside - then reach the fingers a bit further back,
stabilize the opponent’s head, and gouge his eyes with your thumbs. Butt
him on the bridge of the nose if he pulls his head back to decrease the
pressure on his eyes (or on the temple if he turns away).
7. For equal-height opponents all the head
and shoulder techniques work. For moderate mismatches in height the taller
man will find it hard to position himself for rising strikes while the
shorter man gives up downwards strikes to the face of his opponent (he
should target the breastbone instead) The rising strikes are tricky - for
a slightly shorter man they work magnificently, but if he is just a bit
shorter than that they start to be hard to land with power. A pull-in of
the opponent’s face into the top of the head works well for a moderately
shorter man; for that reason a taller man must be alert to avoid any
defensive duck or butt when he butts downward. The shoulder strikes can be
used by both, but usually work a bit better for the taller man (especially
true for the rising shoulder).
If an opponent is much shorter, the taller
man may only be able to use shoulder strikes, not headbutts - the much
shorter man has only the butt to the chest (the shoulder moves would still
work but they don’t have good targets). However, the head-on-chest is
(ignoring grappling) one of the best places for a small man to be in a
fight. (And grappling just makes it different, not worse.)
Training Methods
Let's look at training methods. Most of this
is fairly obvious except perhaps for a few small points. There are two
schools with respect to training headbutts: heavy and light impact. I'll
reveal my prejudice now and tell you I'm of the light-impact school. Some
people have heads of stone (do they operate from a nexus halfway down
their spine?) while others get killer headaches from even medium contact.
Regularly butting full power onto heavy bags, etc. is too much for me. I'm
afraid I'll become like the punch-drunk fighter in Jerry Lewis' sketch who
says, "I've had...uh...forty-two fights and...uh...I've won 'em
all...uh...except forty-one."
In point form:
1. Neck strength is an obvious asset when
executing headbutts. Exercises include isometrics, headstraps and weights,
rubber bands, self-resistance (hands against head, etc.), and partner
resistance. A particularly valuable solo exercise is the wrestler's bridge
(forward, backwards and transitions). Once you gain sufficient strength
statically, be sure to dynamically work the neck through its entire range
of motion with the bridges - flexibility is important as well as strength.
A good partner exercise is to single-neck-hook' each other and really hang
your weight on the hook while moving around, snapping down, resisting,
etc. - go easy the first few times or your whole back and neck will really
ache the next day. (And remember, it's an exercise, not a contest.)
Neck strength is important for wrestling but
the defensive benefits for striking arts are often overlooked. A strong
neck helps the head and body move (nearly) as one when the head is struck
- this results in less 'whiplash' to the head and 'sloshing' of the brain
inside the skull.
2. It's worthwhile to shadow-box with the
head using, for instance, the linked butting exercises I discussed
earlier. Try to practice the head moves together with the rest of your
short-range repertoire (palm-heels, elbows, shoulders, knees, etc.). This
helps develop rhythm and coordination.
3. A solo exercise I recommend for head
butts is light-contact using some sort of speed-bag. (Speed bags are too
lively for shoulder-strike practice unless you have lightning reflexes.)
There are two types that I think are good. For each type you can use a
commercially-available bag or the roll-your-own kind.
The first type uses a head-sized inflatable
ball (very like a soccer ball or basketball) suspended on a taut bungee
cord above and (important) also below so it returns fairly quickly when
hit. It's very convenient to be able to adjust the height so you can
practice against simulated tall, medium, and short opponents. Be sure to
sometimes mix in the odd palm-heel, elbow, or head pull-in with your
head-butts.
The second type is like a boxer's speed bag
(in fact, one of those would work pretty well). It also uses a head-sized
inflatable ball. The ball is suspended only from above, quite close to the
ball. The apparatus may also include a (removable) backstop a few inches
behind the ball from which it can rebound; the bag motions with and
without the backstop add variety. I have only seen adjustable-height
versions of this type of bag on expensive professional-boxing models. This
second type of bag is much faster than the first type and will really
sharpen your butting reflexes. (If it's too fast, try deflating the ball a
bit to make it deader.)
4. Heavy bag work is great for shoulder
strikes but I would go easy on head butts. Even if you favour
light-contact, however, occasionally do a *few* full-power butts to get
the feel of them. Be extremely careful (especially before your technique -
and your neck - are very strong) to avoid a fast-approaching swing of the
bag hitting your head - you can seriously injure your neck. As for
breaking boards or other objects with a headbutt, you can do this if you
like - I'll abstain.
5. The last training method is light
sparring with a partner. You both wear full-contact type headgear complete
with chin, cheek, and face protection. I like plastic faceshields for face
protection better than wire grids but shields *are* rather 'steamy' and
claustrophobic. The protection lets you do light *not heavy* sparring -
don't overdo it! Wear a chest-guard if you're going to include shoulder
strikes or butts to the chest. And don't forget your mouthguard! Even with
padding and only moderate impact you will gain an appreciation of the
power of a good headbutt.
That's it from me - good luck with your
training. And remember: One good butt deserves a nutter!
Regards,
Gerald Moffatt