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I don't mind people generalising when they don't know specifics, ie: referring to karate, freestyle wrestling, BJJ, etc. as "martial arts", because they all are. What I don't like is when they're flat-out wrong in ways that should be obvious to them. So for example, if the average person saw a TKD-er not wearing a uniform practicing side kicks, I wouldn't be annoyed if they siad "oh, he does karate", becuase I don't expect most people to be able to tell the difference between a karateka doing a side kick and a TKDer doing a side kick (is there even a difference? Honest question..). On the other hand, I've had people see my gi and assume I do karate, despite the fact that it says "BRAZILIAN JIU-JITSU" very prominently in multiple places, and I really think that most people should be able to tell the difference between standup fighting and ground grappling, even if all practitioners concerned wear gis. Some people even believe "martial arts" to be a synonym for "karate". The local paper once did a story on someone who trained where I do and referred to "Brazilian jui-jitsu" as "a style of karate that includes wrestling". Hmm, better go practice my mawashi-geri for the BJJ tournament!

(Helio Gracie, Royce's dad, to be specific) * Forrest Griffin had his arm broken in an MMA fight in Brazil before entering the UFC, refusing to tap to an armbar. He went on to win the fight, KO-ing his opponent with his other arm. * Yuki Nakai, at Vale Tudo Japan 95, was illegally eye-gouged by Gerard Gordeau, blinding him permanently in one eye. He went on to defeat Gordeau in that same fight, catching him in a heel hook and progressing to the next round of the tournament. He also won that fight, beating Craig Pittman with an armbar, before losing to Rickson Gracie in the final. * BJ Penn won the BJJ Mundials (World Championships) at black belt level after 3 years of formal training - previously unheard of. BJJ fighters typically take 8-10 years to even be promoted to the rank of black belt let alone win mundials at that level.

Having and using grappling skill also helps effective clinch fighting. If you can do this you can throw knees, elbows, and there are even a few options for round kicks, if you strike with the shin. You can take your opponent to the ground while remaining standing and if you hang onto an arm or leg you can go for a cutting armbar, standing ankle lock or a toe hold. And there's always the classic standing guillotine or headlock with punches (though there are counters). If you choose to go down with him you can use the kneeride position which lets you stand back up quickly.

Actually, he's had a few fights as an amateur boxer.

You can use strikes to set up takedowns; it's a matter of thinking about where your weight is going and where your opponent's weight is going. eg: you throw a jab or two, your opponent fades onto his back leg - there's your high single, because his weight is off his front leg. Or, you can use a right cross to "load" for a high crotch entry to a double leg, since the motion of your upper body in the high crotch pickup is very similar to a left hook, except you've dropped your level - as in this video:

We line up in order of rank, highest rank to instructor's right. No particular way of tiebreaking and no-one really makes an issue of it if someone is out of order occasionally.

I have a shirt that says "Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu" on the front, and "Order from chaos" on the back, with one guy knee-riding the other, both in gis. I don't wear it anywhere where I think it might get negative attention. Maybe when I'm better

We had our big end of year gradings this week. Thursday was BJJ; though I didn't grade, it was good to see four new blue belts including one guy who's helped me a lot. They were tested on the whole white belt syllabus plus a fair bit of rolling with the blue through black belts. Also, our intermediate BJJ instructor was awarded his black belt. He gave a short speech about how he'd passed our school every day for about 10 years and told himself "I'll do that one day", then he finally did. Good decision Tonight was shootfighting, and I was awarded my orange belt for demonstrating hooks, uppercuts, body rips, horizontal elbows with each arm, downward elbows and uppercut elbows, all in various combinations (after having done the advanced yellow syllabus as well). The head instructor, who graded us, gave a short speech about how he loved being proved wrong, having wondered how long I'd last when I first arrived, but I'd stuck to it and had become part of the furniture. We got a new black belt too, and he demonstrated a few attack scenarios. There was a nice flying knee in there My instructor was awarded his second degree black belt, testing after having gone through the whole advanced yellow through advanced green syllabus, though he wasn't strictly required to. He kept pushing through obvious exhaustion and got through Though, he had to lay down on the mat for a while afterwards. All in all, a good end to the year.

If there's heaps, then one or two half-guard sweeps would be fine, as far as I'm concerned.

