Help with Information?

[meth18au]

Hey,

I currently study Muay Thai as well as a fair bit of running and 2 weight sessions a week. I would like to expand my martial horizons by commencing casual lessons in a ground art. I plan on dropping one of my weight sessions and and doing one night a week in a ground art.
My needs are as follows: I'm only going to be doing one night a week, and I want it (at this time) just to be an addition to my other training. I would like something that is practical, rather than sport driven. Basically something that will give me real skills I can use on the ground, should the situation arise.
The reason for this post is to help gather some informed opinions on what might be best suited to my needs, and also to compare the different options that are available to me out there?

Any help would be appreciated
Cheers

 

[MattJ]

The nature of any resistant-type training will make it practical by default ie; you will be able to use it because you HAVE used it. The major players in groundfighting are wrestling, sambo, brazilian jujitsu and judo. All are good arts with different emphasis. Judo and wrestling are good for throws and takedowns, BJJ and sambo are good for submissions.

Check out the schools in your area and see which one you like best.

 

[meth18au]

Thanks Matt. So I guess they're the four main options available to me. I think throws and takedowns are what I'm after, so I'm gonna give it a try. I'm going down tomorrow to see a local MMA club that has wrestling classes on Wednesday nights- which is exactly the night I was looking to train a ground art.
Any advice on how to tell a dodgy teacher from a good one? I really got no idea what I'm looking for, my exposure to these arts are limited to the internet and watching UFC!!

 

[KamonGuy2]

Some BJJ schools do no-Gi training, to make it a lot more realistic.

Other martial arts cover the takedown side (wing chun has many takedowns etc).

As for dodgy teachers that's a hard one. It might be worth seeing them in practice (against a high ranking student) and seeing how they do.

Most BJJ instructors are very good. However I have known Judo schools to be a little varied in quality

 

[meth18au]

What's no-Gi training? And how does that make it more realistic?

 

[KamonGuy2]

In BJJ, karate, Judo you often wear a Gi or dobok which look like pyjamas.

These make it easier to do chokes, or for grip etc.

However, in a streetfight tyhe opponent could be wearing anything (heavy clothes or a light t-shirt)

In these no-Gi sessions, you don't wear a Gi and fight as though you were confronting a dangerous attacker (ie instead of aiming to score points, you are looking to disable them)

 

[meth18au]

Yes I've seen the Gi's worn by BJJ guys, didn't realise that was their name!!!! I guess I'll have to make sure there is no-Gi training available- definitely sounds for the sort of training I'm after. Takedown, gain control then end the situation!!! Just out of curiosity- what do you guys tend to do during class? Is there a heavy cardio aspect, or is it more just straight to the mats to work on technique and spar?

 

[KamonGuy2]

Yes I've seen the Gi's worn by BJJ guys, didn't realise that was their name!!!! I guess I'll have to make sure there is no-Gi training available- definitely sounds for the sort of training I'm after. Takedown, gain control then end the situation!!! Just out of curiosity- what do you guys tend to do during class? Is there a heavy cardio aspect, or is it more just straight to the mats to work on technique and spar?

Again it depends on what style and what class you go to. The Gracie Academy in UK (Gracie Barra) do a strong warm up (stretching everyting) and then a good exeercise (push ups, burpees, sit ups, etc), before going into a class. Basics are learnt and then at the end we do sparring

Some lessons you might work takedowns, other classes may be purely ground based. In the no gi sessions, we tend to swap arm bars for punches

 

[meth18au]

Hey guys,

Thanks to all who posted information to help me in my decision. I've checked out a few places over the past week or so and have made my decision. I've found a school that is an MMA school- it teaches mainly BJJ, Muay Thai and Boxing. It also has 1x wrestling class per week. Their prices are reasonable and that offer the option for casual classes. So in 2 weeks time I will be starting casual classes on Wed night in wrestling!!! Looking forward to it heaps. After a while I might drop some of my running sessions and do a few BJJ classes in morning or on weekends!!!

Thanks again.