gzk

Regardless of how common one-on-one encounters are (and I believe them to be more common than you seem to think they are), regardless of where you would like the fight to happen, if you end up on the ground then you need to know what you're doing. If you get taken against your will to the ground then you can either go foetal or you can start snapping things. Either way you're going to absorb some punishment.

It can be very vulnerable, yes. Fortunately, not all ground is filled with broken glass, AIDS needles, tyre spikes, land-pirhanas and molten lava. Ground frequently does not equal death. Sometimes it does. An opponent who wants to grab you is someone that you will grapple with, whether you like it or not - unless you knock him out with your first strike. If you can do that first time, every time, great. If not, try a little experiment, with a partner: Your partner stands a normal sparring distance away. You charge in, close the distance and grab him. How quickly did that happen? How many shots did he get in? How many landed properly? For even more fun, try that experiment at the distance a real fight starts. Unless you are moving in slow motion, you can get a hold of your opponent in under 2 seconds. Having gone to the clinch, with no ref to break it, chances are that the fight is going to the ground. So, you'd better know how to fight on the ground. If you're on the bottom, you'll want to know how to improve your position. If that's not possible, you'll want to know how to incapacitate the guy. If you don't know either, then you're in big trouble, whether you like fighting on the ground or not. Sure, I know the UFC is not realistic. There are no chairs, no tables, no concrete, no pavement, no buddies of the other guy, etc. But it is the most realistic thing we have, short of staged street fights (and then, having staged it makes it unrealistic). Guys who pull guard and do nothing get bombed on. Standup specialists must have at least a good takedown defence, and even then, need to know what they're doing on the ground. Hitting your head on the floor still hurts although it probably won't KO (though this has happened) or kill you. Short of multiple attacker scenarios, the things that don't work in the street also don't work in UFC.

One thing I wonder is how effective Judo is at fighting from the bottom, since you can win by pinning. BJJ has loads of submissions from the bottom (indeed, some guys prefer to fight from there in grappling tournaments) which I imagine would be much harder to do in Judo for that reason. Sure, you don't want to ever end up in that position on the street, where you're forced to try and win from the bottom, but if I was, I'd rather do so as a student of BJJ.

Looks interesting. I wonder how they judge "3 inches above the knee" for the leg-kick rule when the fighters wear long pants though?

Also with BJJ, 9th and 10th degree is denoted by a solid red belt, which I believe only Helio and Carlos Gracie Sr. have.

Well, I re-attempted tonight and I got it Our normal instructor couldn't make it and the instructor we had gave us a whole bunch of extra cardio/plyometrics right at the end so it was probably among the toughest classes I've done (which, I suppose, a grading should be). The instructor said my grappling techniques weren't always perfect on first one or two reps, and I think my round kick needs work (though I blame the soft mat, heh). He also said that I did better after I was too tired to be nervous. So yeah....got my shootfighting yellow belt, stripe for my BJJ white belt, and school patches for my gi. Now the real fun begins PS: thanks for your encouragement, guys

For BJJ around 8-12 years is pretty normal I think.

No, I don't think so. There are trash talkers, sure, but there's plenty of the qualities you mention. See GSP, Royce, Randy, Anderson Silva, etc. These that you mention do come to mind. I have always liked Courture, and I always felt that he was a stand-up guy. The others, as well. But, do you think that some of today's upcoming fighters are beginning to go the route of the WWE type of show? I really hope not. I think that if UFC and Pride can continue to put out quality fighters, then they can avoid going the route of all the pomp. Some are definitely going for a WWE type image. Tito Ortiz comes to mind, although he does appear capable of humility and certainly aims to get the job done in the octagon. I would like to see less "grudge" matchups that are created out of trash-talking. The whole Tito/Ken Shamrock saga was unedifying to both, Tito coming off as a brash punk and Ken as an old man who should have known better than to allow the feud to develop, firstly, and retired with his dignity intact, secondly. I haven't seen The Ultimate Fighter but perhaps they need to be trained by more respectful fighters and discouraged to show disrespect to their opponents. On the other hand, everyone likes to see a punk get beat down. I think perhaps some of it comes from an overreaction against the regimented, mystical Orientophile manner in which martial arts have often been taught in decades in our recent past. Perhaps many have gotten away with peddling useless martial art with all form and no function in the past and they should be called on it, but don't throw the baby out with the bathwater - respect is an essential part of good, safe martial arts training, whether traditional or not, whether Oriental or not.

No, I don't think so. There are trash talkers, sure, but there's plenty of the qualities you mention. See GSP, Royce, Randy, Anderson Silva, etc.

