Security Specials – Hapkido Come-Alongs

Control and restraint
C&R

One of my students is a bouncer, so for his benefit I began putting together a list of escort techniques, or what some call come-alongs or police locks. Some people call these control and restraint techniques, or C&R.  They are techniques that can be used to control a person without injuring him. A bouncer might use a C&R technique to walk a troublesome patron out the door. A security guard or cop might use one to  take a person down and handcuff him.

Unfortunately you see a lot of ineffective C&R techniques on Youtube. And all too often, police officers are not trained in these techniques – with tragic results. An officer who doesn’t feel capable of restraining an unarmed man might simply shoot the man instead. Officers have often unintentionally murdered suspects by using batons to apply chokes, thereby crushing the windpipe. It’s vital that law enforcement, security and bouncers learn proper C&R.

Come-along technique

This is one type of come along technique, applied here by Captain Higuchi, Chief Instructor of the 40,000-member Tokyo police force.

In putting together this list I drew from my Hapkido background and also from my training in Kokodo Jujitsu. I spoke to several martial arts instructors, and augmented this by researching videos. I also innovated a few techniques of my own from Silat.

I call these techniques my “Security Specials”. They have proven to be popular with my students, so during every class session we take a few and practice them. Some begin from a standard come-along grab, holding a person’s wrist and elbow and walking him along. We then assume some resistance on the part of the patron/client/suspect, and proceed to an arm bar, then from there to any one of several possibilities: standard gooseneck, inverted gooseneck, corkscrew lock, etc.

Other techniques on the list assume a resisting client, where they have their hands up – either to ward us off or in challenge – and we must enter and secure the person without striking. To that end we have techniques like the two-hand arm bar, rapid-entry gooseneck, and head pull to an arm grab.

I’m quite happy with the list and I think it should be required learning for every law enforcement officer, security guard and bouncer.

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