90% of fights go to the ground?

[ps1]

So you are as likely to face a wrestler in a real fight as you would a gymnast ... even in the United States.

Wrestling is the 6th most popular school sport in the united states. There are over 9500 sanctioned schools. It's actually quite likely you may come across people with a wrestling background.

While you're right about the rankings. I wonder how much there is of a drop off between the big three (baseball, basketball and football) and wrestling.

For example, if football got 40% of the athletes, baseball got 35%, basketball got 15%, soccer got 5%, swimming got 4%, and wrestling got 1%. That means that wrestling is the 6th most popular. But it's still only going to get only 1% of the student athletes.

True. But you're really forgetting that many students are multi sport athletes. Wrestling is common for football players because of the type of training it requires (physical, strength and speed oriented, good stamina ect...). Of course the degree to which students do this depends on alot of factors (school size, skill level, cuts or no cuts).

All I know is this. When I first joined the military I went through basic training. Of the roughly 60 people in my platoon, I was the ONLY one with any martial arts training. Three had boxing experience. We had 16 who were wrestlers. This number was much higher in my Reserves platoon where almost 30 were former wrestlers. Though I believe that had to do with the fact we were in PA (a huge wrestling state). That's a big percentage.

[bushido_man96]

So you are as likely to face a wrestler in a real fight as you would a gymnast ... even in the United States.

Wrestling is the 6th most popular school sport in the united states. There are over 9500 sanctioned schools. It's actually quite likely you may come across people with a wrestling background.

While you're right about the rankings. I wonder how much there is of a drop off between the big three (baseball, basketball and football) and wrestling.

For example, if football got 40% of the athletes, baseball got 35%, basketball got 15%, soccer got 5%, swimming got 4%, and wrestling got 1%. That means that wrestling is the 6th most popular. But it's still only going to get only 1% of the student athletes.

There are a lot of multi-sport athletes out there, and many football players can end being Wrestlers, too, like ps1 said, becasue the seasons are at two different times. The drop off in the talent level isn't going to be as big as it might seem. Also, the weight classes of Wrestling effect who does it, too. Not a lot of 115 pounders are playing football, but they can Wrestle.

All I know is this. When I first joined the military I went through basic training. Of the roughly 60 people in my platoon, I was the ONLY one with any martial arts training. Three had boxing experience. We had 16 who were wrestlers. This number was much higher in my Reserves platoon where almost 30 were former wrestlers. Though I believe that had to do with the fact we were in PA (a huge wrestling state). That's a big percentage.

It sounds to me like you had 20 in there with Martial Arts training. Boxing and Wrestling both count, don't they?

[brickshooter]

Yes, wrestlers and boxers definitely count as a martial arts. If the goal of a sport is combative, it's a martial arts regardless of its origin. But regarding wrestling as a popular sport, I think it comes down to the area of the country.

I grew up on the West Coast. And I remember that it was very difficult to recruit for wrestling in highschool. We had about 3 x people try out for water polo than wrestling. (Water polo is like soccer, but played while swimming).

But as I understand it, it's very popular in the midwest. I think most of the NCAA wrestling champs generally come out of the Universities from Oklahoma or Nebraska.

BTW, West Coast teams generally dominate in water polo. LoL.

[JiuJitsuNation]

Most fights go to the ground or end up in a clinch for an obvious reason someone is punching the other person in the face and the person on the receiving end clinches to save face. Literally. From the headlocks occur and people being slung to the ground or someone loses their balance. It's reasonable to say the majority do and will go to the ground but not resulting from skilled intention. It's amazing when grappling with new people especially on the feet how easily they lose their balance and fall. This I have found goofing with friends who may or may not train in various styles and in real life altercations as well as newbies. It's a more natural instinct to grab and beat than it is to just throw blows. Pro boxers make their living beating each others brains out but they clinch as much or more than mma athletes. just an observation.

[mongo]

For those who aren't old enough or just missed it the 90% of fights go to the ground was used as marketing by the Gracies in the early days of the UFC. Up until this point this was NOT a common concept. Surprisingly enough they taught grappling.....

Marketing 101- Create a problem only you have the solution for.

Not particularly picking on BJJ, there are a lot of truth in advertising issues in MA and elsewhere.

[evergrey]

Most fights I have seen out on the street didn't really go to the ground, to be honest. Some of them, yeah, but certainly not a majority. If you go down, then the other guy and his cousins and his cousin's cousins all come and stomp the teeth out of your head. So, not something people try for. I have seen people rolling around a couple times, but I haven't ever seen some guy with his legs wrapped around some other guy's head in a pretzel just on the sidewalk somewhere...

'Course, most of the fights I saw where I grew up also involved knives, guns, or at least some baseball bats and 2 by 4s with nails stuck through them.

It was not a nice town.

[Snake1725681530]

Most fights I have seen out on the street didn't really go to the ground, to be honest. Some of them, yeah, but certainly not a majority. If you go down, then the other guy and his cousins and his cousin's cousins all come and stomp the teeth out of your head. So, not something people try for. I have seen people rolling around a couple times, but I haven't ever seen some guy with his legs wrapped around some other guy's head in a pretzel just on the sidewalk somewhere...

'Course, most of the fights I saw where I grew up also involved knives, guns, or at least some baseball bats and 2 by 4s with nails stuck through them.

It was not a nice town.

BLIMEY, where did you grow up!!!?

[JiuJitsuNation]

I grew up in what was considered at the time murder capital of the world. When you live in a city where as you enter it it says have a nice day in Detroit with a yellow smiley face with a bullet hole in the head with blood trickling down the smiling face you know your in a wonderful place. And there are worse or equally bad out there. My point is I fought or saw fights on a daily basis and the majority did go to the ground and most people would just watch. I have had there friends come in and kick me in the face and on and on. But the truth from my life experience even in a place such as this there were usually no weapons and no one els involved. At the same time my uncle was stabbed 7 times on five different occasions in his yard. I would say the majority of fights will happen in your youth and if you had some ground game you would walk through school anywhere you lived with the utmost confidence. When I first started jiu jitsu and people would say yeah I heard you do karate or whatever and I would say NO! I don't do karate it's much different and I would try to explain and sometimes it would turn into a wrestling match for whatever reasons. The thing I heard most from the people who just needed to experience what I was saying first hand was 1. You cheated you tripped me and 2. You cheated you choked me. This makes me aware that before the Gracies came along people went to the ground with headlocks and wwf wrestling moves. And they didn't believe it was a fair man to man fight unless you stood there and punched people in the face. If I had to just be brutally honest and look at the literally hundreds of fights I got into from elementary school until my early twenties i would have to agree this is fairly accurate information. Of course I do have lots of experience rather than here say.

[evergrey]

Interesting, maybe it's just different there than on the border where I grew up...

[Capt Jakk]

Evergrey and JiuJitsuNation, your last posts support my earlier point that location can have an effect on how common it is for a fight would go to ground. In one case a person still stood a chance while fighting on the ground due to no interference from bystanders. In the other going to ground meant there was no chance of winning the fight due to everyone bum rushing the guy on the ground. Ground fighting looks like it might be more useful in one of these areas over the other.