SubGrappler

Tim Sylvia is a big man (6'8, 265lbs) so he fits the big if predicament. Anyways, no, it wasnt because they didnt want to kill Tim Sylvia (or anyone else they get into a fight with) it was because they didnt have a locked an loaded MP5 or a 9mm on the side, or possibly even a boot knife. Professional fighters spend their career doing unarmed combat. Professional soldiers spend their career learning how to conduct warefare (which is very often done with guns). I vaguely remember the details of the story (since it happened awhile ago) but I do believe Sylvia was accompanied by a friend, who may have also been a professional fighter, so it wasnt as if he took all 6 guys by himself. You're training partners must consist largely of now handicapped, maimed, arthritis suffering partners- outside of those who are in the morgue. People always bring up this argument about "you fight how you train" and then talk about how they practice deadly techniques to defeat safer "sportive" techniques. If this statement is true, then all the deadly techniques you practice wont work either- how many eyes have you actually gouged out? How many tracheas have you crushed? How often have you tried to do this against a resisting opponent- someone who refuses to let you try it against them. Its just as UseofForce explained- so many people have this conception that the human body is overly frail. Its called a fight for a reason, and while hollywood painted this brilliant image of a small humble man tossing a larger arrogant biker through the wall with the flick of his wrist, ripping his neck out with a quick strike, or knocking him unconcious with a beautiful arial kick, this just isnt how fights happen in real life. The whole thing goes back to the argument as to which is better- practicing deadly techniques in a controlled kata against unresisting opponents, or practicing safe techniques against a resisting opponent. Anyone who is unaware of how Judo became so popular, it is because its founder, Jigoro Kano, favored the sportive techniques and soundly defeated almost every traditional japanese ju jitsu school in Japan within 5 years of opening his Judo school.

They were mentioned on sherdog. You may be able to find something about Tim Sylvia's incident, though I remember it happening awhile ago. You can ask Bas Rutten directly- he posts on that board. The problem I have with referring to incidents such as this is that they're often blown way out of proportion. First off, I have friends who have been in the marines, army, navy, and even air force. Hand to hand combat is NOT heavily emphasized in the armed forces due to the simple reason that we have firearms now. As a result, while hardcore soldiers, these people in the armed forces are not exactly hand to hand unarmed combat specialists in comparison with professsional fighters Another thing to take into account is that the US economy is very well off, and has a surplus of food. Because of this, Americans are often much larger and stronger on the average than most any other nation in the world. For example, one of my friends was stationed in Iraq and was talking about the physical testing they were putting the Iraqi police force through (since we're trying to help them govern themselves and get up on their own two legs). He said that the average upper body strength of a typical Iraqi man was amazingly poor. The average number of maximum pushups was like 5, and almost none can do a single pullup. Consider that the marines I believe have a requirement of 20 pullups to graduate boot camp, and you'll understand what I mean when I say that your typical American grunt soldier will be a physical specimen compared to a random terrorist. Now you ask yourself if he killed this guy because of a martial arts technique, or if he was simply so physically superior that it was barely a fight. Beyond that, the Army hand to hand combative manual is based around Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

Would help if you gave me a location, but kettlebells are something worth looking into: http://www.dragondoor.com/ Atkins diet is also very good for maximizing muscle to fat ratio (i.e. it gets you real cut).

Its a good choice you made, and Philadelphia has some of the best BJJ schools in the US- lucky you. Did you eye up any of them yet?

What "people" are this? If you ask 10 different people who the best fighters, you'll get 10 different answers. For one, Bruce was 135lbs. Incredibly strong for his size, but still only 135. Beyond that, Gene Lebell tossed him around a few times, and there are too many other fighters to take into account, such as Helio Gracie to name one.

When your attackers are determined to injure you, no one can fight against 4 people at once. Anyone who claims they can is trying to make a quick buck against you. Let anyone who makes this claim stand up in public and openly demonstrate it. Helio Gracie is old too- granted hes not fighting, but he did, and so are his students, his sons, and his relatives. As far as not having anything to prove, thats apparently not the case if everyone is questioning their abilities. Everyones ability gets questioned from time to time. You could argue that Royce didnt have to fight after UFC 1 - what did he have to prove? But people kept asking what if this and what if that, so he kept fighting, so that there would be no question that his wins were by no means accidental. The highest form of a warrior is one who fights the best. Philosophy is great, but the best fighter is the one who beats all the others. Some people are fighters, others are not. They're not fighting because they're trying to prove something to someone else- they're fighting to prove to themselves time and time again. If you have the personality of a fighter, then theres nothing wrong with fighting. If you dont, theres nothing wrong with not fighting, but dont try to make yourself look better than those who prefer to do it. Another thing to take into account here is experience- just like any other physical activity, experience plays a crucial role, so if you've never tested your abilities, you're going to have a much lesser chance than someone else who has. What can be more important to being a fighter than learning how to fight? You're starting to enter the realm of philosophy, and philosophy governs morals, not physical fighting skills.

