About a week ago, (July 23, 2005), the following was posted on Mike’s Forum under the title: “Will be stealing this.”

 

I will have to mumble this every night before I pass out, “Dear Lord, please let me fight someone this stupid one day.  And give me the strength to rape him in every way that a man can be raped.  Amen.”  (A quote my brother Eric made in the “Everybody was kung fu fighting…” post: http://michaeldescado.tripod.com/id111.html)  By the way, your brother’s club looks very chill, (not one but TWO brown belts).  I have put it on my list of clubs to one day visit.  How long as your brother been training?  How do the two of you compare grappling-wise?  For some reason, I assume your style to be very different than his.  Take care, MC.

 

Hi MC,

 

Eric has been training with the Gracie’s for about three years, (I think), and I’d imagine that his school is one of the best in America.  In the venue of technical grappling, and the effective execution of leverage, there’s just no beating the Gracie’s, and Relson is a patriarch of sorts within their little clan.  The atmosphere my brother describes is one of camaraderie rather than conflict, and that’s sooooo important to facilitating a productive learning environment. 

 

Contrastingly, a lot of Mixed Martial Arts schools, (that teach both grappling AND striking), are slaughterhouses, where injuries are common and practitioners are violently forced to sink or swim, rather than being allowed to learn at their own pace.  Such schools often produce “tough” fighters instead of “skilled” fighters, and while the merits of both can be argued objectively, technique will usually beat tenacity when size and strength are equal.

 

Let me make it clear right now that [Super Asskicker’s] club is not a slaughterhouse.  Yes, what we do can be classified as MMA, but the atmosphere is equally productive because [Super Asskicker] himself is an awesome teacher.  And when I say “teacher” I mean that literally, (he taught middle school for something like 16 years). 

 

As to how my brother and I stack up, well, that’s not an easy thing to compare since neither of us are pure.  We’ve been training in various martial arts disciplines since first or second grade, and I even remember the two of us wearing our karate gi’s to school when we attended Matty Akin Elementary, (Hey!  It was the late seventies, and nobody cared).

 

The last time we grappled, which was a couple of years ago, I was hindered by my lack of cardiovascular stamina, and Eric was hindered by my much greater weight.  He hadn’t been training with the Gracie’s that long, (6-8 months, I’m guessing), but his defensive skills were already fantastic, and we pretty much cancelled each other out.

 

This is a great testament to the power of ground fighting, because- given the fact that I’d already been grappling for years at the time- I should’ve handed him his own ass.  I didn’t.  And this is also one of the great weaknesses of ground fighting… a little bit goes a long way. 

 

A lot of what makes grappling so deadly is the fact that human beings tend to react in a specific number of ways when taken down.  These reactions can be categorized as “feeds”, and a trained grappler relies on said feeds to employ his craft.  For example, if you manage to bring a guy to the mat and mount him, after the “going apeshit” phase ends, he’ll usually either roll over, (thus exposing his neck to a choke), or try to push you off, (thus facilitating an arm/shoulder lock). 

 

Far from rocket science, a grappler knows exactly what the possibilities are, and he’s practiced taking advantage of them hundreds and hundreds of times with a live and fully resisting partner.  Ah, but this is a double edged sword, because if you know what NOT to do, the grappler is deprived of his feeds, and a stalemate ensues. 

 

For this reason, if you put two grapplers of the same height, weight, strength, etc., against one another, it turns into a chess match… EVEN if there’s a fair gap in relative skill level.  Why?  Because, again, the lesser of the two knows what not to do.

 

Here’s where the differences between my brother and I come into play.  Either of us can RUIN THE SHIT of some redneck off the street that doesn’t know dick about the ground.  Either of us could do it with pure grappling.  But against another grappler, Eric has the advantage because he can play chess on the concrete.  He knows counters to counters to counters; where as my own arsenal is very basic, and more brutal than technical.

 

In a very “Jeet Kune Do” kind of way, I’ve tailored my fighting style to the things I do well, those techniques that fit my body type and natural ability.  I’m not saying [Super Asskicker] doesn’t teach it all, because he does.  It’s just that I spend my outside-of-class training time honing weapons with which I’m already proficient. 

 

To give a pure grappling scenario, I usually lock up, do some kind of passing maneuver that allows me to grab my opponent around the waist from behind, and then take ‘em down by way of an ugly but effective throw, sweep, suplex or body slam.  From there I get the side mount, (which works better for me than the full mount, and- if I do say so myself- is damn near inescapable once I dig in), and then throttle my opponent’s neck with my forearm until they give me the feed I need for a shoulder dislocation.

