Judo Champion Gene LeBell's Newest Weapon is the Grappling Club
Judo Champion Gene LeBell's Newest Weapon is the Grappling ClubBy Terry L. Wilson / Photos by Rick Hustead |
______________________________________________ When he served as president of the United States, Teddy Roosevelt would often quote a proverb that was popular at the time: Walk softly and carry a big stick. Judo champion and Black Belt Hall of Fame member Gene LeBell has taken that old adage to new extremes with his latest martial arts toy, the grappling club. You may be saying to yourself: “Big deal. A guy in a pink gi has a stick that looks like a giant Q-Tip. What’s that got to do with me?” Well, in the martial arts world, when LeBell talks, people listen. He’s been dubbed the “toughest man alive” by his peers, and his exploits in and out of the ring are the stuff legends are made of. In addition to the decades he’s spent in the Asian martial arts, wrestling and boxing, he’s one of Hollywood’s hardest-working stuntmen. In fact, it’s almost impossible to go to a theater or turn on the television without spotting his mug somewhere in the frame.
“I developed these techniques primarily for law-enforcement use,” LeBell says. “Every year, the Los Angeles Police Department is slapped with lawsuits for excessive force. That results in thousand and thousands of dollars lost and a lot of bad publicity. What frequently happens is the police will be forced to use their batons or flashlights to stop someone by whacking him on top of the head. While this is better than shooting him, they still get a bad rap for using excessive force. So I created a method by which they can use a baton strictly as a defensive weapon to block and control a suspect without the need to strike him.” The Equalizer Imagine someone is lunging toward you and you’re planning to throw him with an uchimata, judo’s inner-thigh reap. Instead of having only your hands to work with, you shove the business end of your club around the back of his neck. Your left hand reaches out and grabs the other end of it, palm down. Then you pull him toward you using the club as a handle. It works perfectly, especially if he’s larger and heavier.
Once you’ve gripped the club, you can effect the throw by spinning into him, leading with your right side. You pivot to position your hips in front of his, then hit the inside of his leg with your right calf. Next, you lean forward, pulling his upper body with you. Your right leg springs up and back, lifting him off the ground. To finish, you slam him to the pavement and use the club to apply a finishing hold or control technique.
“Grappling with a club is pretty much what it is,” LeBell says about his new set of techniques. “The club becomes an extension of the arm, giving you a lot of extra room to work with. And there are dozens of come-alongs you can do with a club, as well as locks, throws, armbars and chokes. A club is a wonderful tool for self-defense in the hands of someone who knows how to use it.” Cop’s Best Friend LeBell has spent countless hours teaching the LAPD how to use the nightstick in tandem with a variety of control procedures. Although it can be a lethal weapon, he claims, his techniques are designed to humiliate, intimidate and control an adversary without causing serious injury.
Finishing holds are paramount to successful containment, especially when an officer is on his own. Knowing how to implement any one of LeBell’s club-grappling techniques can mean the difference between bringing in a suspect who’s a little bruised up and one who’s a little shot up. “It’s a lot harder for the bad guys to fight or get away when an officer is using a club [to apply a] finishing hold,” he says. “I teach them how to slap and catch a suspect, how to execute go-behinds, and how to do wrist, elbow and shoulder holds for arrest and control. There are so many ways to effectively control people with a club that even an extremely violent person can be put down without the use of lethal force.” State of the Art Although the design of police nightsticks differs from state to state, there are two basic models: the ordinary nightstick and the PR-24 baton, a cop version of the tonfa. Both have flaws, LeBell says, so he designed one of his own. The official LeBell Grappling Club is 24 inches long with an enlarged section at each end. It also comes with a snap strap so it can be secured to your belt. “There are a lot of club designs on the market, and they all have their good points and bad points,” he says. “The biggest problem I’ve seen is that a bigger and stronger person can wrestle a regular club away from someone of lesser strength. So I designed one that would give the user better control. My club has a knob on both ends so that when you slide your grip down, your hand doesn’t come off and you have better control of the weapon.” Note on the utility of the tonfa: The side-handle club is a popular sidearm with many police departments, but as LeBell discovered, the average cop has no idea how to use it except as a bludgeon. “Most of them just use it to hit people on the side of the head,” he says. “Sure, they can whip it out, spin it and do some fancy maneuvers, but it’s all show and very little go. Just because it looks good doesn’t make it practical. It’s like a gunfighter who can only twirl his six-shooter. It looks cool, but if he can’t shoot the darned thing, what good is it? That’s why I strongly suggest that law-enforcement officers learn how to use the club as an offensive and defensive security blanket.”
Final Words Although he’s not opposed to making a few extra bucks selling his specially designed club, LeBell says his grappling techniques will work with any style of stick—or even an umbrella, a flashlight or a cane. The key lies in knowing the application and making sure your execution of it doesn’t rely on any physical features of the device you’re forced to use. To help get the message out to the public, LeBell dumped several years’ worth of time and effort into a 320-page book titled The Grappling Club Master. “If you can learn just a half dozen moves, a few takedowns, a couple of submission holds, some go-behinds and a few come-alongs, that’s all you’ll need,” he says. “Those techniques can be done with anything from a club to a tree limb, a flashlight or even a rolled up magazine.” Whether you pick them up from a book, a videotape or a magazine that you later wield as a weapon is irrelevant in Gene LeBell’s mind. As long as you have the skills and the awareness to find a makeshift club if you’re not carrying one, you’ll be ready to roll. About the author: Terry Wilson is a freelance writer and jujutsu practitioner based in San Diego, California. For information about ordering Gene LeBell’s books, visit www.genelebell.com or Black Belt's online store. 
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