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Getting Up Off The Ground – Obstacle Behind You Variation


After a student learns how to get up off the ground, a question that occasionally comes up is “What do you do if there’s a wall behind you?” This video offers two variations to getting up off your back or side that work despite having an obstacle behind you.

Transcript:

“This is Randall and Glenda with KravMagaTraining.com. In this video we’re going to go over how to get up. However, we’re going to show you guys how to modify that in case there’s something behind you like a wall, in this case a shelf, or an obstacle. This question actually comes up a lot when we start doing a lot of live training with getting up off the ground. Our students are training. They tend to get pinned up against the wall and they realize that they can’t do the normal get up.

Now let me first explain what that problem is and demonstrate it. So, we’re going to use the shelf as an example. For whatever reason, I end up on the ground, whether it’s on my back, on my side, whatever. Glenda’s playing the role of the bad guy. So here’s the problem is I create enough space by kicking her away, I try to do the usual get up, ‘uh oh’. Here’s the problem. I’m crashing into this shelf, or if I had to do it up against this wall, there’s nowhere for me to go. So this is obviously an issue.

Now the solution for this is pretty simple. I’m going to give you guys two solutions.

The first one is this. Normally, after I create space, when we get up we’re taught to angle this foot back, like this, and then loop it around like this. So you’re kind of making a ‘C’ shape like this or like a half circle. But the problem is when we do this, ‘oop’, my foot hits the shelf, there’s nowhere for me to go. A wall or car or whatever it is.

So the solution to this is not to go straight back, but it’s to angle off. So you can visualize the shelf extending all the way down in this direction. No problem. This is what I do is, as I’m getting up, this foot just continues this path of angeling back. So I get rid of the looping part back. Angle straight back. Now I can get up and notice that I didn’t run out of real estate.

I’ll give you guys a different perspective here upon this wall. I’m like this. I create space. I try to get up. ‘Oops’, there’s the problem. So here we go. Get up. Watch how this foot angles in this direction. I can still get up. No problem. I’m not crashing into the wall that’s behind me. So that’s the easiest solution.

If you want to get a little more tactical about it. Especially, when you’re sparring, here’s a little trick that you can use that I’ve done sparring as well.

So, Glenda is going to be the bad guy. And a lot of times the bad guy won’t just stay directly in front of you. As you guys know, a lot of times they will try to flank you. They’ll try to move around. So let’s say Glenda moves this way, obviously, I need to turn that way. But, it should also be an opportunity for you to try and get up. So if I see her angling out, I’ll kick and create that space and see if I can get up off of that. Because the angle changed, I can actually use the regular get up by moving off to the side.

So that’s a little, yeah, it’s getting a little bit more advanced but it’s something you can try out, especially when you’re partner is offering you resistance. Whether it’s with a shield and they’re trying to move around with you or if you actually got sparring gear on and you’re trying to replicate those drills.

So the main solution, angle off when you move the leg back. If you want to be a little bit more sneaky about it, try to do that when you’re attacker momentarily tries to flank around you, one way or the other. If they flank off to this side, I angle this way. If they try to flank off to this side, I angle off the other way. So those are a few options on how you can fix the problem.

So that’s how you get up despite having an obstacle like a wall or car behind you. So try that out and, as always guys, thanks for the support. Keep watching the videos.”

“Is there a ‘what if’ you can’t figure out while practicing a technique or defense? Let us know what it is and we’ll make a video with a solution for you!”