Bruce Lee was an actor, among other things, but thats primarily where his fame was derived. Bruce was far from the best fighter of all time. Your statement about not all fights going to the ground is a misconception about MMA. Modern day MMA fighters train to fight in all aspects and areas of a fight. Ground fighting is NOT a style of fighting, it is a PHASE of fighting, just as much as punching or kicking is. While you say that the fight doesnt always go to the ground, the same can be said that the fight goes to the ground immediately. Thats one of the misconceptions about UFC is that everyone thinks that its all about taking a guy down and fighting on the ground. Thats only part of it, and the reason why you see it happen so often is because, as mentioned, groundfighting is a phase of the fight, and it cannot be ignored. Just because you see a guy get thrown to the ground does not mean that he wouldnt prefer to be blasting away with his hands on his feet.

I doubt there are many people who wont agree with that assumption. These MMA events search the world round for the best fighters they can find. The statement is more a theory in that a theory is an educated assumption based on and supported by evidence and has yet to be proven otherwise- for example, the theory of gravity Its been proven in the fact that they said "find someone who can beat me" and they defeated all that was thrown at them. If you can find anyone who's a good fighter, there are more than enough MMA venues (many of which still carry old school MMA rules such as Mecca) for them to test their skills in. These guys claim to be the best and hold that claim because they challenge anyone to take it away from them, and no one has.

Anyone *can* do a triangle choke, whether your brother can depends on his body type, his flexibility, and what style of groudnwork he prefers (i.e. preference for top over bottom and vice versa). Judo allows all chokes, but you cannot choke over the chin.

It would be a more accurate statement to say that most of their throws are taught with the gi You should watch Fedor, Hayato Sakurai, and Karo fight some time- they are just a few of many mixed martial arts fighters that can utilize throws very well.

In a sense your friend is right, and in a sense hes not so right. Bottom line here is that wrestling is by far the most underrated martial art to the point that its not even referred to as a martial art but a sport. No style is better at putting someone on their back than wrestling, but no style is better at fighting from your back then Jiu Jitsu. Weigh the pros and cons of each- first off, wrestling, while very good from the top, doesnt have any techniques for fighting from your back, because if you're on your back, you're pinned and have lost the match. I know lots of people will say "oh dont go to your back in a fight" but you dont exactly have a choice of how a fight goes- someones going to get beat up, and hes not planning on it either. BJJ, on the other hand, can fight from any position. Problem with this is getting the fight to the ground in the first place- this is where the added perk of intensive takedown practice in wrestling pays off- all the groundwork in the world is useless if you cant bring the fight there (but bear in mind than in an actual fight, it is rather easy to take the fight to the ground). Now the other thing to take into account has to be your physical attributes- are you a big and strong guy, or small and skinny? Or are you somewhere around average? There arent weight divisions in real fights, and wrestling someone to the ground to get on top becomes harder and harder the heavier they get. In my opinion, if you're big and strong and have the athleticism, go with wrestling if thats what you want to do. If you're not so big, BJJ is the martial art that teaches little guys how to beat the bigger ones. Simply put though, you cant go wrong choosing either one.

There are examples of professional fighters who have gotten into street altercations- Lee Murray (god knows how many times) , Tim Sylvia (vs 6 Navy Seals), Bas Rutten (vs the entire bouncer staff of a bar). There arent many fighters who havent been involved in street altercations- after all, thats what they do best (fight). Let me elaborate and further specifize what Im saying about these people- they are the best fighters in hand to hand weaponless combat in the world- by being such, they are still not indestructable- if you ninja stalk one of them and slit his throat from behind then, well, hes rather dead, but it wasnt a "fight" to speak of and it wasnt unarmed combat either.

I've had many people attempt various mount escapes against me- only ones that worked were a bump and roll and an elbow escape. When you're underneath someone who's got a tight mount, you're going to have trouble breathing let alone have a free hand to throw an elbow. Well, you could argue that the man on top could elbow to the face and theres not much the man on bottom could do about it Even though you use the elbow to strike, you use it to set up a different technique or mount escape- its like someone who has an exceptionally armbar defense who gives their arm to escape the mount.

