Grappling and going to the ground in street fights vs in sport fight tournaments

Okay, so i'm going to post today about why it's not advisable to get into a wrestling match and ground grappling in a street fight.

Now i know many people will say many things, criticize me, etc. on this and some will even say the most commonly used phrase used by the bjj guys, that "maximum of all the street fights end up on the ground".

Let me first clear two things up, first, i myself have trained in jiu-jitsu, judo, dumog(filipino wrestling), and some bjj, so i know more than quite a few things about grappling standing up and on the ground.

Second, is when people say that most fights end up on the ground, well i don't know what kinds of fights they've been in, no offense to them, but the majority of fights that i've been in and seen happen, didn't last long enough to go to the ground, they ended with one of them standing and the other guy knocked the F out.

Now there is a different case in competition matches, like judo, bjj, mma tournaments, there those guys do go to the ground.

The only real instance where the majority of confrontations go to the ground is when a police officer is arresting a perpetrator and even that, if the guy resists arrests, so to restrain him they have to take him down. This is a fact and it's that fact that has been propagated in a way that has lead to many misconceptions. Those statistics came from LAPD arrests in the 1980's when Gracies taught them arrest and subdue tactics. They're not real violence statistics.

Now, to my point of why it's not only dangerous, but plain stupid to go to the ground in a real fight, especially if it's on purpose.

1- Your opponent may have weapon/s, that you won't be able to see because you're distracted trying to take him down, you'd have limited visibility being too close to your opponent to see the concealed weapon/s, and yes, some people don't remove their weapon/s until they absolutely need them or they just don't want to show them to you at first, so he might not have the weapon/s already out before the fight, but might take it out, during the fight, as a desperate measure, in a mugging scenario of course, he'll have the weapon out from the beginning, you might not see it though, but that's a completely different thing than what we're discussing here.

2- There are also chances of multiple opponents, you always have to assume, that your opponent has friends close by in case he needs back-up and you won't see them until it's too late to do anything about it.
Again, if you're grappling, the already low chances of you seeing his friends become even lower.

3- Another reason it's a bad idea, there will be limited to no options left for you to escape, when you're grappling, the opponent will be striking and grappling with you back, resisting your efforts, if he's holding you down, grabbing your t-shirt or whatever, you wouldn't be able to escape as efficiently as you would if you weren't being held by someone.

4- Grappling takes much more time to learn and understand it's mechanics, there's simply just too much to learn, what if you were attacked today, after your first grappling session, would you be able to do the things you did in the safety of your training environment on the hard, rough concrete, with all sorts of debris lying around and with all the panic and adrenaline rush going through you? I can guarantee that you'll forget everything, as they're your fine motor skills that are difficult to develop, not your gross motor skills that are your natural reflexes that are quite easy to develop.

5- Your opponent's size is another factor, it's pretty obvious that if the opponent is stronger than you, taller than you, then he would have the advantage in grappling more than you do. For one, he has a better reach than you, more strength to hold you down, even lift you up and throw you down on the concrete like a rag doll, while you're attempting to apply joint lock/s, holds, or take-down/s.

6- The added weight of anything you have with you, not to mention the street clothes that you're wearing at the time, in which you're not used to training. I mean, you train in a comfortable environment with comfortable clothes or shorts or gi, but in real life, what do you wear? Pants? Jeans? Normal shirt? T-Shirt? Are you used to fighting in those types clothes?

7- Another major reason is the diseases you might catch from your opponent's bites, scratches and from the ground itself that you're rolling around on.

You don't worry about those things because you train in an environment that is kept clean, the floors are regularly cleaned, there's air-conditioning, you wear gloves and your training partner isn't actually trying to kill you.

In competitions they don't worry about these things because biting, etc. can get you disqualified.

They fight in their own weight classes and they always have a physical before the competition.

Not to mention, if even little blood is spilled the matches are stopped, unlike in a real fight where if the blood is spilled, the opponent will not stop, he doesn't care about those things like you do.

In fact he'll do more damage in his increasingly insane rage.

If you take him to the ground and start hitting, it's called "ground and pound" a truly violent and angry attacker who doesn't want to give up, won't just take it, he might take out a concealed weapon, which you might not see, because you are too busy hitting him all over, and he can stab you anywhere with it, and in case you don't realize, he won't have the blade sterilized for stabbing you, he might have used that same blade on someone with a disease or he could have kept in a place that is unhygienic and his blade might have some microbes on it, that on contact, can infect you.

Now what if he stabs you in the liver, kidney or spleen?
Well, death is going to happen for sure, but if you're extremely lucky, and get to the hospital in time, chances of which are really low, why? Because there might not be anyone there to help you, or you might not reach hospital in time.

As a result of many factors such as traffic or hospital might be far from the scene of attack or you might be in an isolated parking lot at night with no one to help you up let alone get you to a hospital.

