Originally posted by kenpo12
Doc,
I'm curious as to what would make you say this? There are so many more people studying grappling now, that I think it is very likely someone would shoot for your legs. I've also known people in the past (especially shorter guys) that shooting for a single or double leg was staple for them. I knew guys in high school that were doing "ground and pound" long before it became popular in the UFC. LOL
There aren't More people studying grappling now. In fact more participated in grappling in the forties and fifties. The first arts to gain wide acceptance were "real" jiujitsu and judo taught in the military and in country. Every boys club and YMCA had a judo club. Then there was the great wrestling craze of the fifties with greats like "Judo" Gene LeBell, "Gorgeous" George, Freddy Blasie" etc. All the kids were were doing wrestling moves on the playground before they began to mimic Bruce Lee in their fight scenarios. No, wrestling was MUCH bigger then in terms of participation, and attendance at "fights" 2 and 3 days a week at local venues like the "Olympic Auditorium" in Los Angeles alternating hights with "Roller Derby" and boxing.
No offense, but you sound as if a fight is some kind of "open all styles welcome tournament." Trust me sir, it is not.
It is simply not my experience and I am almost sixty years old, and have been in the arts, and on the streets as a way of life since I was 10 years old.
When you say "studied" you're talking about a very small segment of the population. Most people have never studied any art, and those who have done some grappling have done so from a competition perspective, not as a street fighting thug.
Street fighting precludes a great deal of "competitive" strategies. Getting in fights in high school is one thing, but when two high school kids square off empty handed, I don't think the thought of "life or death" enters their mind. If you knew that diving at someones feet could possibly end your life if you were unsuccessful, you would not likely do it. Your options change significantly.
In all my years on the street in ghettos across this country and even outside this country I have never seen or heard from my working associates about "competition" grappling techniques as first option in any serious confrontation. Most peple are not "street people" or have that kind of on-going day-to-day experience unless you're a criminal or a cop whose must fight for your life on a regular basis. Most people never even come close to that kind of experience in a lifetime.
One law enforcement officer who posts from time to time said he too had only seen someone do something like that only once in 20 years of working the street. The "stats" just don't bare it out. I see a mentality among some young martial artist that suggests that when you have a confrontation, your attacker is going to be a "skilled, grappling, ninja, kenpo, kali kickass, with a knife. It simply isn't so. Most aren't, and the few that are, are not mugging or getting in fights every night.
The muggers have a different mentality and particular "mugging skills" developed through interaction and experience on the street that most will never have, and those methods are quick, fast, and usually "sneaky." Their intent is too quickly disable, not to go to the ground or lay on the ground ever. 2 drunk guys in the bar parking lot maybe, but not serious life threatening attacks.
I've seen my share of life and death struggles and none of them look like the UFC. My teacher came from a serious ghetto and was a "street fighter" because he had to be to survive, where fighting was life and death. He grappled and had a black belt in a grappling art.
He too saw the fallacy and although he believed you absolutely should have grappling skills, he identified other things as more important and more likely to initiate a confrontation and placed things in their order of importance in skill developement. He never dismissed it, he just knew the real world attackers had no desire to "lock up" with you on the ground. In fact the opposite is true. "Sneak up the guy, strike fast and hard and hopefuly end it with one punch." My experiences mirror my teacher who was a wily street fight veteran.
Grappling competitors don't train for any of the things that occcur in the street because in competition, their "illegal." No Holds Barred" means "within the rules." Where I work, their are no rules on the bad guys. "You grapple with me and bring any soft tissue near my mouth and I'll remove a chunk of fleash" He used to say. "Grapplers don't train for that and reate by quickly disengaging" he went on. " It's just a different mentality on the street" he always said, and I found him to be right.
Just my humble experience and opinion, and you know what everyone says about opinions. Whatever you do, enjoy your activity and have fun, and forget the "2 warriors goint at it scenario." That's a commercial. All fights DO NOT go to the ground. But if you choose to you can. I just don't think if you're in Compton (a local rough urban city) you like it down there, if you survive the experience.
