Chin Na For Cops

Chin Na For Cops

by Bruce Lee Student ~ Thursday, May 14, 2009

Chin Na is the Helping Hand That Police Officers Need to Make Thier Jobs Less Deadly

Sir, can you please step out of your vehicle?”

Every day police officers are making “hands-on” contact with thousands of individuals: field interviews, searches, domestic calls at 4 a.m. Each situation requires a response with the appropriate manner and appropriate amount of force.

“Too many times, officers are in a position to use deadly force, because they don’t have any tools available to them,” explains former Burbank Chief of Police, Dave Newsham, who in 1992 brought in kung-fu grandmaster Don Baird to head the department’s defensive tactics program. “Any opportunity, we try and give our officers another option.”

Chin na provides police officers just that, because it’s a system of seizing and catching joints, tendons, ligaments, allowing the user to control an opponent’s body. Often gentle although sometimes severe, these techniques can create immense pain when applied correctly. By manipulating a finger or arm in different ways, a police officer can use the suspect’s body as leverage to control or arrest him.

China’s Grappling Art

Chin na isn’t an individual style, but an aspect of nearly all kung-fu styles in China. The word “chin” means “to seize or trap” and “na” means “to lock or break.”

For over 1,000 years, shaolin monks have trained in chin na, perfecting and honing techniques to the quality they are today. “It’s one thing to have techniques that were made up yesterday; it’s another to have ones that withstood the test of time in the most violent situations,” says Baird.

Based on more than just techniques, this system teaches the student principles of body mechanics and patience. You learn how to capture different parts of the body and the correct force required to be effective. The distance between you and the opponent, spatial orientation, intuition, reading an opponent through muscle shifting and body movement are only a few things chin na focuses on.

“To this day, chin na is one of the most effective training methods for Chinese military and police officers,” notes Baird. What made this system appealing was the ability to disable opponents without causing unnecessary harm. Our bodies are only meant to bend or twist at certain angles before feeling discomfort and then pain. When you grab and then manipulate a part of a person’s body in the correct way, you gain control over the rest of the body.


1. The suspect tries to grab the officer’s gun from behind.
2. The officer turns and pins the suspect’s hand to the holstered gun,kinking the suspect’s wrist.

3. An inside shot of the parry and wrist pressure
4. This photo shows the officer’s hand slipping to a grab/seize.

5. The officer turns further and prepares to lock/break the suspect’s arm.
6. The officer locks/breaks the suspect’s arm (this move can also lead to a strong takedown).