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The likely study Chris Leblanc's 2007 article in the Journal of Non-lethal Combatives argues strongly that the claim "most fights go to the ground" originates with the Gracie family, famous for popularizing Brazilian jiu-jitsu, a groundfighting art. I vaguely recall seeing Rorion and Helio repeating this claim in video, but cannot produce an example at this ...

Everything that's physically challenging carries the chance of injury. Deal with it. Running risks joint degeneration. Bicycling can be bad for sexual function and mobility. Hikers get lost and freeze to death. Tennis causes elbow pain. Soccer players blow out their knees. Baseball players risk concussions from wayward pitches to the head. Lifting weights ...

"Clinch happens." Without training, people who fight very frequently end up in a clinch or on the ground. (This is common for people who train in non-sparring, non-grappling arts, too.**) It's just a natural outcome for a fight, unless you're proficient in grappling. In most cases, one cannot stop grappling without...drum roll...grappling. Probabilities ...

A lot of the sources from which people draw that "most fights go to the ground" are fatally flawed in one way or another. UFC fights are not like real world engagements. Your priorities in a UFC fight are to win the mutual engagement, your priority in a real world engagement is frequently to not be there as expeditiously as possible (at least if you are ...

I'm in construction and like to grapple in my spare time. I read somewhere on here someone recommended Horse Stall Mats.. thats a no-no.. falling on Vulcanized rubber is like landing on concrete, but you get a nice skid burn on top of that. I saw someone else say to make your own out of plywood, styrofoam, carpet underlay foam and drape your own vinyl... ...

@WayneInML is right... This is the "40 ninja in trees armed with automatic weapons and a nuclear device" question – you can always provide enough circumstances to counter an argument. The only sure-fire, 100% reliable way to survive is to not be there. Don't engage idiots, listen to that oh-so-obnoxious sub-conscious of yours that tells you walking down ...

Visit a couple of dojos that interest you and ask about their injury record. Look for older students; once you cross 50, injuries count more and heal slower. Moreover you're more likely to have other injuries that complicate your practice. Ask about training with injuries, and "opt-out". I can no longer do kneeling work, and when I visit a new dojo I ...

I have a shoulder brace recommendation, but before I give it, I will explain why I don't think it's going to do what you want it to as far as the muscles are concerned. Your stated injury is in the SITS muscles which are what comprise the rotator cuff. Only one of the muscles actually produces motion of the limb in a plane, the primary function of these ...

Great question. Think of all the categories of fighting as different spokes on a wheel. If you are equally poor in all categories, your wheel is small, and you may move smoothly, but you won't move far, at least not quickly. If you are completely missing spokes, these are points at which your wheel falters, and you have a rougher ride. Which is better? To ...

One of the major differences between the 'illegal' moves and the 'legal' moves is that the legal moves have fairly previsible responses. If you poke someone in the eye, you're not quite sure what their response will be. If you bridge, no matter the opponent's response, you're probably (no pun intended) on much more comfortable ground. To go one step deeper ...

While I understand the desire and even need these days to be frugal, I would be very careful buying mats from a Dollar Store or Box Store like Wal-Mart. Safety is of greatest concern. I have also used the gym style folding mats as mentioned above and they are problematic in that they do not stay together but easily slide apart when using them. Your best ...

Unfortunately for you, unlike grappling which can be used without any striking ability to neutralise striking, there's no way to use striking to neutralise grappling. The only way to deal with a grappler is if you can grapple yourself. If your focus is on avoiding getting taken down, you can train a takedown centric art. Judo would be the most likely one ...

@stslavik's answer hit it on the money, but I wanted to give my two cents, alongside his. I know you didn't use these words, but basically, there's no real "anti-grappling" that isn't, truthfully, just grappling. I have a couple things that I'd like to recommend if you want to avoid being put in a grappling situation, though: 1) As @stslavik said, avoid ...

Assuming no-gi and they're starting with right knee down and left knee up. Plant your left foot on his right hip, it makes it pretty hard for him to get rid of it or pass, and since your foot is on his hip it gives you something to push off of to swivel and get an angle. Your right leg should also be somewhere on his torso, but since it's going to move the ...

Uh, Great Question: I love it. Let's go. The main thing to understand is that your are in charge of how you train. So if you would like to train light contact, or no contact at all, you should be able to. If your club does not respect that, they are not worthy: Martial Arts nowadays is not as it used to be in terms of need. We need it less for warfare ...

