The Good Grappler....
I'm getting pretty sick of any thread I or other MMA types here post on getting the "good grappler," treatment from a select few. Or maybe I'm just hung over (true)
For what it's worth, here's a "good grappler..."
Will they know how to kick, punch, headbutt, knee, and elbow, with anything resembling the timing, finesse and mechanics of somebody who studies these things? Not necessarily. I look like a goon everytime I try to do those things. I'd love to show you guys a video of me trying to "stand-up" fight without clinching. You thought RALEK was entertaining....
They may not even know how to defend a strike of any kind, in any way beyond the normal guy walking down the street.
The nature of grappling lends itself well to full speed sparring. This tends to get you in pretty good shape, from a cardio, muscle strength, and flexibility perspective. Show me an out of shape grappler and I'll show you a new guy or a long training layoff.
A "good grappler," has, to my mind, two paramount abilities/qualities in spades.
--Excellent sensitivity to force vectors (energy) when compared to those who do not do a grappling intensive art, on both a visual and tactile level.
--Excellent skill in manipulating those vectors to achieve a desired result, when compared to those who do not do a grappling intensive art.
What I have found in my sparring experiences is that those who have not done a fair bit of REAL grappling (none of this 'we have grappling too!' crap, thanks) is that they have excellent visual sensitivity to force vectors, and are concious of taking angles, distance, timing, lines of attack and defense, and **** poor tactile sensitivity. The problem is that without tactile sensitivity, the above developed qualities are typically negated if the grappler can get hold of something well enough to start manipulating force vectors.
There is an over or under compensation for forces applied. There is a lack of understanding about how and when to create space or close it. There is an instinct to attack with strikes that have now been rendered ineffective because of balance disruption, rather than attend to the balance disruption FIRST and foremost, to the exclusion of attempting anything else.
I'm sure the answers are in your styles somewhere. But you have to work on those answers with somebody who really knows how to take you down (this actually eliminates a lot of BJJers...) I've always said the scariest person for me to fight is somebody with excellent takedown defenses, who has superb infighting weapons, if that's any help.
Anyway, hardly supermen--but they have a specialty in something that has to be learned about and dealt with, and not in a superficial way.
"In the world of martial arts, respect is often a given. In the real world, it must be earned."
"A stupid man's report of what a clever man says is never accurate because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand. "--Bertrand Russell
"Liberals - Cosmopolitan critics, men who are the friends of every country save their own. "--Benjamin Disraeli
"A conservative government is an organised hypocrisy."--Benjamin Disraeli