Combatives: Cupped Hand Strike to ear

[RapidAssault16]

I was wondering for those on this board who practice Combatives (as taught by William Fairbairn or Kelly McCann) know how to deliver the cupped hand blow to the ear. Would it be easy to telegraph this move...I've never seen it done but from what i hear its a whipping motion to the ear or neck area. Can anyone give me advice as to how to use it? Thanks

[Thai Bri]

Difficult to do in words. For me, cupping the hands can acheive one of two things - either it allows the hand to smack over the ear so hard that a possible ruptured ear drum can result, or it exposes the palm heel a little more in a strike across the jaw.

There are a few ways of throwing it. One way is to bring your hand from a position by your side and, with a lot of follow through from your body, whip it around in a cricular motion. Keep your elbows low and near to your hip. With practice, this is a powerful blow. Raising the elbow may be necessary to avoid his own hands. If so, ensure you get good use of your pecs (chest muscles) to power the blow through. But, of course, this is more telegraphed, as the low elbow position of the first blow keeps your hand out of his line of sight more.

Another way is to throw both your hands at once - sometimes called the "Thunder Clap". Obviously you ca't whip your body around in two opposing directions at once, so the hands are thrown forwards towards the ears, with a strong contraction of both pecs on the shot landing. Difficult to hide, and can leave you momentarily vulnerable. Personally I bastardise it, and send the hands upwards into a double palm heel strike under the jaw, following through with a push to send him over bacwards. Here your hands come under his line of sight.

But I prattle on. It is hard to learn from words. Try this site

www.close-combat-video.com

They have tapes that take you from a beginner stage, and tape #two includes the blow you asked about. www.gutterfighting.org is an excellent resource for information too.

Or look here www.urbancombatives.com There are a few pictorial representations of some of the basic blows.

Without wanting to slag JKD off, in my view much of it is about acquiring multitudes of different techniques. It is hgard to be an expert in so many different ones. Combatives is about training a comparitively tiny amount.... but you become far far better at each one. For real fighting I have no doubt that Combatives is a better approach though, of course, JKD can be effective and is more of an "art" in many ways.

[Serrada]

That is a tech. that is found in many MA. As a mater of fact I was taught it in my BJJ classes. The effectiveness of the strike effect the inter part of the ear which controls balance. (It also is damaging and can permanently damage someone’s ear. Maybe not the best for a bar fight or a high school fight) It is a very effective strike. As you mentioned, the problem is telegraphing the delivery. Your arm nor shoulder or hip should go back. The only motion should be forward and directly to the ear. Now the cup part is nonexistent. The only cup part is the natural contour of the hand and should create a seal when the palm contacts the ear.

[Sanitarium]

The wider the arc to the ears is, the more powerful it's gonna be, but you'll leave yourself open for longer, and telegraph more. So learn to keep it TIGHT and snap your hands together (for the double slap) very fast over a short distance.

[doubleouch]

Don't over think it. Just cup hand, then hit the dude in the ear. Nothing more to it than that! Course you gotta do it without getting creamed yourself.

[darrianation]

The ear slap as I call it is a fair technique, painful but won’t end a fight against a determined fighter. Royce Gracie ear slapped Ken shamrock 50 or so times while in the guard in one of their bouts and it didn’t even frustrate Shamrock.

In a real fight and you are on the ground; eye jabbing/poking and biting is more effective. For standing basically it’s a slap. Remember when you were in junior high and you were slap fighting with a friend during PE class? Well it’s just like that. It would be good to lead in with something else and then just slap, hand cupped of course.

Do you know what a scissor punch is? There are other names for it but I can’t think of what they are right now. It’s thrown similar to a hook; in fact the mechanics are the same. Usually it is thrown down ward at a 45’ or so angle to the neck, temple, jaw or mastoid using a ridge hand. The cupped hand can replace the ridge hand the ear can be struck instead of the neck or temple. Just remember to keep the elbow bent some otherwise you will hyper extend it, ouch!

Many newbie’s hurt themselves learning this without proper supervision, but if practiced you can do this full speed and power without injury to yourself and it is very powerful.

Just a different variation from the others I hope this has been helpful.