 

On the other hand, if I’M the one that gets taken down, I’m shrimp crawling as soon as my butt hits the floor, and I usually have my opponent in the guard before they realize their takedown attempt actually worked.  From there, I’ll try to win defensively with an armlock, triangle choke, (legs OR arms), or heel hook.  That last one, (a heel hook from the guard), is hard to explain, so I won’t go into it here. 

 

Regardless, if none of that works, I’ll usually go on the offensive and try to upend my adversary with an elevator, scissor sweep, or well-timed wrestling bridge.  If successful, I get the top position, and we’re right back to the paragraph above.

 

Most of the time, these simple strategies (and others like them) work for me against fellow grapplers.  Sure, strength plays a large part in it, but that’s an attribute I have.  No apologies.   

 

Eric’s arsenal, by comparison, is far more vast, and not dependent on strength or size.  Like I said before, he has counters to counters to counters, and he’s probably confident with each and every one of ‘em since the lion’s share of his training time is devoted solely to ground fighting.  And not just with run-of-the-mill grapplers, but WORLD CLASS grapplers, against whom you absolutely HAVE to know the chess game in order to win. 

 

Which one is better for street fighting?  Well, as long as we’re talking about pure grappling, it makes no difference against 99% of the potential opponents out there.  Alas, against that 1% who are truly skilled, Eric’s philosophy reigns supreme.  He can deal with an opponent that knows what not to do, where as I cannot with pure grappling, (though I can certainly “deal” with elbows, knees and headbutts).  

 

Eric and I will be meeting up in October for a family vacation, and I’m sure we’ll get some good mat time in.  Given the fact that I outweigh him by 50 pounds, I’ll probably be able to orchestrate another stalemate despite the fact that his technical understanding of ground fighting has far surpassed my own.  That’s only in street clothes, by the way.  If we wear gi’s, Eric will ass rape me like Ned Beatty in Deliverance.  Wearing a gi changes everything, which is why Judo guys are so dangerous in the winter time.  God help you if a Judo player gets a hold of your thick-collared leather bomber jacket, ‘cause you’ll be hitting the sidewalk two seconds later.

 

I hope I’ve answered your question, MC, but I don’t want to end without stating the obvious.  Every martial discipline has its limitations, and for Gracie jiu-jitsu, this comes in the realm of technical striking.  Anybody that’s seen the early UFC’s knows that Royce Gracie can hit.  All the Gracie’s can, I’d guess, but only in a very narrow venue.  Against opponents that can throw knuckles as well as they can roll, the Gracie’s have started to falter in No Holds Barred competition. 

 

In my personal opinion, this has to do with a lack of fluid footwork from which punches and kicks can be thrown safely.  And by “safely”, I mean in such a way that takedowns can be avoided/countered.

 

Since a lot of what [Super Asskicker] teaches comes from Jeet Kune Do, (with respect to striking, at least), I’ve come across a lot of JKD practitioners in the last eight years.  Almost without exception, ground fighting is NOT a part of their curriculum.  Instead, they train what’s often referred to as “anti-grappling”, wherein you train NOT to get taken down so that punches and kicks can still be thrown from a standing position.

 

I generally characterize this manner of thinking as horseshit. 

 

There’s no such thing as anti-grappling.  You can either fight on the ground or you can’t, and the hardest opponent for a grappler to take down, is another grappler.  To look at it any other way is to ignore the worst case, (more like probable case), scenario.  You simply cannot train with the perspective that you won’t end up on your back.  Oh yeah, Tim Tackett, it’s GONNA happen, and the Gracie’s have proven it time and time again in NHB matches.

 

That being said, you can’t really train anti-striking either, because guys can do both nowadays.  While a little bit of grappling goes a long way, the same doesn’t apply to striking.  Don’t ask me why, because, honestly, I don’t know, but it takes much longer to become an effective striker.  Perhaps it has to do with the larger amount of variables, the exponentially greater number of possible scenarios, but the timing and footwork required to hit from a moving and elusive base is a combative attribute few possess. 

 

Here, now, in 2005 America, there are hundreds of thousands that have become proficient in ground fighting.  But in the venue of MMA at least, (where you’ve got to know it all), the number of genuinely proficient strikers is only a fraction by comparison.       

