44
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. Rorion Gracie makes this claim in the Gracie Challenge tapes (excerpted here at 2:30) saying:
Many martial ...
27
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 ...
18
"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
...
16
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 ...
14
Depending on if the choke is on and how their arms are positioned here are a few options I'm aware of and try to work on (these are very brief descriptions, barely scratching the surface of back and RNC defense, to get you started on further research):
Hooks in no upper body control - Protect your neck with the "V" "prayer" position , flare your legs out ...
12
Choking with hands wrapped around the throat is not efficient
The goal of chokes in BJJ and judo is to cut off blood to the head at the carotid arteries and jugular veins, which can render a person unconscious in seconds. Cutting off air takes much longer, so blood is strongly preferred. If you are trying to do this with each hand squeezing on both sides of ...
11
@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 ...
11
I do BJJ/grappling and stand up jujitsu, and I've discovered the following works best for long hair:
Pull your hair into a tight, low ponytail on the side of your head, not straight back, else when you grapple it will get trapped under your head on the ground.
Quickly braid the hair and secure with a second band!
It's nowhere near the work of the full ...
11
What's what all the wrist grabbing?
In violent situations (as opposed to competitive situations), your assailant is likely to grab you. Grab and hit is one of the most common attacks. Being number 2 behind the haymaker according to the statistics I have seen. Also grab and stab btw. If you have a guard or fence raised they'll grab it to control and clear ...
11
Worry about blood-borne diseases is overblown. I practice judo, which has very similar training practices to BJJ. Over the years, I have seen many injuries and even a death by heart attack, but I am not aware of any transmission of a blood-borne disease.
Bleeding is not an everyday occurrence. And you should certainly not be in the position where both you ...
10
I assume you are working on the arm bar known in judo as juji gatame. The principle in this technique is the use of a class 2 lever to hyperextend the opponent's elbow joint. Resistance is in the middle, at the opponent's elbow joint. Force is applied by pulling down at the wrist and raising the hips. The fulcrum should be one of your legs; this makes any ...
10
I've trained in many martial arts schools. There have always been one or two individuals that didn't know their own strength or who simply had some kind of mental issue that caused them to scare everyone else in the class who had the misfortune of partnering up with them.
And I'm not even talking about sparring. It could be a nice, smooth, flowing, ...
10
You're describing the knee push variation of "Scissor Sweep." It's very common in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
There are two main ways to do it from full guard. Both involve getting control of one arm in either double wrist control, or arm drag position. For the sake of this example we'll say you have their right arm.
Method 1: Classic Scissor Sweep
While keeping ...
9
Things that I have found help me with specifically wrist locks, but some of which are adaptable to other forms of practice as well.
Grab a Partner for an Extra Day
This is really the best option, but also logistically the most difficult. Talk to the other students in your class and see if one of the more experienced ones would be willing to add an extra ...
9
there are a few things you can do to help with this:
break down your opponents posture, it's very hard, if they are sitting tall, even for someone with normal/long legs to keep the guard closed. use your legs to draw them in, and lock up their upper body, this keeps them closer, and makes it easier to keep your guard closed.
develop a good open guard ...
9
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... ...
9
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 ...
9
There are no good solutions. Long hair gets in the way of training unless knotted or braided, and even then it is liable to wiggle free and get in the way during hard training.
All external tools--nets, headbands, bandanas, caps--are liable to come off. Well-executed braids and buns are slightly more reliable, but frequently come out anyway.
You must ...
9
I prevent testicle crushage while armbarring my partners and opponents by:
Pulling the arm further towards my head, so their elbow is across my pelvis and not my crotch
Squeezing my knees tighter on their upper arm
Wearing underwear (or lack thereof) that provides freedom of movement, so that they can move out of the way of an elbow mid-attack
Not giving a ...
8
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 ...
8
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 and more for self-defence. As different people ...
8
Stop planning your eventual wall of black belts and go get a blue belt in BJJ or a brown belt in judo or join a SAMBO school or join a wrestling club. Worry about integrating your grappling into your striking after you have some grappling skill.
Try a class at each of the grappling schools in your area, pick the one with the highest quality teachers and ...
8
That's barely a modification of kesagatame. There's no gi, so he uses a slightly different grip. It totally counts.
Just about all techniques, including pins, are modified in actual application. This is so true that the examples of throws that don't look obviously modified are shared as highlights and widely touted as beautiful paragons of the art. But a ...
7
Its less biased to study CCTV than MMA for scientific results, because MMA involves many moments where wrestling is stopped at the end of rounds and players are even stood up from wrestling to encourage a knock out, especially in endurance wrestling when they are tired. MMA is also semi nude with lower hand agility due to gloves, when clothes facilitate ...
7
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 -...
7
Yes, the above technique would be a pin in competition judo. A pin in competition judo does not need to be a standard pin; it needs to meet the definition of a pin under the referee rules. This is good especially because judo people can get very nitpicky about what exactly constitutes a particular pin [more on that later]. If your opponent taps at any time ...
7
Since Muay Thai is a sport that doesn't allow takedowns or grappling it doesn't contain countermeasures for theses kind of attacks.
Neither does for example boxing. If a muay thai fighter tries a take down (repeatedly) they will be disqualified.
That said Muay Boran and Krabi Krabong are martial arts that do seem to contain certain aspects of fighting on ...
6
Assuming you are on the ground and someone has your back and hooks in, is there a defense to a rear naked choke?
Not everyone is going to agree with me here, I can guarantee that. I am not familiar with competition rules for BJJ, but I understand them to be fairly liberal, with the exception of small joint locks and soft-tissue mauling.
With hooks in, you'...
6
Grappling dummies have their place and are useful. But like you said they are no substitute for a real body.
I must preface this with the fact that they only grappling dummies I've used are the ones with no legs or arms that are really only mean for dragging around, picking up, and working ground and pound. and they are good for that.
As for grappling ...
6
Good Luck
If your not-getting-stabbed plan 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 ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
