is ground fighting overrhyped for everyday self defence?

[Thai Bri]

Learning how to hit people in the head, really hard.

https://www.corecombatives.com

[g-bells]

learning how to defend yourself on the ground is a great asset by which you can get the needed seperation for you to get back to your feet which is were one should want to be so i believe it's a good compliment


gary

[WuChi]

It is usefull to be resistant to holds, and have a good defence against being thrown around, but the only time ive tackled someone to the ground in a fight, was the same time his mate kicked me in the face. In the real would you want to be standing at all times, ready to fight or to run, keeping an eye on as much as you can, if you have been in a fight in the street you will know this already tho. If you armbar someones arm to break it maybe thats ok(when standing), but what you gonna do shout "submit, submit", and when he does you l;et go and what, he walks away and says sorry, I dont think so. Fighting is fighting, not style has a different way of fighting, fighting is what fighting is. Your style determines how you train, and how "you" go about combat, but it doesnt change combat, it been the same since time began.

[sapatiero]

hey all

from my experience it seems that beyond a blue belt level in bjj the techniques become far more sportbjj oriented and very 'technical', whereas the techniques up to blue are more the fundamental and ready to use techniques. as you can see in the ufc most of the submissions are good old arm bars triangles and rear naked chokes, beginners stuff really. and as soon as you add the striking element to the ground the majority of the sportbjj stuff goes out the window.

That's the trouble with the 'sports BJJ' schools. You could be a black belt who can choke the opponent using his own lapel, or a great omoplata combination, but that means jack on the streets. JJ was born on the streets, and works on the streets. It's so good as self defense that the US army has officially adopted it.

But... Carlinhos's side of the family started sportifying it & the sport really took off in Brazil which is now why there are so many Sport BJJ schools all over the world. But there are still some clubs that teach the real thing - the sportive guys will call it 'old school' and put it down, but it's the real thing.

I got my blue & 4 stripes under Gracie Barra, then did some street self defense & combat simulation classes at the Gracie Academy & realised I relied far too much on the sportive techniques. You realise that when someone is punching you in the face! I've now got my purple under the Gracie Academy and will continue to use a combination of sport & 'real' BJJ.




Don't take my word for it - here's a quote from one of the family...




"Question of the Month: "I have been studying BJJ for 3 years and I know that the training at my school is geared towards competition and as a result I do fairly well when I compete. My only concern is whether or not my training is preparing me for real street fights. How will I know if my jiu-jitsu will work if I get in a real fight?"



-Chris L. (Orlando, FL)



Answer: This question of whether or not training for sportive competition fully prepares you for a street fight has plagued martial artists for generations. Because Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competitions have become such a popular way to test a practitioner's knowledge of the "sport", most BJJ schools focus 100% of their efforts on preparing their students for these tournaments. The problem with training exclusively for competition is that you are preparing to fight under a very controlled set of rules and circumstances which do not exist on the streets. In tournaments you have time limits, points, referees, weight classes and there are no punches being thrown. On the streets there are no time limits, no points, no weight classes and most importantly, your opponent will be trying to knock you out with punches from every angle. By no means are tournaments easy to train for, in fact, they are very challenging; the only problem is that the challenges one will encounter in a tournament are entirely different than the challenges one will encounter on the street. Now that so many individuals are focusing entirely on competition training, there are constantly new techniques being invented which work great under very specific set of competition rules but would never be applicable in a real fight. The issue is that when you focus your time and energy on perfecting tournament techniques you are not spending your time and energy on building your reflexes in the execution of the most important and reliable street fight techniques that you will need when you find yourself up against an opponent who is 50 lbs heavier than you and wants to rip your head off.



With all of this in mind, if you have a desire to make your jiu-jitsu "street-proof", what you need to do is make sure that when you are taught any technique you verify that what you are learning would be executable against a larger striking opponent. Any technique you are taught which would expose you to a punch or kick in the face should be forgotten completely or modified until it is deemed safe to use. Unfortunately, most schools are so focused on competition training that the instructors simply won't teach you the techniques you'll need for the streets, even if they have learned them.


Realizing that the quality and quantity of effective street fighting jiu-jitsu around the world is diminishing far too quickly, the Gracie Academy has made it its goal to preserve and spread the knowledge of the purest "street tested" form of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu."

[doubleouch]

Are you guys really getting in that many street fights????