http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUYzP7Lm3c0&w=320&h=240
All fights go to the ground, or do they?
More importantly, do you really want them to go to the ground? With the current popularity of ground grappling an often heard axiom is “all fights go to the ground.” This implies a need to learn to fight from the ground since this is where you will ultimately end up. Violent encounter statistics are difficult to come by. It seems there is no federal or state collection of these types of statistics. The best I could come up with is in the article in the link below.
http://ejmas.com/jnc/2007jnc/jncart_Leblanc_0701.html
According to its information, arrests made by Los Angeles County Police in 1988 ended up with less than one percent involving altercations. Of these one percent of arrests only about “two thirds of the altercations (62%) ended with the officer and subject on the ground with the officer applying a joint lock and handcuffing the subject.” So it seems that most law enforcement encounters do go to the ground but over a third do not. Why are the odds high that a fight would end up on the ground?
- Multiple attackers is the most commonly sited reason for avoiding ground fighting. Yet a multiple attacker scenario is likely where you would face the highest likelihood of falling to the ground. My own anecdotal experience involves a friend of mine from college. On New Year’s eve my friend (an aikido shodan at the time) was attacked by two unarmed assailants. My friend failed to verbally deescalate the situation, ultimately several punches and kicks were thrown that my friend avoided several times before falling to the ground.
- The real world environment is a hard place to remain on your feet when someone is attacking you. Training on mats gives you a somewhat unrealistic sense of balance and footing compared to actual fighting. Training on a mat is safe but is too homogenous compared to what will likely be the environment of a violent encounter: curbs (my friend above tripped over a curb), debris, furniture, poles, other people on the dance floor, spilled drinks, untied shoe string.
- A new generation of young adults that have grown up watching UFC types fights and believe that fights should look like what are seen on TV so they try to take people off their feet to the ground.
- Bad luck. People trip and fall all the time without any help from an attacker so imagine an adrenaline filled fight or flight scenario.
While the odds of fighting from the ground is high, why should we try to avoid fighting from the ground in the first place? Multiple attackers are difficult enough to deal with if you are standing and can run away; on the ground it is almost impossible.
WARNING: The video below contains graphic violence as well as inappropriate language (turn the sound to mute it adds nothing to the video).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6brIYwhL–I&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D6brIYwhL–I&has_verified=1&w=320&h=240
- Even in the arts that emphasize ground fighting, you would much rather fight from a standing position. Wrestlers will keep their knees off the ground to apply more control to their opponent even after the opponent is on the ground; same as we do in judo. Standing simply makes you more mobile than being on the ground.
- Strikes are still painful from the ground but they lose much of their force once you are off your feet and cannot apply hip and body power to the strike. Imagine trying to throw a 90 mph fastball while sitting on the ground.
- From a standing position you have a better visual vantage point of the battle field were the fight is taking place.
We certainly spend a lot of our time at Mossy Creek Dojo in ne waza training ( I suspect more than some judo dojos around). We enjoy the ne waza. We also recognize its value in fighting effectively in a different environment. The early UFC fights involved the following strategy – taking an opponent out of his comfort zone into an environment that he was not effectively trained in fighting from.
Ultimately, while I believe if we end up on the ground we should be very comfortable fighting in that environment, I also feel we should get out of the ground environment as soon as possible to a more advantageous position. It is hard to run away if you are on your back.