Turn Your Grappling Moves into Street Fighting Moves
Can grappling moves prepare you for a real fight?
Here are a couple of drills to turn your grappling moves into street-fight readiness:
First, lets take a look at preparing for a fight against multiple opponents.
Bearing in mind that it's ALWAYS hard to deal with more than one opponent, it's something you want to prepare for the best you can.
One of my students had a situation where a "free for all" brawl broke out at the pool hall where he was bartending. He only had a bit of grappling experience, but here's how his grappling moves came in handy.
He ended up on his back, with one of the brawlers in the "back mount" (he had his back). He managed to get into a corner, and he essentially used his opponent as a "human shield," avoiding getting kicked and beaten himself long enough to survive the brawl.
Here's a drill that will prepare you to deal with more than one opponent:
1. Tell your grappling partner NOT to defend the way a trained grappler would. The guy on the street isn't likely to be a trained submission fighter and if he is, then you're pretty much screwed in a multi-man situation anyway and need to get to your feet.
2. Have a 3rd person move around you and your partner, attempting to (lightly) strike only you. Your goal is to shield yourself as much as possible with your grappling partner, even if only temporarily until you can get to your feet.
Next, let's take a look what to do if your opponent has a knife.
If you find yourself in a street fight, there's a good chance your opponent may have a knife, gun or club.
Here's a drill you can add into your grappling routine so you'll be ready:
Have your partner use a rubber knife while you're working your grappling moves. At first, you're going to get "cut" quite a bit and you'll realize you need to modify your grappling.
But after 2 or 3 sessions, you're going to find yourself controlling the weapon more and more while STILL controlling your opponent with your grappling.
I've trained police this way, and they've always felt their "real world" skills improved quickly.
What drills do you use to turn your grappling moves into street fighting moves?
Share your suggestions below:
Here are a couple of drills to turn your grappling moves into street-fight readiness:
First, lets take a look at preparing for a fight against multiple opponents.
Bearing in mind that it's ALWAYS hard to deal with more than one opponent, it's something you want to prepare for the best you can.
One of my students had a situation where a "free for all" brawl broke out at the pool hall where he was bartending. He only had a bit of grappling experience, but here's how his grappling moves came in handy.
He ended up on his back, with one of the brawlers in the "back mount" (he had his back). He managed to get into a corner, and he essentially used his opponent as a "human shield," avoiding getting kicked and beaten himself long enough to survive the brawl.
Here's a drill that will prepare you to deal with more than one opponent:
1. Tell your grappling partner NOT to defend the way a trained grappler would. The guy on the street isn't likely to be a trained submission fighter and if he is, then you're pretty much screwed in a multi-man situation anyway and need to get to your feet.
2. Have a 3rd person move around you and your partner, attempting to (lightly) strike only you. Your goal is to shield yourself as much as possible with your grappling partner, even if only temporarily until you can get to your feet.
Next, let's take a look what to do if your opponent has a knife.
If you find yourself in a street fight, there's a good chance your opponent may have a knife, gun or club.
Here's a drill you can add into your grappling routine so you'll be ready:
Have your partner use a rubber knife while you're working your grappling moves. At first, you're going to get "cut" quite a bit and you'll realize you need to modify your grappling.
But after 2 or 3 sessions, you're going to find yourself controlling the weapon more and more while STILL controlling your opponent with your grappling.
I've trained police this way, and they've always felt their "real world" skills improved quickly.
What drills do you use to turn your grappling moves into street fighting moves?
Share your suggestions below: