Author: Odhinn Kohout

Extraction Tactics/ Car, Cell and Street (Part-1)

“The Turtle Position from the Street”

When a person resists arrest they will sometimes go down on all fours with their arms and knees tucked in tight to their body in what is commonly known as the “turtle position.”

This seemingly innocent position can potentially be very dangerous to the Officer as the criminal may use this as a ruse and in fact be hiding weapons which the Officer cannot see. From this position if the bad-guy can roll onto his side he will be able to draw down on the Officer who will be momentarily startled and caught off guard making him an easy target.

How to do you safely control the position?

In previous articles we discussed the “cross-face” techniques and from the position of the turtle it presents a perfect opportunity to use it. Most people will try and pull the suspects arms away from his body but from a bio-mechanical standpoint this is very difficult as when the elbows are tucked into the body it is not arm strength (forearm, bicep and tricep) which holds them taught but rather the core.

When criminals are placed in a crossface you should always be thinking of moving more to the back of the attacker as opposed to the side. The reason for this is when the crossface is performed the reflexive response will be to grab the hands and rise upward to try and alleviate the pain, This is in fact what you want…

·         If the attacker grabs your hands then... he is not able to manipulate a weapon so you now know where his hands are positioned

·         Rising up off the ground should be goal as he is facilitating the extraction from off the street

Cross-Face Position:

Your attack hand should always be thumb up using the first digit bone of your thumb under the cheekbone of the Attacker. Keep your arm tight to your side as you do this so that you are lifting him with the added power of your hips and using minimal arm strength.

Gable Grip:

You can add extra power to the crossface by using your support hand to gable grip directly under the cheekbone. This can also lead to many different neck cranks as well which we will explore in future articles.

Head Locks:

From the turtle you can also perform a headlock away from the attacker which is referred to as a “Bulldog” headlock. In certain types of wrestling this can be worse by performing this headlock with both of your feet planted on the floor also facing in the opposite direction, You can use your feet to push towards the attacker getting traction from the surface.

If he attempts to roll with the headlock you can transition to the head/arm position and many variations of arm triangles

The Hips:

Pulling his hips towards you will not only give you his back but set up the bad guy for a cross-body/side control arm lock finish or maintain side-mount and finish the arrest control with a chicken wing/ figure-4 arm lock from the North/South position. Your kneed from North/South should be on either side of his face which open up “clock-head scissors” and other unique locks using your legs to employ neck cranks.

Be wary of the turtle position so that you remain vigilant to weapons which may be placed inside the front of his pants and are easily accessible.

Train hard, be safe