It's technically been autumn (fall) here for nearly two months but still almost no rain, and the temperature has only started to cool down properly in the last couple of weeks. It's raining now though, perhaps we'll finally get a decent amount, although it's not so important where I live as where all the agriculture is. So basically I'm ready for the warm weather to get lost

My instructor, John Will. All the experience you could ask for: Black belts in Karate, TKD, some wrestling, went to Indonesia to train Pentcak Silat (and was the first foreigner to win their national tourney), trained in Thailand, went to India to study Vajra Mushti, an ancient MA that he later wrote about, went to the US in the late 80s and trained with the Gracies and the Machados. At various times he's trained with the likes of Geoff Thompson, Gene LeBell, Chuck Norris and Benny Urquidez. He developed his own Shootfighting system (separate to Bart Vale's), got his BJJ black belt from Rigan Machado making him a member of the "dirty dozen" - first 12 non-Brazilian BJJ black belts, opened his schools and started the Australian arm of Machado BJJ, basically laying the foundation for BJJ in Australia. Black belts he's awarded include UFC fighters Elvis Sinosic and Anthony Perosh (though I'd love to see them win more ) He conducts seminars worldwide, trains military teams, produces instructional material and STILL manages to find time to have a family and instruct the n00b class that I'm in, which I find truly amazing and a great privilege. He is able to command respect without asking for it, yet is always friendly and approachable, is charismatic and able to explain things very well, able to impart knowledge very quickly. I know I can trust him to look after my safety and he constantly works to have us, the students, establish this sort of trust between us to make training much more effective. One day I hope to be able to pick his brain for an extended period

Do you ever compare yourself to other MAers, such as classmates? On one hand, I consider it a pointless exercise as you and your classmate will have a different backstory, different physical attributes, different experience in martial arts and sport in general, different commitments outside of MA, different capacity to train outside of class, etc. In my class for example we have people with years of karate, kickboxing, wing chun and jiu-jitsu training with people with no previous MA, some with no previous sport at all, some who may never have thrown a punch nor had a punch thrown at them in their lives. In one sense, what is important is how well you fulfill your potential, how skilled and how able you become as an absolute, rather than relative to your classmates, unless you are going to fight them (non-sportingly). On the other hand, if your classmate is better than you, it might help you to think about why. Maybe your technique isn't quite right, maybe your approach needs changing? What do you think?

BJJ - triangle choke Shootfighting - double leg takedown

I just tried that with the movie Cheech and Chong Up In Smoke and the word "man". Man, am I tired!

Whoever mentioned visualisation - that's an excellent suggestion. Most grappling is hard to practice solo, unlike striking, and I find visualisation the next best thing - thinking about where I'm going to move, where my opponent is going to move, and most importantly, why. I think it's helping to solve some of the problems I've had with assimilating all the movements to be able to memorize them, though it's too early to tell for sure. Oh, and someone mentioned books - if you have the time, money, and inclination, I can recommend BJJ Fundamentals by John B. Will - I have the book and find it an invaluable compliment to training, though I may be biased as he's my instructor.

In BJJ I think 10 years is about standard, for Machado JJ at least. In our shootfighting system I think you can get it in about 3 years if you progress quickly.

...merrily merrily merrily merrily kick them out the door!

Hey, I sorta liked the first Bloodsport and Kickboxer movies, although Van Damme didn't appear to actually do any Muay Thai in Kickboxer. Still, Tong Po was awesome "Legs?!? Dis guy was kicking one of deeese with his legs! Until plaster was falling down!"

Thanks But french fri25 caught it first

Good stuff Akaratechick Make sure your doc keeps checking though..

Indeed. Rolling your boat wouldn't be very 'merrily'

I'm 5'10" and pretty much didn't grow any taller after 15. That was quite annoying as I was about 5'6" when I was 12-13 and it appeared that I would end up a few inches over 6' although that would have been bucking the odds somewhat as my Dad is 5'10" too and my Mum is about 5'.

(singing) "Muay Thai roundhouse kicks, http://www.evilmeat.net/images/kf_gzk_mt_roundhouse.JPG elbows, http://www.evilmeat.net/images/kf_gzk_elbow.JPG and knees http://www.evilmeat.net/images/kf_gzk_knee.JPG These are a few of my favourite things.."

If you're in wrist-grab range, you're probably in elbow range too, and they tend to cut nicely, if you throw an overhand elbow. Or, you could try an upward elbow to the underside of the chin, if you can reach with it. Drive up with your legs a la an uppercut punch. Jerking your controlled arm back toward you may give that elbow extra leverage too, though against a much stronger person, maybe not.

I don't know how good I am, but I'm better than I was last month (I think ).