Why THOSE Techniques?

Ever wonder why curriculum is the way it is?  Like why does everyone end up reading Catcher in the Rye in high school?  Or why do all art history classes include a section on Picasso’s Guernica?

More to the point, why do we teach kids grab counters?  Why specifically wrist grab counters?  Because we think that those techniques have some relevance for young martial artists, just as English teachers think that Catcher in the Rye has some relevance for high schoolers.

The idea is that a wrist grab is a fairly common thing.  Probability dictates that if someone is going to grab you, it might well be by the wrist.  An attacker could, of course, grab the hair, shirt, leg, nose or ear as well but the wrist is more likely.  Thus, we teach a wrist grab counter as a basic so that all students get exposed to it.  We might delve into counters against hair grabs or shirt grabs but they aren’t requirements.  Thus our school culture is made up in part by our basics.  We can’t cover every grab that’s out there, so what will give students a basic understanding of how to deal with being grabbed?

In a similar way, a high school English class can’t cover every book on teenage angst but what’s a good book that gives students a basic understanding of angst?  Catcher in the Rye seems like a good fit to me.