Discussions from Class- Short Circuit
During martial arts instruction, instructors at Delaware Hapkido often use the term short circuit. As used in our self-defense language, a short circuit is an action that changes the attacker's attention. An electrical short circuit can also require attention.
Electricians can identify the result of a short circuit. Short circuits cause heat and can even cause a fire.
Electrical current is electron movement. In an electrical short circuit, electrons have almost zero resistance (zero ohms). The ohm is the value used to measure resistance. During a short circuit, since electrons will take the least resistant path, other circuit devices will often stop working. All the electron flowing in the circuit goes to the short circuit electrical line.
For a self-defense comparison, there are times that an attacker has a primary focus. For example, the attacker might be grabbing you. If the grab is overpowering and extremely strong, you will need to find a way to loosen the grip to facilitate an escape. An excellent way to do this is to redirect the attacker's attention with a short circuit defense.
What does this short circuit look like in a self-defense situation? Consider a situation where a strong attacker has a two-hand grip on one of your wrists. Luckily, your other hand is free. To loosen the grip and escape with a technique, you could use your free hand to strike the attacker with a palm strike in the head area. With the proper training and power of this type of strike, the attacker will think less about his grip and focus more on the pain in his head.
A perfect short circuit strike would allow the defender to efficiently perform a circular motion technique to escape the two-hand grip.
Like electrical short circuits, a self-defense short circuit can redirect an attacker's focus and energy. The change in focus and energy will allow us to defend ourselves and successfully overcome obstacles such as greater strength or leverage from an attacker.
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