I had a student once asked me why many BJJ guys took muay thai classes for their standup skills. To answer that question, I believe this article from Kenny Florian's website answers the question perfectly:
http://kennyflorian.com/the-arts-of-mma/
Enjoy!
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Striking - an essential part of BJJ
After all the pre-fight trash talking from James “Lights Out” Toney’s and match against the old man Randy Couture, we’ve seen how Toney lived up his nickname during his fight on UFC 118, by getting close to “lights out” himself via Randy’s side choke in 3:19 into round 1 after taken down to the ground in less than 20 seconds. Trash talking James Toney aside, we’ve seen how striking is practically useless without the element of ground fighting in the world of MMA, which I believe to be the closest to the real world situation.
Now, let’s turn the tables around – how effective is BJJ without learning the striking element? True, most fights end up on the ground, but how many fights start on the ground? Close to none, I say (for exceptions, click here). Most fights will start when one of the parties start throwing strike(s), be it be headbutts, haymakers, elbows, while the clinch, takedown, and ground fighting happens after the initial strike.
Having said that, we need to know how to avoid and/or counter these strikes, and in order to properly do so, we need to learn how to strike properly and learn how strikers think. Without them, grappling art will be watered down into another sport and become useless in real life situations where we can face limitless possibilities.
The aspect of incorporating striking into grappling arts is the pressure that a grappler will face when facing a striker. The same as pure strikers will feel like fish out of the water once taken down to the ground, pure grapplers are not accustomed in taking hits and get disoriented easily when hit, forget the techniques, and open themselves up for a combo. I remember my first MMA fight in MMA Showdown 1 (click here for videos), and I remember getting so disoriented with Ivan’s punches raining down on me while I tried so hard trying to get him to the ground despite doing 6 years of BJJ at the time of the fight. I even got disoriented so much that I can’t even do technical standup properly.
However, implying striking into grappling does not necessarily mean transitioning from a grappler into other type of fighters. It simply adds another dimension of practicality into your grappling game. A prime example is Demian Maia on his fight on UFC 118 against Mario Miranda. He uses his striking to setup takedown and submissions instead of becoming another Anderson Silva and trying to look for a KO punch on Mario Miranda.
To conclude – striking is an essential part of as it introduces you into other aspects of self defense which are not met by simply grappling on competition mats, and these aspects are crucial in keeping BJJ effective where it really counts.
Now, let’s turn the tables around – how effective is BJJ without learning the striking element? True, most fights end up on the ground, but how many fights start on the ground? Close to none, I say (for exceptions, click here). Most fights will start when one of the parties start throwing strike(s), be it be headbutts, haymakers, elbows, while the clinch, takedown, and ground fighting happens after the initial strike.
Having said that, we need to know how to avoid and/or counter these strikes, and in order to properly do so, we need to learn how to strike properly and learn how strikers think. Without them, grappling art will be watered down into another sport and become useless in real life situations where we can face limitless possibilities.
The aspect of incorporating striking into grappling arts is the pressure that a grappler will face when facing a striker. The same as pure strikers will feel like fish out of the water once taken down to the ground, pure grapplers are not accustomed in taking hits and get disoriented easily when hit, forget the techniques, and open themselves up for a combo. I remember my first MMA fight in MMA Showdown 1 (click here for videos), and I remember getting so disoriented with Ivan’s punches raining down on me while I tried so hard trying to get him to the ground despite doing 6 years of BJJ at the time of the fight. I even got disoriented so much that I can’t even do technical standup properly.
However, implying striking into grappling does not necessarily mean transitioning from a grappler into other type of fighters. It simply adds another dimension of practicality into your grappling game. A prime example is Demian Maia on his fight on UFC 118 against Mario Miranda. He uses his striking to setup takedown and submissions instead of becoming another Anderson Silva and trying to look for a KO punch on Mario Miranda.
To conclude – striking is an essential part of as it introduces you into other aspects of self defense which are not met by simply grappling on competition mats, and these aspects are crucial in keeping BJJ effective where it really counts.
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