Escaping an Elbow Grab: Self-Defense for Kids

Video Transcript

"For kids' safety, one thing that you might want to think about is a grab from the front. I get grabbed from the front over by my arm, I might get just my shirt just being grabbed or it might be the whole arm. My arm's a little bit big for her, so she's going to grab just my shirt. Something to remember, is that if they just have just your clothes, you might just need to lose your shirt, let it rip and then escape that way. But, if you can't just do that, try this. Put your hand on the side of your leg and you're going to have it go up the side of your body. You're going to step back the same side that they're grabbing, and you're also going to turn. So, you're going to do those things as the same time and it's going to make a big jerky type motion that's going to easily take their hand off of you. You want to create space between you and the attacker. Again, they're grabbing you because they've got another hand free. Their feet are free. You want to get away from this situation as quickly as possible. So, you step back, pull your elbow, and turn. Now, I'm bigger than her, so I can grab her entire arm. Arm on the side of your leg and step back and twist -- and it's hard for me to hang on. And even if it's the shirt, even as she does this, you use a big jerky motion, it's going to come right out of the hand. So, keeping yourself safe from an arm grab, is simply just putting the hand on the side of the body, twisting and backing out of it."