While reading up on some BJJ, I thought of something. Wouldn't striking be more like the "icing on the cake," something supplementary to grappling? Often, when I try to force some of my sparring buddies into a striking game, it's much easier for them to force me to play their grappling game, even though I'd consider myself a fairly okay striker (boxing feints are my best tools for head hunting). So, wouldn't an aspiring fighter be better off taking grappling, and using striking during/afterwards/as a feint/whatever with that for self defense purposes? Is fighting more aimed toward grappling?
clinch and ground are more important imo than the striking range. thats where fights are happening, not when you are squared off in a ring. and honestly, punching is a lot more about size and strength than grappling is.
You find that alot of people do supplement their grappling some with kind of striking art. Naturally, to get into a grappling distance, you have to breach the striking gab; and taking some kind of striking art like boxing can help alot because you can use jabs/feints/combinations to set yourself up for a shoot/takedown.
yep, most people i know who grapple also have at least a small amount of stand up experience (good stand up, muay thai or boxing usually) shame it doesnt work the other way round.
Makes sense to me. Since the beginning of time, grappling has been used to trump striking. Grappling is what I see perhaps 3 out of 4 "street" fights. Like the Scouts say, Be Prepared!
Dont say that! Im trying to make it work the other way, soon as I can find an opportunity to start cross-training in either jjj or bjj.
no i mean that a lot of people who do striking ignore the ground game, while few people ive met who do grappling ignore stand up.
Many good wrestlers and ground fighters have a lot of problems dealing with good strikes. Many good strikers have a hard time dealing with good grappling. One way to look at cross training and/or mixed martial arts is when you can transfer your strengths to more situations. If, for instance, you are a strong grappler and start to learn striking, one of the lessons to be learned is how to use your strong grappling skills with the striking to create something different and effective. I'll give two examples. I sparred a few times against someone that was an excellent kicker, spent a lot of time sparring against TKD people. I'm a fairly good kicker, but the guy was better overall kicker and much more used to fighting good kickers, so most of my kicking was kept to low kicks and stuff like that as trying to match him kick for kick was not working. I would close, and found out he was a decent puncher too. Was training for competition, sort of an MMA or JKD format, not sure but he had decent hands, used to fighting boxers/kickboxers. Got in to clinch, ended up going down, the guy was a decent grappler, darn it and fought for top position and got it, a few punches from above and I "'tapped out." Anyway, didn't look so good for me, we continue sparring. He tags me with an ax kick and almost knocks me out. We are not trying to kill each other so, it is like wow, I'm lucky it wasn't competition or I would be out of it already. Then it happened, I for the many times closed in and stopped punching and clinching like a boxer, instead I used my Chu'an Fa / Kenpo hands. The guy, although most likely a better fighter than me as already proven, could not defend. It was clear I dominated in this aspect, close in clinching/grappling range striking. This is a key to how foundamentals and basics can work in to fighting, to learn to apply your strengths where the other is weaker. My boxing is average for my level, my grappling is average for my level, my kicking average for my level, but my close in stand up fighting has always been above average for my level. In fact even when I first tested for black belt in karate many years ago, one of the senior blackbelt judges came and said my close in fighting was good, but I needed to work on my distance fighting (which I did spend a lot of time doing after that, but my close in improved also, even more). Anyway, cross train, be well rounded, very important, but also learn to use your strengths whenever you can. Example number two: I was grappling with many folks lately or sparring with them which leads to grappling and it seems so many folks are getting used to fighting and passing the guard and all the BJJ stuff that frankly my skill level is not high enough to get it to work well. I only really get it to work on people not used to BJJ at all. So again, why am I just going through the motions? I said forget this, this isn't a game of chess with all the openings planned out. We started to go down, the guy sprawled on top of me, I got a hold of one of his arms as he was spawling, I went down into a turtle, took control of his wrist and elbow and applied a lock. He tapped out almost immediately. The lock, although I was on the ground, was something from my years of Aikido training. Get good at what you do, you never know when your strengths will make the difference. Middle of the road everything may seem well rounded, but think about what "everything" is. You can't be good at everything, there are things out there you probably never even thought of. Learn to use your strength with being well rounded. Don't mistake being well rounded with excellence in anything.
