Most street fights
go to the ground!
It has been said (mostly by those who are promoting
grappling systems and videos) that most street fights go to the
ground. But what is the basis for these supposed facts?
I don't know about you but most street fights, including
bar fights and even road rage fights I have seen are over in about
ten or fifteen seconds. Usually the person who lands the first good
shot and follows up with several more, is the winner.
Sure they might end up in a standing clinch or there
may be some grabbing and some other crude techniques, but for the
most part these things are settled pretty quickly.
The mid 90’s produced a new phenomenon that would
impact the Martial Arts World more than anything since Bruce Lee.
This was the Ultimate Fighting Challenge, produced by a Brazilian
Jiu Jitsu family by the name of the Gracie’s.
In these no holds barred fights standup punch kick
fighters routinely were taken to the ground and defeated by the
seemingly unstoppable Gracie’s. This lead to a new rage of ground
fighting schools across the country as traditional fighters desperately
sought to even up the score.
Now years later the rage has subsided but the Gracie’s
will have forever left their mark. Ground fighting was an important
and neglected facet not adequately addressed in many Asian fighting
arts. But do these same principles apply in street fights? In my
personal experience of literally dozens of fights, only once did
I ever end up on the ground. That was one classically ridiculous
situation where a drunk called me out of the bar to fight. Leading
an entourage of characters like something out of the movie Roadhouse,
the two of us 'took it outside' to the back of the bar.
I was a young buck of 19 at the time and was pretty
nervous as the macabre scene unfolded.. This other guy was obnoxiously
drunk and had pissed off a number of bar patrons, so I was the emotional
favorite, It did feel good to have the mob on my side. We stood
there while my opponent spewed out drunken obscenities but making
no move. I was getting fed up with the whole thing and really just
wanted to end it so I could go back in and have a beer. Finally
he took a long slow motion roundhouse swing at me. In fairly good
shape and a trained Karateka, I moved in and straight punched him
in the jaw. It all seemed like a slow motion movie as my fist skipped
off his chin barely nicking him. To my disbelief he continued down
to the ground as his feet slipped out from beneath and he landed
flat on his back. Stunned and not knowing what else to do I dropped
onto his chest and started smacking his face.
The whole thing seemed surreal and after a short while
my friends thankfully pulled me off the poor drunken guy. With a
detached awareness, I noticed blood all over my hands and shirt.
It wasn’t mine.
What an amazing and impressive victory for me right?
Well, the truth was that when our drunken lad swung at me, he lost
his balance on some ground ice, (it was winter in New England) and
my chip shot was enough to make his feet come out forcing him to
slam to the ground. On landing he cut his hand on a piece of glass
accounting for the blood. The entire exchange was a fluke caused
by nothing I did at all but from a bizarre set of circumstances.
His face wasn’t even bruised where I had been hitting him.
In my experience the reason most fights go to the
ground is because the participants don’t really know how to fight,
as was the case here. Succumbing to the adrenal rush people tend
to flail ineffectually. Eventually a clinch ensues because nothing
else is working. These inept grappling matches often end up on the
ground due to the force of gravity more than anything else.
Years later when I did learn how to fight, not a single
altercation took place where I ended up on the ground. A good stand
up fighter should be able to take care of business without going
down (and that is IF awareness and verbal skills didn’t stop the
altercation). In speaking with several other experienced 'experts',
we all seem to agree that most fights actually do not go to the
ground if one of the people has any fighting skill at all. In fact
we concur that the ground is not a good place at all to be in a
fight.
Master Ricardo Murgel, former coach of the Brazil
National Jiu Jitsu team and now a world reknown combat Jiu Jitsu
Instructor, emphatically states that he will avoid going to the
ground at all costs in a street situation. So what of the usefulness
of ground fighting skills?
There are situations that do end up on the ground
even among experienced fighters. Of course most of the complicated
arm bars and joint locks are almost impossible to apply under duress
just as in stand up fighting. But a basic knowledge of ground fighting
skills is important to have. How to get someone off of you, to locate
and attack vulnerable areas, and to get up and out of there as soon
as possible should be learned and practiced under duress.
The argument can also be made that learning ground
fighting skills makes it easier to see such attacks coming and neutralize
them. Sport fighting and no holds barred events require ground fighting
skill to be competitive. But there is a big difference between these
consensual athletic contests and real life altercations. Very big
differences.
In adrenal stress response training we use the ground
fighting to really amp up the adrenaline intensity level. It never
fails to hit home the concept of 90% spirit vs. 10% technique. Things
get real primitive real fast among trained ground fighters and non
alike.
Written by Bill Kipp - President International
F.A.S.T. Defense Association
Bill Kipp is my partner in the above organization.
During my years of training with him and applying his technology
to my own self defense skills, I have renewed my absolute belief
that directness and simplicity are the keys to real street self
defense.
Read about how you can learn effective self defense,
quickly and easily from the privacy of your home at Street
Self Defense 101
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