Scarf hold your opponent to end the fight immediately.
The scarf hold is such an effective way to end a fight I had to make a video about it.
In fact, 2 videos. In this first part 1 video and article I will teach you how to:
- Do a proper scarf hold (street version)
- Keep someone in your scarf hold
- Clean and dirty ways to escape the scarf hold and prevent those escapes
- A super quick way to end the fight from the scarf hold
- How to acquire your scarf hold from some ground positions and standing throws
Scarf Hold Basics
The key to a great scarf hold is controlling your opponent’s elbow. A simple headlock is easy to escape as your opponent can pry their head free and take your back.
But when their elbow is properly controlled they don’t have the ability to wiggle or pry free.
Observe the following pointers as seen in the image below:
- Your opponent’s wrist is pinched tightly in your armpit
- You have ahold of their elbow right above the epicondyle bones in the joint, pinching with your thumb and fingers
- Your thigh is dug underneath their triceps / shoulder
- You are on your side / hip facing them in a fetal-like position
- Keep some space between your hips and their body – more on this later
- In this particular image I am also applying an overhook to my partner’s right arm while scarf holding his left arm however your free arm can also go around their head like a headlock or in front of their head with your triceps pushing against their face
Scarf Hold Escapes – Clean
Next let us look at how to escape if we were in a scarf hold and how we could prevent your opponent from using the same escapes on you. We will start with the clean ones that you could use in competition… or the street.
#1) Rolling Escape
Earlier I told you to keep some space between your hips and your opponent’s body… that is to make you heavier and thus harder to roll.
As seen on the video if you are in a scarf hold you want to scoot your hips right up against and even under your opponent on top of you.
Grab the waistband of their pants and lift them as high as you can just long enough to sneak your hip under their butt. You can also sneak your knee under their leg to help with this.
Now that they are sitting on top of you simply roll them to the other side. Now you are free and can do the move of your choice.
To prevent this from happening to you if you are holding someone in your scarf hold simply keep that space between your pelvis and their body. As they scoot up you just keep scooting / rotating away.
#2) Head Hook Escape
If you are in a scarf hold you can use your free hand to push their head back. Now use your leg and hook around their head and pull their head away stretching them out.
Now you should be able to pry your elbow out.
To prevent this being done to you keep your head down so the leg can’t hook around your head.
If they use their free arm to push up on your head you can grab their fingers and pull their arm away as seen in the image below. You could also use the overhook as seen earlier.
#3) Leg Hook Escape
One thing you will notice is that my legs are kept far away from my training partner’s legs. This is because another technique you can use to escape a scarf hold is to use your closest leg and hook the leg of the guy on top.
Now start stretching them out. In this weakened position you should be able to pry your arm free.
Scarf Hold Escapes – Dirty
Ok on to the dirty moves that you couldn’t do in sport and you definitely would not want someone doing these to you.
#1) Biting
If you are on the bottom of a scarf hold and you can’t seem to do anything to escape or it is imminent you get up – multiple attackers – then use your canine teeth and nibble on whatever flesh you can find. Armpit, triceps, anything is fair game.
This will make the person holding you in the scarf hold reflexively flinch and let go so you have time to quickly pry yourself free.
To prevent this you can do several things:
- Overhooking their free arm will make it so they don’t have the flexibility to lean up and bite you
- Pressing your elbow into the side of their head should stretch their neck out so they can’t turn and bite
- Finally you can drop some devastating elbows on their head and simply knock them out
#2) Using the Free Hand to Hit, Claw, or Pinch
Another last resort is to use your free hand to start clawing at their eyes, pinching their skin, or clawing at their skin. This should have a similar response to biting them giving you just a moment to quickly do one of the other escapes.
Of course you can fire off some palm strikes to the side or back of their head as well.
To prevent this you can do any of the following:
- Once again you can overhook their free arm – although they might still be able to claw or pinch the skin on your back
- You can also grab their fingers and pull them out to an outstretched arm as seen in a previous image
- And of course there is the old trusty just knock them the heck out with elbows as seen below
Speaking of quick termination of the fight… Yeah, that’s it. Simple enough?
Acquiring the Scarf Hold
In the video I show several methods for getting the scarf hold from both the ground and standing positions.
I won’t bother duplicating that instruction in this article but I will point out several keys to success.
In many throws from the feet you might already be in a scarf hold if you think about it. Like the classic head and arm throw I’m doing in this image. I am pinching their wrist in my armpit and grasping right above the epicondyle bones in my training partner’s elbow.
In throws like this just keep a nice tight grip on your opponent’s elbow with your fingers and wrist with your armpit. Now follow them down to the ground and slide right into the scarf hold.
Most throws and takedowns however will require a transitional move once you get to the ground. A good way to get the scarf hold would be to do your takedown, trap the inner gate with your hands so they must punch around your arms – as you see me teach all of the time. Now as their arms warp around the outside of yours it is easy to get overhooks.
Now simply slide your leg under into the scarf hold position and your overhook turns into the scarf hold grip. Watch the video for what this looks like.
When transitioning from the side mount with an overhook it is pretty important to keep from being punched.
To do that you simply want to keep your head down on the overhooked (about to be scarf held) arm side. Then with your free arm trap their free arm so they can’t punch. Any punch or grab they do will go under your arm.
This is a very safe position to enter from the side into the scarf hold. While I don’t have a great overhook on my training partner’s left arm I am in the process of hooking his elbow with my fingers so I can slide my left leg under his arm and acquire the scarf hold.
At the same time my head is out of the way AND I am trapping his free arm so he can’t punch me.
Final Thoughts
The scarf hold is an amazing tool for your ground fighting arsenal regardless of sport or street.
Practice the transition from the side mount and overhook into the scarf hold and your life just got a lot easier.
Until next time,
Brian