When/If you do reach there, you'd still be contracting the disease from the blade used by your assailant and complications could occur, that is if you survive, it's in your bloodstream.

If stabbed in the spleen, death occurs within few seconds due to rapid and major blood loss, other organs like liver, you start to bleed black blood and once that happens, especially if the stab is deep enough, you're dead in less than 10-15(max) minutes.

I know the details are graphic, but it's not something that everyone will tell you, and therefore people live in a fantasy world where they think taking opponent to the ground or trying to grapple with him or trying to disarm him, will help them "win" their fight/s, without realizing that there is no winner as far as real violence is concerned, it's violence, an Assault on your LIFE, there's only Surviving.

8- Another one is that these people on the street are not all trained, they just use what they've learned from years of experiences of what does and doesn't work. They won't always try to grapple you and try to take you down, they'll just be striking you or doing everything to hurt you, that's all.
Even if they try to do it, it'll look something like this or this if he's successful.

You see, this is one of my street fighting sessions, these two are my students who i train for a street fight, like a street fight. You know the saying- 'Fight like you Train, Train like you Fight'.

9- There's also the point where you wear gloves in a tournament, while in a real fight, you go bare knuckled.
Plus in tournaments, you'll have your coach guiding you on what to do and what not to do and he'll find an opening for you, whereas in a street fight there's no one to guide you or try to stop the fight, like the referee in a tournament.

Again, let me clarify that i'm not saying these techniques are ineffective, as in they won't hurt, maim or even kill your opponent, which they definitely will, depending on the user and the victim, but only if you do get the hit on your opponent perfectly, like you do in your training sessions, which is the highly improbable part and that's why it's ineffective.

You won't have enough time to perform those complicated advanced techniques, that is, if you have trained in and practiced them for a long time on a regular basis and perfected them completely, which by the way, doesn't happen in a day, and when you're in that panicky and adrenaline filled environment, where your opponent is resisting and countering all of your efforts, you'd tire out soon trying to perform those techniques on him and he will gain the upper hand and you don't want that, do you? These techniques are best suited to stay in the ring.

Street Fights are Unpredictable and Unfair, just like Life.

Remember, Striking takes much less effort and energy to do than any grappling would.

These are just few of the many more reasons, of why standing and ground grappling is a really bad idea in any real fight.

So even if the circumstances take you down to the ground, try and get up as quick as possible.

That's why i'm not saying don't train in ground fighting, do train in it, so you can learn to get out and get up as quickly as possible.

Remember, Train in everything but Use only what's Needed and is the most Effective for you!

Thanks for reading.

Weapon or weapon wielder, who's more dangerous?

This post will be regarding a weapon wielding opponent, as the title says.

The thing you should know first, is you can use just about anything as a weapon, from car keys, to a scarf/shirt(mostly can be used defensively, as a distraction), from a beer bottle to a wall, shoes, a pen, a magazine, hell even the laptop that i'm using to write this blog post, of course, it will damage my laptop severely, but that doesn't mean i won't use it if there is no other way for me to survive.

Anyway back to the topic, who's more dangerous? the weapon or the wielder?
Many people that i have talked to regarding this topic asked me the same question. And i asked the same question to many different people.
The answer, some said the weapon, some said the wielder, some even said both equally, and yeah, i agree with the last one as I personally think both are equally dangerous, they're incomplete without each other(hello captain obvious!)

So, why this long post if i already got the answer and gave it to you in the first few lines? See, the thing is, it wasn't the answers that were wrong, they were correct depending on different perspectives and the questions asked.

It was the question itself that was wrong. You see, you have to ask the right questions to know the right answers.

The question should've been "What should you pay more attention to in a fight involving one or more weapons, is it the wielder or the weapon?"

People who have been in even the mildest of fights know it is impossible to maintain a 100% focus on anything because of the constant state of panic in your mind and all the adrenaline rushing through your body, so if you're able to put in even half the focus, which by the way is at max that you would be able to manage in a panicky situation, what would you focus on? Is it the weapon? Or Tthe weapon wielder?

If you just have one option, that would be the weapon wielder, it doesn't mean you won't be paying attention to the weapon itself, no, you'll be aware and alert of the weapon's position, but your target, the main focus of your attention, should not be the on weapon and by that i mean focusing completely on disarming the opponent.

No, it should be on the opponent wielding it, your main focus should be on Securing, Deflecting and Keeping the weapon away from you and at the same time attacking the opponent continuously, instead of worrying about and wasting time on a disarm that might have worked in a training class session with a compliant partner.

That same disarm isn't going to work with an aggressive opponent coming at you with full speed and power, from every direction with an edged weapon or any other type of weapon and with a full violent intent to hurt/kill you.