I've been training Karate for the last 11 years. You get hurt sometimes, accidents or clashes happen. You get over it. I've had a few injuries over the years, broken foot, hand, ribs, all from accidents. It happens. You try to learn from it (block with your hand closed!) and carry on. Our Dojo is very strict on having control, which should be a factor in ...

First, I see we have some definition misunderstanding. Legal moves in terms of sport competition or self defense? If it is self defense, you need to legitimize the level of force you use. If a bite was an available tool for you to escape and you can justify it, it was a legal move ... Now, about biting itself. It is a great tool if you rip a part of the ...

From my experience, the most important part is to retract your strikes fast and not leave any limbs where your opponent can grab them. This is especially true for kicks, since you will probably have faster reactions if someone tries grabbing an arm than a leg. Even when ground fighting, one of the biggest mistakes to make is leaving an arm extended where ...

Train in grappling. Sorry, but a grappler will almost always win out against a non-grappler. Just ask just about any TKD student who's sparred a BJJ student. Or, for that matter, the evolution of MMA and the UFC when Gracie and other grapplers won time and time again for several years, until people started adding it into their styles. The thing about ...

Just a shortie (declaimer: I am not very much into martial arts, unfortunately). Throw something at his face: knife, keys, wallet, jacket, stone. That is, I claim you always have some kind of weapon that changes your range. If you remain there, what do you win? You spend time fighting, he spends time fighting, but his friends are free to surround you. ...

Good Luck If your not-getting-stabbed relies on your not-engaging-in-any-form-of-clinch, then I'd hire a combat medic to follow you around, because chances are you're going to have some stab wounds. We don't always get to choose where the fight goes. Our sprawl might fail, we might get caught by surprise, our knee or punch or debilitating nerve strike ...

Your best bet is to buy them used from a tournament like grapplers quest. They bring in new mats for every tournament, and sell them after at a steep discount. A lot of tournaments re-use their mats though, so this might not be an option in your area. Do not attempt things like take downs on the cheap mats you can get at the dollar store, or even ...

Going back through some of my files, I found a box on making your own mats in M. A. Training magazine, Summer 1988, by Jack Herman (p.55). His plan shows a plywood backing board, a 2 inch thick sheet of styrofoam over that, then two layers of 9/8-inch thick foam carpet padding, covered with a tough fabric. He points out that if you need to use thinner ...

For same day weigh ins, cutting a lot of weight is not ideal, and it will affect your performance. That being said, if you are weighing in early in the morning, and competing later in the afternoon, you will have some time to properly rehydrate and recover. This question talks about some techniques that are out there: Dropping weight before a MMA fight ...

Biting is (generally speaking) a pain-compliance activity. Unless you are biting off a finger, or going for an artery, you are using your teeth as a method to induce pain in your opponent to either unbalance his technique or get him to abandon it entirely. Some other common examples include pinching and spraying people with pepper spray. Pain is not likely ...

Biting / Eye Gouging and Groin Grabbing (BEGGG) aren't in themselves escapes. You still need to know the mechanics of making some space and using it to escape. The only thing stopping you escaping is the person adapting to your escape. BEGGG could be used as a interrupt to that adaption.

When I hear this, I think "most streetfights", not MMA or LEO fights. In that context, it has been my experience that, yes, most fights do end up on the ground. Most people aren't trained fighters and its just not likely that two people are going to stand at range firing off strikes. What tends to happen is that either someone lands a hard blow sending ...

How about building your own? It used to be commonplace. http://www.wattaa.com/equipment/building-your-own-tatami-mat/ Also, since they'll be grappling, they really won't need much in the way of protection. Carpet is probably fine for now.

I live in a city with a training facility of the national Judo team (i think that's what it is) since Judo is olympic they receive quite a lot of funding. This leads to them perceiving mats as 'old' quite quickly and so they buy new one and get rid of the old ones frequently. I got a bunch of slightly used mats for cheap from there. TL'DR: A well funded ...

http://secure.gracieacademy.com/categories/grappling-mats/ The Gracie Academy often has sales of their style of grappling mats. Not knowing much about BJJ, I don't know anything else to suggest but wait for these to go on sale, and then order some.