In last week’s classes we looked at the process of a reality based fight/assault going to ground; of how a fight that ends up there starts from standing and then goes through a “transition phase”, where one person often remains standing whilst the other ends up on their back. This week we go a step/stage further and look at ground-fighting or as I prefer to term it from a reality perspective “Ground survival” i.e. survive this stage in order to get back up to your feet to continue the fight.

The means by which people end up on the ground actually split Judo into two styles: Kodokan Judo and Kosen Judo (sometimes referred to as Koshen). In Kodokan Judo – that which is now the Olympic sport etc  - a practitioner has to execute or at the least attempt a legitimate throw before they follow up their attack with groundwork. In Kosen/Koshen Judo, this isn’t the case; a person can literally drag their opponent to ground or “pull guard” from a standing position and then continue the fight on the ground. It will come as no surprise that the Gracie’s originally learnt their Ju-Jitsu as Kosen Judo. BJJ/Brazilian Ju-Jitsu/Gracie Ju-Jitsu is an evolution of this particular style of Judo (the Gracie’s learnt Judo from Maeda, and Helio Gracie himself was defeated by Kimura, a Kosen/Koshen Judo practitioner). There truly is nothing new under the sun! It was the Japanese who created the Omoplata, the Guard and the Half Guard etc; the Gracie’s simply built and added to this foundation creating what has become a sophisticated and highly technical system of ground-fighting. Something that should be commended and celebrated; too often the “art” side of the martial arts isn’t celebrated or trained enough.

It is the “art” which brings and develops the skills which in turn leads to the effectiveness of the techniques, which will work on the street. This is why we train Krav Maga, as an “art” - I challenge you to find a school that teaches reality based self-defense from the technical/detailed perspective that we do. There is a difference between simplicity and being simplistic etc. This week you will study groundwork from a reality based perspective and add in various perspectives that are often not considered e.g. a person pulls a knife or is aided by multiple attackers etc.

                Today we will start putting the ground-survival piece into the mix. We will look at what happens when a person does end up on the ground with you. Whilst not the norm it is certainly a situation you will want to be able to deal with. We will look at the various ground positions and discuss why/how they could result from a standing position. We will see why BJJ practitioners favor and view the Guard and why this became the dominant ground position in their system (a direct result of the rules of the Kosen/Koshen Judo system) and why Scarf Hold (Kes-a-gatamae) is the most common Judo “start” position. We will then tie all of this together and present the reality perspective and position. In short we will look at both the “art” and the “reality”, adding in knife and multiple assailants. I look forward to seeing you on the mats.