Defanging the snake

Last week, I introduced the term 'defanging the snake'. If you remember, we talked about a venomous snake, attacking someone and delivering its poison with its fangs. The two most dangerous things about this type of snake are the venom and the fangs. However, if you remove the fangs from the snake it becomes harmless as it cannot bite you or deliver the poison. (We weren’t talking about constricting or spitting snakes!)

In a similar way, a fundamental principle from many systems of Kali is that of either removing our opponent’s weapon or injuring the hand (in which they hold the weapon) so that the attack cannot be continued – thereby defanging them. This has the advantage that we can carry this out at a long range and therefore not have to come too close and risk having to deal with our opponent’s other weapons – fists, elbows, headbutt, knees, kicks etc…

The most common methods that we will use in our stick training are to deliver hits to the hand or arm of our opponent that are holding a weapon. This is also sometimes known as a limb 'destruction' technique. Hitting their hand or arm will in most cases not permanently damage their bones, tendons, muscles, blood vessels, or nerves, but there is a chance that it might. In either case the injury means that the opponent cannot continue holding the weapon.

Other common methods of 'defanging' will include attacking vulnerable points of the hand and arm. In stickfighting these will typically be the thumb, the inside of the elbow, the armpit and the shoulder (sometimes know as ‘pressure point’ attacks). These require far more skill as they have to be delivered with speed, accuracy, and force, in exactly the right spot. They will typically cause the opponent's weapon to be lost, but usually have less potential for permanent damage to be done. You might for instance hear one of us talking about using a 'gunting' attack to the inside of someone’s arm (more about that another time).

Although not generally considered 'defanging' techniques, I also consider disarms and locks to fall within the same general category, as they allow you to remove the immediate threat of a weapon, without necessarily causing permanent injury.

These techniques exist is many martial arts, so we aren’t claiming this to be something unique, but the imagery of 'defanging a snake' helps us to remember that we do not always have to do more than remove the immediate threat from a self-defence situation before we can make our escape, unharmed.

By complete contract 'snake charming' is not a recommended martial arts or self-defence technique.

IMPORTANT NOTE: All of these techniques rely on causing pain or injury to a person to some degree. You therefore have to be very careful when practising with your training partner. Remember, we always train with our partner, not against them, and we always look after them!