I'd like to see whatever sweeps from half-guard you know.

This post was originally published as an article in a dedicated KarateForums.com Articles section, which is no longer online. After the section was closed, this article was most to the most appropriate forum in our community. Here are some drills that I've been taught that simulate to some degree realistic self defense situations. I hope you find them useful. All credit to John Will for teaching them to me. First, though, some definitions: - Pre-fight stance: The stance you are in when a situation escalates to a potential fight and you are trying to sell the idea that you are not interested in fighting, to witnesses, to security cameras, as well as your (potential) attacker. If the sell is good, the attacker may disengage because he doesn't feel the need to fight you, the non threatening pacifist, or the attacker may escalate because they believe you are easy meat and so neglect to use any defenses they might know (which might be none, anyway). You have your hands slightly out in front of you - just enough to maintain some personal space - and keep the palms angled down, as palms up suggests you are preparing to defend against something. As for your feet - strong side can be slightly back, but it doesn't matter too much and they should be roughly hip to shoulder width apart. A pre-fight stance should be so lacking in aggression that you could use it on your mother. - Engaging question: This serves a dual purpose: One, you engage your attacker's mind in coming up with a response to your question, taking his mind off of hitting you or defending against a potential attack of yours. Two, you are telling yourself that the fight is on, releasing yourself from the inhibitions that would normally prevent you from fighting another person. Think of it as like the bell in a boxing match. While asking the question, you should keep your strong side back in preparation to fire your first shot, but at the same time, keep selling the idea that you are harmless and don't want to fight, so you aren't bending your knees or taking as long and wide a stance as your fighting stance. You can make the sell better by shrugging your shoulders and holding your hands out in the classic "I don't know!" pose. As for the actual question, something like "Can't we work this out?" is a good example, as it sounds passive; more contrived examples may make you sound as if you were prepared to fight all along. - Adrenal dump: A sudden adrenaline rush, to such an extent that a fight or flight response is triggered. - Verbal de-escalation: Basically, trying to calm your attacker down and talk them out of it, e.g.: "It's alright mate, I'll buy you a beer, OK?" Obviously, you would adjust your vernacular appropriately to your location. - Verbal fence: Like verbal de-escalation, you are trying to talk your attacker out of it, but in this case, you are trying to sell the opposite concept - that you do, in fact, pose a threat and they would be wise to disengage. You are looking to induce adrenal dump in your attacker, but be sure that you do this when they have an easy escape route; otherwise, if you have them cornered, you are virtually ensuring a fight. And now the drills: - Partner stands a few meters away holding a kick shield to cover their torso and aggressively advances on you. When you see them coming, you move into pre-fight stance. When they move within range, front kick them, jump back well out of range and use a verbal fence - pointing and shouting at them to back off, looking as psycho as possible - to cause adrenal dump and allow them to disengage. - Partner starts at close range, wearing Thai pads on each forearm and advances on you, speaking aggressively, using "fightin' words". In some schools where this might violate their philosophy or gravely offend many of the students, you can count down "5, 4, 3, 2 1!" in an aggressive manner. You maintain a fence with your pre-fight stance and back away, attempting verbal de-escalation. If they persist, ask your engaging question and strike hard at one or more of the Thai pads. The strike can be anything, but we were given the guideline of using a right cross for relatively slowly advancing attackers and a right elbow for quickly advancing attackers. - Partner is mounted on top of you, wearing boxing gloves (or MMA gloves, whatever) and lightly striking your defense (enough to feel it and enough to have to defend against it, but no harder), which is protecting your face. You "look at the problem" through the small gap in your defense and, after taking about half a dozen shots, plant your feet as close as possible to your butt and execute a BJJ bridge and roll to get yourself into the mount. If you're wearing boxing gloves, too, the drill can continue to cycle, though this does make grappling more difficult - of course, it's much easier with MMA gloves. - Partner is wearing Thai pads on both forearms and a belly protector. They throw haymakers with either arm and raise the other Thai pad in position for you to jab, cross or hook. You weave under the haymaker and either come up to punch the other Thai pad or stay low and punch the belly protector. - Partner is wearing no protective gear and throws a haymaker, less forcefully due to the lack of protection. You weave under, and close the distance as you do so, quickly enough to take your partner's back as the haymaker stops. Take them down by kicking the back of their knee and apply a reverse naked choke. BJJ stylists can get a more complete back control with hooks and roll until a better opportunity for the RNC is available. I hope that you can get something out of it. Your feedback is welcome.