If you keep trying to disarm the guy and expect that he will just wait there for you to execute your perfect disarm and that it'll all be clean cut like in your training session and you'll be walking out of it without a scratch, well, then you're in for a rude awakening my friend.

The reality is far from it, reality is, he will keep striking you, keep trying to strike/stab/slash/cut you with the weapon, and will not let go of the weapon that easily, he will just pull and push you around in the process injuring you, until you let go, as he doesn't want to lose the weapon, and now that you're both focusing on the weapon it's a power fight, a strength contest type of thing, where in both of you want the weapon and try to muscle in and take it from each other.

But what if he's stronger? Has a weight advantage? You can't win against that.

But now, look at it this way, if he's focusing on the weapon, his other defenses are open for you to take advantage of and while he's trying for a weapon retention, you can just keep control of the weapon securing it and striking his exposed areas continuously, he can't retain the weapon and counter strike at the same time while you're striking him non-stop everywhere on his body, you see, when you fight back, his adrenaline and panic meter goes up as well, he starts thinking, fearing, and his anger, his intent and his thinking is clouded due to that fear and panic, and that leads him to make one or more mistake/s like, either letting go of the weapon or exposing one of his weaknesses, giving you the upper hand.

Of course, if you keep focusing on disarming or grappling and joint locking technique/s or takedown/s and even make one mistake and/or slip and lose the control, this time he will just come at you, with double the force, that is truly the mentality of an extremely violent person, you take him down, he will get up with a grudge and come at you even harder, don't think that he's scared of you, if he was, he wouldn't have attacked you in the first place, and if he's stronger than you, which he probably is, since that's the reason he chose you as his victim, because you appeared weak to him and therefore allowing him to think that you'll be an easy mark for him, he definitely will succeed in finishing what he aimed to accomplish, but only if you let him, by not doing anything to stop him.

Striking continuously is the most effective way to distort him and put panic and fear in him, don't give him space, and/or an opening for him to attack you, never let him have the upper hand if you want to survive, and don't forget to;

Secure, not disarm, but Secure the weapon first.

If the weapon is disarmed during striking, then keep the opponent as far away from the weapon as possible,  kick it out of the way or push the opponent farther by striking and pushing.

Don't try an pick up the weapon, as you'll lose control of your opponent, and all your hard work and risk will be for nothing if he gets lose and gains the upper hand and the weapon too.

It also depends on the situation, if you have more than enough distance between you and your opponent, but are really close to the weapon, you can pick it up for your safety.

But remember, he can and will close that distance within a blink of an eye, and then another circle of weapon retention and power struggle will start and you don't want that.
 You're exhausted after the first attack, and so the best option is to create distance and run.

Cardio is very important, i'll be mentioning this particular point in my future posts too.

Another thing is that, unless you live in or near such neighborhoods, it's pretty unlikely that you'll find such a violent person.

But hey, life is unpredictable, and there are quite a lot of psychos out there today, it's a dangerous world, you never know when you might run into one.

So it's better to be prepared and to know exactly what to expect and the possibilities of what might happen, and know what a truly violent opponent is capable of, and what you're capable of when it comes to survival.

I'm not trying to scare you here, it's just the truth, just a little part of the hugely sad, messy, cruel and brutal reality of what happens in those situations.

If you don't like to read it then it's fine, you're free to leave obviously, but if you do think that this is something you'd like to know more about and would like to be prepared and train for such situations, just contact me on jeetkunedo_in@yahoo.com or visit my site http://ssd-jkd.ucoz.com


That's about it for today, i'll be posting more topics.

Thanks for reading.

Difference Between Street Fighting and Self Defense

The reason i'm writing this is because i wanna make something clear, Street Fighting is not Self Defense, but an individual does fight in a self defense situation.

First, lets start with: What is a Street Fight? A street fight is a violent confrontation between two or more people, there are almost no rules in street fighting, in a street fight, there are two or more people who are angry and/or willing to fight each other, not for self defense, but for many different reasons, one of them being, fighting for cash prizes or for their own status among peers.

Now, what's Self Defense? It's definition, as you can easily find it on google, it means, the act of defending yourself (against an attacker), it can be from a violent criminal to some insignificant punk who wants to make a name for himself on your expense. To put it simply, it's a legal term describing that the force you used on another individual was justified in order to maintain your safety.

Now, how do these two differ?

Well, it's the situations they take place in that differ from each other.
For example:

1- Street fight; Two drunk guys fighting in a bar and then they decide to "continue it outside" and beat each other up, either both or one of them ending up on a hospital bed, this is a bar brawl turned into a street fight.

2- Self Defense; You're going home from your job at late night hours, tired and/or busy on your phone, an individual or some young punks looking for some "fun" walking towards you that you failed to see or identify, threatens you, maybe with a gun or a knife or a lead pipe or just overwhelm you with numbers, to give them your phone, your wallet/purse, etc. you give it to them, but they don't seem to be running away after taking everything from you and you having no other option, use force and do everything possible to get out of there, that is self defense.


