How grappling compliments your WC is totally up to you. I would recommend going into any grappling class with the attitude not of becoming a master grappler in that style but of pulling out the lessons which apply to you. After all wasn't it Bruce Lee who said "...absorb what is usefull..."?

Some of the posts have made reference to the fact that Judo and BJJ rely alot on grabbing a heavy GI top which one's opponent will not be wearing on the street. Some schools of jujutsu have the philosophy that the highest form or level of grappling is to be able to grapple w/o the use of ones hands. What they mean by this is that your hands should not be busy trying to grab or hold your opponent ( hot summer day, sweaty thug not wearing a shirt ) but instead should be free to strike your opponent. Which leads me into my next comment...

Should there be a distinction between grappling and striking? Is there a fine line between the two? Sometimes I get the impression that people have 2 mindsets. The first is the "grapple" mindset and the other is the "strike" mindset. What about a third option? The option of continually striking throughout the grappling technique?

All comments welcome,

A freelance ninja [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]