Physical intervention techniques must continue to be refined and developed to ensure they are safe and fit for purpose. However, it could be argued that innovation in this area has plateaued, partly because training providers build their business around fixed techniques, which leads to stasis. Further, the drive to eliminate restrictive practices has placed a focus on prevention of physical restraint and physical intervention, rather than evolution of the techniques. This article considers martial arts, the origin of most physical restraint techniques, and examines how they have been modernised, using Christensen’s failure framework, to instigate critical debate about how physical intervention techniques need to improve.