There are many potential reasons. (Modern) Muay Thai fighters have never worn long pants, and a reasonable proportion of K1 competitors come from MT backgrounds. Traditionally in kickboxing, long pants indicate that low kicks are not permitted, and shorts indicate that they are. More likely, it is because they feel more comfortable, cooler, and able to move with less restriction wearing shorts. Andy Souwer in K1 MAX is one who wears long pants, due to his shoot boxing background.

Wow! You're lucky to be able to train under someone like that. In a lot of places, a black belt instructor is a rare commodity; black/red is an incredible achievement. Hopefully one day I might meet him

Thanks guys. I'm much better now than I was then, I should do another video. The stance is a little wider and deeper than a regulation boxing stance to allow for grappling; if I got too narrow I would be asking to get double-legged Since then I've been working on getting more hip and shoulder rotation on everything, I have better hooks and I've been snapping the punches back more. But yeah, I should do another video.

Thanks guys Better go work on my 3-stripe syllabus now, 4 armbars and 4 kimuras.

I would agree that it shouldn't take 4 years to get to blue belt, but I would say that your average BJJ guy who's been training for 4 years is probably still a blue belt, maybe just about ready for purple. A good blue belt, anyway.

Got my second stripe last night, wasn't sure how I'd go but I ended up getting there. The assessed techniques were: * Basic sweep * Hooking sweep * Back sweep * Front sweep * Cross lapel choke * Front (guillotine) choke * Lapel half-nelson choke * Reverse naked choke The front sweep gave me problems for ages but I finally got it

You make a number of good points, the most important of which I think is about consequences, which I don't believe has to involve spanking. I see many parents who, as children, only experienced consequences for their behaviour when they were spanked, and are now being told that it is "unasseptable", resulting in them having no idea how to discipline their children. Perhaps if they had been raised experiencing real consequences other than spanking, that situation would now be different. None of the behaviours you list (talking back to teachers, stealing, etc.) require spanking to correct. It's interesting you mention self-defence. Other than the obvious "if I do that again I will be hurt" lesson, spanking also teaches children that those who assume authority have the right to use violence when others breach arbitrary conditions - pretty much the opposite to self-defence. If you are a good enough parent to use the deterrent value of spanking and smooth over the psychological effects later, good luck to you. It made me a well-behaved, but timid (easy meat for bullies had I been smaller) child who, much of the time, feared and loathed his parents and had a deep distrust of authority.

I'm going to try to, but I'm not even flexible enough to get Mission Control yet

I don't wear anything under my uniform, and I never have a problem with rashes. Do you have more of an issue with rashes, from the nature of practice of BJJ? Perhaps due to more contact? So I've heard. I haven't experienced it myself, but I'm told a lot of BJJ clubs (not ours ) have been known to have various nasties living in the mats that are more easily caught when you are rolling around on them constantly. And as you said, there's much more close contact than in other styles

Congrats, how long have you been training for?

I just wear whatever tshirt I wore at work; I put my gi on over the top. If I'm training that day, I don't wear anything with a collar. I don't really care about colour co-ordination and it's never been an issue. A lot of guys don't wear anything under the gi, and a lot wear rashguards. When I'm doing more no-gi stuff I might get a rashguard too and use that under the gi when I go back to the gi.

Last week I got my advanced yellow (yellow with a black stripe all the way around) in shootfighting. We did all the grading requirements up to about green belt (just before black) I think, but what we were actually graded on for advanced yellow was holding ground while blocking continuous straight punches aimed at the head, which we had to do stationary, moving forwards to close the distance, and moving backwards. Then, knees from both front head control (the famous "Thai clinch") and outside head control, transitioning between both types of head control, pulling the guy around by his head to take him off balance and load up the knee, etc. Not a demanding grading really, but I'm glad I passed

Well done! Good luck with the decision, but it sounds like you did well. If you can do a flying side kick over three people and break a board, you should be in the movies

When you say it did good, what did it actually do?