How to Fight Like a ‘Ballerina’

It’s a common Nightmare scenario: You are alone – you are at home at night, maybe or wait to meet someone in a bar – and someone is approaching, you intend. They are bigger than you, and you (maybe, probably) never played before. What are you doing?

It turns out that even experienced fights care about being attacked. Cara Marie Chooljian, an experienced stuntman in Hollywood, often wonders how she would react – and she knows Jujitsu. And Kickboxing. And judo. “When I got out, I think of this kind of thing,” she says. “A, because of my work, and B, because I want to keep myself safe.”

For his latest film, John Wick’s spin-off BallerinaChooljian had to fight like someone who was trained to kill since childhood: she was double double for Eve (played by Ana de Armas), an assassin who tries to avenge the death of his father. Identifying scenes involving shootings, a combat with melee and even a flame launcher battle. The film also demanded that from Armas and Chooljian, both about 5’6 “, go with John Wick himself, played by 6 feet high Keanu Reeves.

The fighting of choreography between the two therefore turned out to be an amplified version of what anyone could face someone larger or stronger. “What was fun for the film thought:” How could I win? ” “Explains Chooljian. “We wanted to make it as real as possible, because the reality is that if I fight a giant man, I will not be able to hit him in the face and win.”

But what about the rest of us, people who are not trained in combat? Wired asked Chooljian advice on what the average person could do to defend himself in a hand -to -hand fight that they cannot escape.

Fall on your buttocks (seriously)

It may seem ridiculous, but falling immediately can throw your attacker off guard. “If someone will fight you, then all of a sudden, you sit on the ground,” she says, “they will say to themselves:” What is that? “”, She recommends a favorite movement of her Jiujitsu training: flop down quickly, at their feet; Hang your hands behind their ankles, switch slightly back and use your two feet to kick them on their hip bones, hitting them flat. You can also pull their ankles to you to overturn them; But if you can kick, your chances of bringing them down considerably.

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If you are able to sweep your attacker with their feet, I hope they hit their heads going down. Use this moment to climb on them, then put yourself at work, by beating them with your elbows. (In a fight against someone much larger than you, your little fists will not be as effective.)

Death by a thousand cuts (or scratches or other)

In the end, you try to wear your attacker until you can escape or help you come – or, ideally, they abandon. Chooljian says it use the tactics you can. Til them in the eyes, scratch them in the face, knees in the groin. “One of my favorites is the fish hook,” she said, demonstrating by pulling the side of her mouth with her finger. “Everything that could really start to beat them.”

Use your legs

If you come across your ass does not get the results you want, you have other options. If you are pinned on a raised surface like a table, as done in BallerinaYou can use the lever effect and the proximity of your attacker to your advantage. Put them in what the world of waterfalls calls a “triangle”. You know the movement; You’ve probably seen it in the movies. To execute, lift your hips, wrap a leg behind the person’s neck, then wrap your other leg around, locking your knee around your ankle. Then press. “So his head is between my legs, suffocating him,” says Chooljian.

Everything can be a weapon if you hold it well

Throughout any fight, always look for tools that can help you. The cord on a curling iron? It will do. A candlestick? Why not? It worked in Hint. “If I am in a bar and I don’t trust a situation, the first thing I will probably enter is a bottle,” explains Chooljian.

If everything else fails, opt for the groin

It is the only movement which, according to Chooljian, is Son Go-To when it is faced with bigger and stronger guys: you kick them in the nuts. “It’s a cliché, but what do you know?” It works. “