One day, a female acquaintance which has not trained in martial arts asked me during a coffee break, “What’s Brazilian Jiu Jitsu?”
After giving a brief explanation, she asked me one another question, “Well, all martial arts that I saw started from a standing position, but what if someone held you down while you were on the ground?”
Dumbfounded, and praying she’s alright, I asked, “Why?”
Apparently, her best friend had just seen a lawyer to file a Domestic Violence case, and my friend was being told a very graphic description of what had happened - he sneaked into her room while she was sleeping and began by holding her to the bed with one leg between hers, one arm covering her mouth and the other around her pelvis.
While I will not go into details on the outcome of the ordeal, there are a number of points that I'd like to point out on this conflict from a self-defense perspective.
Firstly, based on the description of the incident that I was told, the position is strikingly similar to half guard. With neither of them had any background on the grappling arts, the position was achieved rather “instinctively” by the assailant, showing that the positions that we learn on sparring sessions are very much real and applicable to real situations.
Secondly, the above situation shown that, unlike the common belief, there are situations where fights do start on the ground with absolutely no chance of maintaining stand up position, showing more importance of having groundfighting as part of the self defense arsenal. More importantly, when such situations happen, it is very likely that the situation starts with the assailant positioned on top and the victim on the back, which proves that there is a huge advantage of having knowledge on BJJ. Why? As most probably aware, BJJ syllabus provide wide array of defensive and offensive movements with the practitioner lying on their backs – ranging from a hold to maintain position to reversals and even submissions.
Thirdly, while women should benefit more from BJJ as BJJ is meant to overcome stronger and larger opponents with technique, personally I find it quite ironic that I’ve encountered relatively fewer female practicing BJJ, both in percentage and in number, compared to other martial arts which I had trained in or seen. Most are uncomfortable being in close contact with the opposite sex during training, find it overwhelming to go against the guys, or simply sees no need for martial arts or self-defense training (and join a martial arts class for the aerobic part and being part of a trend).
So, next time you’re wondering if all those hard work drilling the techniques into the back of your head really works in real-life situations, and not only for the tournaments, remember this scenario. When people are wondering why we start sparring on the ground and whether there are self-defense scenarios start on the ground, remember this scenario. When people start question as of why women should learn self defense – especially with having their loved ones to protect them, remember this scenario, where the assailant is the one that supposedly protect the victim.
After giving a brief explanation, she asked me one another question, “Well, all martial arts that I saw started from a standing position, but what if someone held you down while you were on the ground?”
Dumbfounded, and praying she’s alright, I asked, “Why?”
Apparently, her best friend had just seen a lawyer to file a Domestic Violence case, and my friend was being told a very graphic description of what had happened - he sneaked into her room while she was sleeping and began by holding her to the bed with one leg between hers, one arm covering her mouth and the other around her pelvis.
While I will not go into details on the outcome of the ordeal, there are a number of points that I'd like to point out on this conflict from a self-defense perspective.
Firstly, based on the description of the incident that I was told, the position is strikingly similar to half guard. With neither of them had any background on the grappling arts, the position was achieved rather “instinctively” by the assailant, showing that the positions that we learn on sparring sessions are very much real and applicable to real situations.
Secondly, the above situation shown that, unlike the common belief, there are situations where fights do start on the ground with absolutely no chance of maintaining stand up position, showing more importance of having groundfighting as part of the self defense arsenal. More importantly, when such situations happen, it is very likely that the situation starts with the assailant positioned on top and the victim on the back, which proves that there is a huge advantage of having knowledge on BJJ. Why? As most probably aware, BJJ syllabus provide wide array of defensive and offensive movements with the practitioner lying on their backs – ranging from a hold to maintain position to reversals and even submissions.
Thirdly, while women should benefit more from BJJ as BJJ is meant to overcome stronger and larger opponents with technique, personally I find it quite ironic that I’ve encountered relatively fewer female practicing BJJ, both in percentage and in number, compared to other martial arts which I had trained in or seen. Most are uncomfortable being in close contact with the opposite sex during training, find it overwhelming to go against the guys, or simply sees no need for martial arts or self-defense training (and join a martial arts class for the aerobic part and being part of a trend).
So, next time you’re wondering if all those hard work drilling the techniques into the back of your head really works in real-life situations, and not only for the tournaments, remember this scenario. When people are wondering why we start sparring on the ground and whether there are self-defense scenarios start on the ground, remember this scenario. When people start question as of why women should learn self defense – especially with having their loved ones to protect them, remember this scenario, where the assailant is the one that supposedly protect the victim.
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