skribs
Grandmaster
Often times, the "Sport vs. Self-Defense" debate is something along the lines of "Krav Maga vs. MMA". But that's not what I want to look at today. What I want to look at is what I think is a realistic expectation of what you need to know to be high level in a sport, vs. what you need to know to successfully defend yourself in the most common self-defense situations (especially the most common you can realistically use your skills in self-defense).
I have experience with sport arts in the past, including wrestling as a teenager, and some Taekwondo competitions as an adult. However, I instead want to focus on my much more recent experience in BJJ. I feel I am already better at BJJ than I was at wrestling (based on my success rate against my peers), and BJJ rolling does tend to be more realistic than the point sparring I did in Taekwondo. Of course, I am not a high level in BJJ yet, but I can extrapolate based on conversations and relating back to what I do have more experience with.
What it takes to be successful in BJJ:
Stand-Up:
But what does it take in self-defense? Most cases of self-defense are going to be against someone who has had a bad day or too much alcohol, and hasn't been on the mat getting out their aggression. Folks who train are much less likely to try and pick a random fight. Based on clips I see all over the place on Youtube, most people using BJJ in self-defense are doing so against people wholly unprepared for a technical grappler. This is also based on my experience being the victim of the blue and purple belts in my gym, and being the aggressor against some of the newer white belts. When I'm rolling with the purple belt, there isn't really a give-and-take. He just controls the fight. He does more adapting by letting me play than he does by winning.
Your two options if you don't know grappling are freeze and spaz, something that an experienced BJJ fighter should be able to deal with no problem. So let's take the above list, and strike out what is no longer relevant when you are no longer competing against someone who is roughly equal trained as you.
Stand-Up:
I realize that not all self-defense situations will be like this. Sometimes, the person is trained, or there are other factors at play. But I acknowledge that at the start, and understand that any martial art is going to have those gaps (even gun fighting has gaps that cross-training will fill).
I think too often we get into this discussion of what works and what doesn't, and how if you're not realistic if you do or don't do sport. BJJ is realistic because you can go 100%. But BJJ is not realistic because you're on a mat in a controlled 1v1. Someone who trains BJJ can look at the 19-part list and say that if you can't do all of that, you won't be able to use your grappling in a fight. But that's not what I've seen when people are putting an aggro subway rider or basketball PUG to sleep with a RNC. But, you can look at the 6-1/2 part list and see what will make you successful in those situations.
Taking it back to the argument of arts like Hapkido compared with BJJ, and I see that the 6-1/2 part list is very similar to the strategies we used in our Hapkido practice. Defend your opponent's initial attack, gain control and take them down, then break something. A BJJ fighter will do something relatively similar against a similarly untrained opponent. They might take a slightly different approach, but the high-level concept is the same. Which kind of makes it pointless to argue and insult each other, in my opinion.
I have experience with sport arts in the past, including wrestling as a teenager, and some Taekwondo competitions as an adult. However, I instead want to focus on my much more recent experience in BJJ. I feel I am already better at BJJ than I was at wrestling (based on my success rate against my peers), and BJJ rolling does tend to be more realistic than the point sparring I did in Taekwondo. Of course, I am not a high level in BJJ yet, but I can extrapolate based on conversations and relating back to what I do have more experience with.
What it takes to be successful in BJJ:
Stand-Up:
- Know what take-downs your opponent can use, how to read their intent, how to counter them
- Know what take-downs your opponent can set up with the initial technique they are showing you, and how to be ready for them
- Know what take-downs you can use, how to prevent your opponent from countering them and/or how to transition to a different technique that makes use of their resistance to the first one
- Know how to maintain guard
- Know how to submit from guard
- Know how to sweep
- Know how to escape a stalemate situation (more of an MMA thing)
- Know how to return to guard from a less favorable position
- Know the counters to what you're doing and what your opponent is doing, and the responses to those counters
- Know how to avoid getting submitted
- Know how to avoid getting swept
- Know how to escape guard to reset
- Know how to pass guard and advance your position
- Know the counters to what you're doing and what your opponent is doing, and the responses to those counters
- Know how to progress in a favorable direction, such as going from side control to mount or taking the back; or how to escape mount and get back to guard
- Know how to prevent your opponent from progressing in a favorable direction
- Know how to prevent your opponent from gaining or taking space in order to progress
- Know how to read your opponent's intentions based on where they are spending their energy
- Know the available submissions from each position: how to apply them, how to escape them, and how to prevent your opponent from escaping them
But what does it take in self-defense? Most cases of self-defense are going to be against someone who has had a bad day or too much alcohol, and hasn't been on the mat getting out their aggression. Folks who train are much less likely to try and pick a random fight. Based on clips I see all over the place on Youtube, most people using BJJ in self-defense are doing so against people wholly unprepared for a technical grappler. This is also based on my experience being the victim of the blue and purple belts in my gym, and being the aggressor against some of the newer white belts. When I'm rolling with the purple belt, there isn't really a give-and-take. He just controls the fight. He does more adapting by letting me play than he does by winning.
Your two options if you don't know grappling are freeze and spaz, something that an experienced BJJ fighter should be able to deal with no problem. So let's take the above list, and strike out what is no longer relevant when you are no longer competing against someone who is roughly equal trained as you.
Stand-Up:
- Know what take-downs your opponent can use, how to read their intent, how to counter them
- Know what take-downs your opponent can set up with the initial technique they are showing you, and how to be ready for them
Know what take-downs you can use, how to prevent your opponent from countering them and/or how to transition to a different technique that makes use of their resistance to the first one
Know how to maintain guard- Know how to submit from guard
- Know how to sweep
Know how to escape a stalemate situation (more of an MMA thing)Know how to return to guard from a less favorable positionKnow the counters to what you're doing and what your opponent is doing, and the responses to those counters
Know how to avoid getting submittedKnow how to avoid getting sweptKnow how to escape guard to reset- Know how to pass guard and advance your position
Know the counters to what you're doing and what your opponent is doing, and the responses to those counters
- Know how to progress in a favorable direction, such as going from side control to mount or taking the back; or how to escape mount and get back to guard
Know how to prevent your opponent from progressing in a favorable directionKnow how to prevent your opponent from gaining or taking space in order to progressKnow how to read your opponent's intentions based on where they are spending their energy- Know the available submissions from each position: how to apply them,
how to escape them, and how to prevent your opponent from escaping them
I realize that not all self-defense situations will be like this. Sometimes, the person is trained, or there are other factors at play. But I acknowledge that at the start, and understand that any martial art is going to have those gaps (even gun fighting has gaps that cross-training will fill).
I think too often we get into this discussion of what works and what doesn't, and how if you're not realistic if you do or don't do sport. BJJ is realistic because you can go 100%. But BJJ is not realistic because you're on a mat in a controlled 1v1. Someone who trains BJJ can look at the 19-part list and say that if you can't do all of that, you won't be able to use your grappling in a fight. But that's not what I've seen when people are putting an aggro subway rider or basketball PUG to sleep with a RNC. But, you can look at the 6-1/2 part list and see what will make you successful in those situations.
Taking it back to the argument of arts like Hapkido compared with BJJ, and I see that the 6-1/2 part list is very similar to the strategies we used in our Hapkido practice. Defend your opponent's initial attack, gain control and take them down, then break something. A BJJ fighter will do something relatively similar against a similarly untrained opponent. They might take a slightly different approach, but the high-level concept is the same. Which kind of makes it pointless to argue and insult each other, in my opinion.