The ones who were famous initially, Royler, Rickson, Royce, and Renzo- are all getting up there in age. Rickson doesnt fight anymore, and the other 3 are approaching 40. While they are good jiu jitsu fighters and have strong work ethics, they were small in stature, giving the other people in their divisions (many of whom are natrual athletes) a better advantage. It wasnt the Gracies that were good- it was jiu jitsu If you talk about individual arts, I cant think of any that are better than BJJ, but if you want to talk about fighting in general, BJJ + something else is going to be better than BJJ. As to whether or not the Gracies refuse to adapt, they've been doing pure BJJ for about the past 30 years- its hard to unlearn that from you nervous system when you try to start crosstraining. No one ever said that BJJ was the only style thats worthwhile- as far as Renzo's book, I guess you could say he made more of an MMA book, and it does detail the phases the MMA when though (i.e. the BJJ phase, the G&P phase, the striking phases, and finally full circle). Renzo isnt as extreme as his relatives, and it probably the most open minded of the Gracies (from that generation).

Striking from the bottom of the mount, regardless of which strikes you attempt to use, will not get you out of there. Its not a good position to trade strikes with, since the man on top has such an advantage. Bump and roll or elbow escape from that position, then do what you wish.

Look at any fighter who came off "the street" and was "hardcore" only to get trashed when he fought professionals- all you need to do is look at footage from early MMA events. People like Hugo Duarte were the talk of the town- the toughest roughest guy in Brazil and got his way into the UFC, only to be beaten miserably by Tank, yet another guy who made his name on "the street" if you will. Take that same Tank and throw him in there with actual trained fighters, and he doesnt get far, regardless of his size and strength. The same happened with fighters such as Paul Varleans and Jon Hess. Look at the past Pride event where they pitted a 330lb Zuluzhino against a 230 lb Fedor Emilianenko- another guy who's tough on the means streets of Brazil against a professional fighter (with a 100lb weight advantage no less) and he got mauled inside 30 seconds. To deny that they are the best fighters in the world is to be rather ignorant- they are professional fighters- its their job and they do it every day of the week. Its kinda like asking if NFL players are the best football players in the world.

The more you fight and suceed, the more liberally you can market your product. The Gracies, for example, have a very successful record in mixed martial arts- kinda like they've earned the right to brag you know what I mean?

Those "events" you just mentioned have the best real life fighters on the planet. In order to be prepared best for real life scenarios, you need to have full contact training.

The joints in your body are held together by ligaments. These ligaments, along with the muscles attached to those bones, are what give you your range of motion. For example, take the basic armbar- you dont actually break the person's arm (unless you're Frank Mir) but rather dislocate it. You hear the arm popping, which is why people believe it to be breaking. The popping is actually bursae sacs, ligaments, and muscles that are popping off the bone. When taken well past their range of motion, the ligaments will tear and often times so will the muscles. For example, it is very common for people to tear their bicep if they were caught in an exceptionally brutal armbar. Muscle is more flexible than ligaments, however, so this doesnt always happen. The same happens when appling shoulder/wrist locks and neck cranks (your vertebral column is connected by ligaments as well). Locks, such as bicep and calf cutters, do exactly what the name implies- they literally crush the muscle, hence the great black and blue marks left when someone doesnt wish to tap out. These are often time exceptionally painfull, but do no real joint damage. There are exceptions, and there have been times when biceps and calve muscles have been detached by such locks because so much pressure was applied.

Martial arts are supposed to teach you how to fight first and foremost- the reason why I favor such schools is because this is obviously the number one objective here. If you want to become a better person or become religious, there are college classes that you can take. If you can go to a school and come out knowing how to fight, they've done their job.

JKD is not a style, but a mindset Andrews post hit the nail on the head, but synonomous with todays MMA is the ablity to be able to fight in all ranges of combat- on the feet with punches, kicks, knees, and elbows, in the clinch with takedowns and strikes, and on the ground, both top and bottom positions. Thats the idea of mixed martial arts- not simply training in a bunch of different styles.

Many of the Judoka I know will practice their entries against a wall. Its not too impractical considering the upright posture you're supposed to have anyways. If you want to add a little more, use a doorway so that you can say, add a reap with your entries (say osoto gari)

Im not saying Bruce couldnt hit hard, but Liddell is 70 lbs heavier than he was, aside from being quite an accomplished striker himself- no chance Bruce hit as hard as he did.

You would certainly be hard pressed to find a striker who could stand with him in the early UFC's.

I've gone completely unconcious about 5 or 6 times, its not a big deal after the first few. The first time can be quite scary for some people, because you have all these endorphins running through your system, and when you regain conciousness, you have no idea whats going on (for a brief moment, you wont know where you are or what has happened today- it'll be as if you work up that morning). After the first or second time, you'll wake up feeling like you just dosed of in class- you can get yourself together and jump back in to the class at that time. Is it dangerous or does it have side effects? There is no evidence to support any of this so far. Just recall that going unconcious as a result of a choke is quite common in BJJ schools, and I've never heard of someone not waking up or being "hurt" from being choked unconcious from any of the people I train with (so thats like in the past 15-20 years roughly).