Striking and not Striking whilst Ground Fighting

In the martial arts world, when people mention ground fighting, they usually refer to grappling and submissions, but with the ever growing popularity of MMA and UFC style fights, martial artists are becoming better at striking whilst also grappling on the ground. The worst thing a grappler can do is forget this.

There are some things you can get away with when ground fighting without strikes. If you are mounted by your opponent, you can have space between yourself and your opponent. If strikes were allowed, and you were mounted, the first thing you should be thinking of is pulling your opponent close to you as if hugging him/her so as he/she does not have the room to land hard strikes at you. If you are caught in a side control, or upper four quarters position, if no strikes are allowed, a lot of people tend to relax slightly while thinking about what there next move will be to escape. With strikes being thrown, knees to the body or head or downward elbow strikes must be looked for and defending against. Also there are certain submissions that you may have to use with precaution. For instance, if you are in position for an arm bar (juji gatame) and your partner bends his arm to defend it, you may decide to go for a forearm crush, which would force you to use both of your hands for just one of your opponent’s arms, leaving him/her free to strike you with the other.

I think grappling is brilliant. I love watching grappling tournaments, and think it is a very misunderstood art by some people. It is definitely needed to become a complete fighter, but so are strikes, standing and on the floor. Grapplers should sometimes train with strikes so as they learn the best way to defend against them and to can become overall complete fighters.

Marks

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