Street Fighting, Fighting from the Ground

The worst place to be when in a self defence situation is on the floor with your opponent/s still standing striking you. Even with many years of training for this situation it is very hard to escape it once caught in it.

Many people do not give this area of self defence proper attention, but it is something that should be in everyone’s minds. Below are a few things to think about concerning this topic.

1. Your opponent/s will most probably be using leg stomps or soccer style kicks to attack you as strikes with the hands or elbows would require them to bend down or join you on the floor, so be aware of this.

2. Make it a priority to try and always make sure that your opponent/s is in front of you by your legs rather than at your side or close to your head. Stomps to the legs hurt if you get caught with them, but stomps to the ribs, chest or head will do much more damage. Use you legs and feet to push and turn your body in conjunction to the movements of your opponent/s to keep them at this position.

3. Keep your body in a “turtle” position with you knees bent and you elbows tucked into your sides ready to defend. Defend your opponent/s strikes with your shins and bent knees as you would when checking low kicks in a standing position. Striking these hard bones may put your opponent off from further striking you whilst providing protection. Striking a bent hard knee as opposed to a straight one will rarely hurt, however, make sure you knees do stay bent unless striking yourself or getting up somehow.

4. Your priority should be to get up as soon as possible, especially if attacked by more than one person, but strikes which may come in handy will be thrusts and roundhouse kicks to your opponents shins, knees or groin if close enough, heel stomps to the top of your opponents feet and if you are fighting just one person and you get an opportunity to tackle your opponents legs in order to also bring him/her to the floor, go for it.

5. As mentioned, the priority is getting up. Good times to do this are after a hard strike to your opponent’s legs or quickly after a failed tackle before your opponent gets a chance to strike. It’s always best though to roll back into a standing position as soon as you descent towards to the floor in the first place.

Fighting from the floor is not something that anyone wants to be doing but is definitely something that all should think about when training for self defence. Spar with one or more opponents whilst lying down with them standing in order to become familiar with it. Obviously use control, but try and make it realistic also. The training will come in handy.

Marks

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Tags: self defence, martial arts, stomps, floor fighting

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