I really hope for your sake that you are never involved in a street fight, and especially not against anyone who has had some grappling training. As far as it not working in a "real" fight, I know better. It's saved my butt on at least one occasion, and helped me to avoid fights that were being escalated by the other party (Drunks can be fantastic peopleOriginally Posted by msg
), as a little pain compliance can "assist" them in seeing the error of their ways.
Not all grappling has to take you to ground (See: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/grapple ). Grappling is not the same as groundfighting. Granted the tournaments make it appear that way (grab -> go to ground -> submit), but there is a large variety of grappling techniques that can be applied while standing, not to mention if you get pinned to a wall/table/whatever. I do agree that groundfighting is should be avoided in a street fight if at all possible just because you never know who just might come up and kick you in the back of the head..lets face it your on the streets you want to end it as fast as you can no time to play around on the ground
That is the point of practice, so that you can seize the opportunities as they arise, same as striking. With striking you need to learn how to get around their defense and pick points that are open to your attacks and then strike them. With grappling, you need to be able to determine if you are most likely going to be able to get that grab and apply your technique. Different focal points, but both require practice, and neither one better than the other.any kind of MA was not meant to look like the movies or to stand and wait for a punch or a kick to grap
Something to keep in mind is that striking and grappling both require at least one of the same things, contact. You don't have to have super-human speed in order to get a hold of a hand/leg/arm/shirt/etc. Excluding grappling from your training is going to leave you with some severe holes in your defense.
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