In short, when someone is threatening your life with physical violence and you respond with physical violence in return to protect yourself and if you can prove it as such, it's self-defense. But it can only be proven as such if you had no other choice, i.e. running away or avoiding it altogether by identifying the threat early on (Self-Protection).

There are different laws in different countries and states as to what is and isn't considered self defense, and when you can and cannot do certain things, that you'd have to check for yourself. Research the laws on self defense, research past cases of violent assaults and self defense.

The difference between Street Fighting and Self Defense is:

- In Street fighting both the fighters are angry, violent and want to hurt each other and/or win for their own purpose or to gain status among peers.

- In self defense only one of them is willing and has the intention of hurting you, all you want to do is survive by any means, if you've failed to avoid or prevent it.

Severe injuries and even deaths occur in both situations, everything in it happens simultaneously, quickly, they're both messy and don't ever end well, things happen in seconds.

But it doesn't mean that they happen out of nowhere, there are always pre-attack indicators. Many just can't identify them and so they think it happened out of nowhere.

If you're not environmentally aware, alert and quick enough to adapt and act in the situation, chances are you won't survive at all.

See, a fight can be for self defense, if/when you fight back to protect yourself (when you fail to avoid it), but self defense is not street fighting, it's a legal term applied to a situation that has you protecting yourself from a violent threat to your life.

You're pushed into that situation by someone who will use violence to get what he wants from you, you are not a willing participant in it.

Self defense situations can occur in many different places, from a parking lot to your own home, which is also known as home invasion, it's better to have a plan in those kinds of situations, a counter attack and escape plan, there are many home invasion cases out there, you can research them and based on that research, create kind of a drill (like fire drills) that you can conduct, with your family every month or so, that way you can be prepared for those situations. It's not a 100% as nothing is as far as violence is concerned, but at least you would have an idea of what you could do if something like that happens, provided the training and drills are set up realistically for practical purposes and not for fun, same can be applied in training for any other type of violent situation. The best type of defense training is for prevention and avoidance though.

It's your right and duty to protect yourself and the people you care about from any threats. But it's also an individual's responsibility to protect themselves and not put all their safety responsibility on you.

The term- "Self Protection". Now while "Self Defense" is a legal term for an act of defending oneself, 'Self Protection' is more of a precaution from threats beforehand.

You carry a legal concealed weapon for Self Protection. But when you use that weapon to save your life and only if it's proved to be justified use of lethal force, then its defined as 'using that weapon in Self Defense'. If it's not proved in court that it was self-defense, then it's not. Remember, it's not what happened, but what you can prove in court that will determine your case.

There are always going to be people who will start fights and who have the perfect violent intent to hurt you and to deal with those kinds of people, you'd have to have the same, but the difference between you and them being, that you should be able to turn off that violence whenever you want to, be in control of yourself and your impulses and that you won't go psycho on everyone around you for no reason.

The best way is to avoid them altogether by not being in places that have them in the first place. For example if you go to a bar, get drunk, mess with some other drunk and when that drunk threatens to kill you, you respond with "fuck you" and use lethal force, is that self defense? No, it's not. You could've avoided it all, if you did just one thing right, or didn't do one thing that was wrong and dangerous.

When dealing with the kind of nut-job above, don't go all "terminator" on their asses when you see them walking towards you or trying to start a fight with you, try reasoning first, as they might have more experience in violence than you, if you get into a fight with them, you're surely not coming out of it in one piece or maybe even at all and the legal consequences will be even worse.

As far as self defense situations are concerned, most of those violent situations can be avoided if you just trust your intuition and use common sense, for example, most mugging situations can be avoided just by having some environmental awareness and by observing the little details around you, instead of keeping your head buried in your phone. Same goes for an ambush assault. Remember, attackers don't just appear out of thin air.

I wrote this article to give you a very basic idea of the difference between self-defense and street fighting. The examples given were just to emphasize my points. I'll be writing another article that goes into much more depth on this subject with real examples.

I'll also give you tips on what to do, what not to do, how to deescalate these things, etc.
I'll also be posting on difference between sport fighting and street fighting, and is sport fighting training and mentality going to help you in a real fight?

Later a post on movie fighting vs real fighting, now i know many of you do know the difference between the two , but there are some people out there, and i know, i've met them, that still think that, fighting like in movies can be possible in real life fights too.

Then there's military combat vs street fighting and self defense, law enforcement vs street fighting, and a topic on why it's not advisable to go to the ground in a real violent situation and a street fight, plus an article on different types of violence, and much more to be posted.

So keep an eye out for my new posts and that's about it for today.

Thanks for reading.