 

When confronted, I hit first.  Period.  There’s no debate, no shit talking.  If the situation is such where I feel I’m in physical danger, BAM!!!  …Leading Straight Punch. 

 

As [Super Asskicker] puts it, victory in a fight will usually go to the combatant who unleashes the most brutal amount of force in the shortest amount of time. 

 

Just recently he demoed this concept in class…. on me… thus rushing in behind elbows and knees thrown at about one quarter strength.  Nevertheless, I was bowled over, I was helpless, I was all, “OHFUCKOHSHITOHCHRIST!!!” 

 

Once he’d gained the initiative, I was hurled into the realm of anal peniletry.

 

A pure grappler doesn’t often get to take the initiative, at least not with the same explosive/conclusive vehemence.  I’m not saying that jiu-jitsu throws and jiu-jitsu takedowns can’t be explosive.  They can.  I’m just saying that they’re usually predicated upon the opponent.  In other words, pure grapplers often react to aggression… rather than acting first to negate it.

 

This is why I’d rather train enough grappling to hold my own, and spend the rest of the time striking.  And when I say “striking”, I’m not talking only about kickboxing.  I’m talking about combative hitting, which is nonexistent in traditional kung fu, karate, and taekwondo, (western boxing too, to a lesser degree).  In a street fight, the ability to take a guy out instantaneously is an incredible advantage.

 

By the way, Eric can hit.  As I mentioned before, neither of us are “pure”, and my brother can punch harder than most guys twice his size.  When we meet up in October, I’ll be learning a lot from him in the venue of grappling, but he’ll likewise be learning footwork from me.  Elusive, circular footwork is (in my opinion) the element in which Gracie jiu-jitsu is most lacking.  A guy that can move and hit simultaneously, (or move and shoot simultaneously), is a complete fighter, and much harder to punch or takedown than a purest of either separate discipline.

 

All this aside, MC, what I think you were trying to ask is how what I train is different from what my brother trains.  Ultimately, it boils down to this…  I work constantly to improve my chances of surviving a street confrontation against an opponent or opponents who possess the advantage of size, strength, speed, tenacity, and/or cardiovascular stamina.  While most of that involves basic kickboxing, jiu-jitsu and catch-as-catch-can wrestling, I employ trickery, deception, and so called “dirty fighting” to accomplish this end.  When outclassed in a real fight, I have no reservations about biting, eye gouging, hair pulling, spitting, or scrotal asphyxiation- and I ACTUALLY TRAIN such things.  I also train to get sucker-punched, which you can read about more in the “Me, on self defense” post:

 

http://michaeldescado.tripod.com/id60.html

 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a bully, (at least I hope not), and I would never “unleash the fury” on an opponent of lesser skill who I could just as easily beat with a simple jab/cross.  But when the shit hits the fan, I don’t have to stop and contemplate the morality of doing something malicious or dishonorable- I already know I would.  I’ve done it before, and I continue to cultivate said techniques as if they were no different, no less principled.

 

In talking with Eric, I know for a fact that he embraces the same philosophy… at least in theory.  He would never dismiss the merit of wrapping a raw steak in a tee shirt to practice combat-effective biting with the back teeth rather than the front.  He would never dismiss hitting a punching bag with outstretched fingers so he could develop enough phalangial sturdiness to deliver an eye gouge with the same force with which he could a closed-fisted jab.

 

He understands, but he doesn’t train that way.  He doesn’t train to beat the dregs of society against which I’m often pitted because of my bar-hopping lifestyle.  Instead, he trains to beat other masters, men of supreme technical prowess- like his fellow classmates.  The skills he’s developed against THEM puts him head and shoulders above your average tavern thug, and I’d imagine that Eric could make short work of such idiots in much the same way that Royce Gracie dominated his opponents in the first UFC’s.

 

To argue which is better is an exercise in futility, since there’s no such thing as a stereotypical attacker.  There are assholes walking the earth right now that could beat my ass, yet that Eric could take to the ground and choke retarded… and visa versa. 

 

There are no absolutes in combat, which is why the two of us will continue to learn as long as we’re physically able- both from outside sources, and from each other.  When all is said and done, we’re equally lucky in the cards we’ve been dealt, because our martial philosophies- while different- are nonetheless superior to the majority of people training.

 

Then again, sometimes you just get your ass kicked…  Write that down.