How to fight a WRESTLER with martial arts

[sensei8]

You're a wrestler and you want to shoot, that's ok, one of my most favorite counters would be to SPRAWL, but the sprawl takes some uncanny timing, and that's cured by practicing.

[bushido_man96]

Does anyone have any tips or ideas on how to fight one of these guys ?

HOLLA.

sincerely

Son Goku the monkeyking

I'd say one of the best ways to be able to defend against a Wrestler is to learn some Wrestling or other form of ground fighting to counter it. Know your enemy...

There is one thing about the title that bothers me...the title tends to lean in the direction of describing Wrestling as something other than a Martial Art, which I think is wrong. Wrestling is very much a Martial Art, and confronting any practitioner should be taken very seriously.

Sorry, got on my soapbox there.

[sensei8]

There is one thing about the title that bothers me...the title tends to lean in the direction of describing Wrestling as something other than a Martial Art, which I think is wrong. Wrestling is very much a Martial Art, and confronting any practitioner should be taken very seriously.

Sorry, got on my soapbox there.

That's a very valid and solid soapbox!!

[Oni Kudaki]

Well there has to be a charge somewhere in there, maybe get in at a 45 degree angle and punch when he does that? I mean, when he's got you he clearly has the upper hand but if you can stay away form him he can't really do anything. It's sort of like bull fighting if you think about it.

[tallgeese]

Easier said than done. Any counter striking HAS to be done off a solid training platform of wrestling basics. In other words, one has to understand the timing and distance of the shot and further, understand the mechanics of the sprawl above all else.

Hips will win the day. Being able to keep yours away will give you the opportunity to counter with strikes.

[RW]

How often has a real karate practitioner fought a wrestler, under fair conditions, both unarmed?

In the UFC and other MMA contests (not a real fight, by the way, they got rules) fighters use gloves. A wrestler will often choose to take a jab or maybe even a straight punch to the face in order to shoot and takedown. In real life, one of those strikes would be much more devastating.

Also, wrestlers in MMA competitions cross-train other arts, so it is a sure thing that they're familiar with giving and receiving strikes. A pure wrestler will not know how to react so well to a flurry of kicks and punches.

Now, a wrestler that has cross trained any striking martial art... now that's a whole different issue. The karate person would have to cross-train wrestling or any grappling-based martial art in order to level the field... wasn't this how MMA were born, anyway?

[isshinryu5toforever]

I don't agree with that. The MMA gloves are padded, but barely. They're not really there to pad a blow, they're there so the person punching doesn't break their hand. The power transfer is nearly identical to having zero padding. It's like putting towels over a bunch of wood during breaking so you don't get splinters in your hand. A wrestler will take a straight from someone that doesn't have enough power to hurt them in a single shot. That's why Chuck Liddell did so well in his prime. He could jab people and knock them out. A pure wrestler would probably step through a flurry of punches and kicks unless you threw one that hurt him. A good shoot attached to a double leg take down is a tough thing to stop. It takes a lot of training at full speed to do so.

[tallgeese]

Right, and most are more versed in full speed conflict that the average trad artist. It makes them very dangerous.

It's a bit of a side note, but the wrestler is the most common ma-ist that most people will face in most corners of the states, due largly to the prevalance of high school wrestling. It's also a safe bet that the average wrestler can shoot in and successfully take down an average ma-ist with frightenly frequent reqularity.

Unless, and this is big, the ma-ist has taken the time to learn to sprawl and cut angles. The basics of the craft will give the ma-ist the chance to use his strikes.

[isshinryu5toforever]

Another thing to work on would be stance. If we're talking about squaring off in a fight, not a self-defense situation, then stance becomes important. A lot of traditional martial arts teach to fight out of a fairly high stance, with your legs pretty close together. That's like asking to be taken down. If you want to stand a chance, and you're not great at sprawling, those feet need to be a little farther apart, and your base needs to be lower.

I also think that grappling is more natural than striking. You take any two little kids in a fight, and one is trying to tackle the other and get on top of them. It's just natural for them to do it. Telling someone to put their hand in a fist and punch someone else, that's not so natural. That's why so much time is devoted to the form of punching somebody. Striking takes a lot more time to get competent, note I didn't say good, at than grappling. If you fail in grappling, you might still take the person down. It's not going to be pretty, but you can still get the take down, even if it's a good ole' fashioned tackle. Notice that a lot of guys in the UFC who do BJJ, and haven't wrestled (mostly from outside the US), didn't take Judo either. They can still take people down. It's not as pretty as say Parysian Judo tossing Sanchez, but they still get the take down.

If you screw up hitting someone, not only will it not hurt them, it'll probably just make them angry.

[bushido_man96]

In the UFC and other MMA contests (not a real fight, by the way, they got rules) fighters use gloves. A wrestler will often choose to take a jab or maybe even a straight punch to the face in order to shoot and takedown. In real life, one of those strikes would be much more devastating.

That's going back to living off the "one hit wonder" principle, and its not a good idea. Most Wrestlers are going to be athletic, and will be able to move. They may eat a punch, but they can probably move enough to shunt some of it, too. Also, a Wrestler isn't likely to be standing straight up fight you. They are going to hunker down and work that shot. They'll have their hands up, too, in a ready position. So, they won't just be waiting to get hit, and then work a takedown.