zaner said:
yep. Anyone who says BJJ was designed for street fighting needs to nut up and start using it in the street so they can get the same wake up call you did. Street fights are anything but fair. Think of taking a guy down and working some GnP or sub shit and then getting stabbed fifty times by the knife the guy pulled while you were passing the guard or working for the mount. Pulling knife and stabbing takes no practice and ,I know, most people arent going to pull guard in the street but regardless, rolling around on gravel and broken glass is not my idea of efficiently winning a fight.
Now lets talk about armbars and other jointlocks in the street. You think some methed out bastard gives a rats ass you just hypered his elbow? If youve rolled that long you know that with a little adrenaline an injured joint wont even register until after the sparring match. Now add crank, or PCP and one hell of a mad on and you got a guy that laughs as you jointlock him into hell. CHOKES are the only sure bet in a street fight as far as grappling is concerned. In the words of Frank Shamrock "If I have someone in my guard, it's because I can't get up."
Oh sweet jesus.
First of all there have been many accounts of people using BJJ 'On Teh Str33t'. I think David Camarillo and his brothers have a few good stories on the internet, BJ Penn has a couple. And off the top of my head I recently read a headline about a BJJ'er destroying a guy who broke into his house. I think that was last month.
Rolling around on gravel and broken glass? LOL. WTF? What about the lava? And the cliffs? Get a grip. Your preconceived notion that 'teh streets' = some random parking lot needs to dispelled.
And jointlocks on the street not being applicable or efficient?
Tough to chase you you with a broken knee/foot. LOL @ 'The PCP defense', ever been attacked by someone on PCP? Maybe a drunk. Definately not the same thing. Buddy, if they are on PCP no matter what you are going to do is going to have little effect. Even the feared Muay Thai isn't going to help you here.
And as a final note I laugh at the idea that BJJ self defense = pulling guard. OMFG lame. BJJ is designed to allow you to fight from the worst possible position, not to encourage you to be there. If you happen to find yourself in the worst possible position you can fight. Period. More than likely you got blindsided and knocked down before you knew what happened. Can you fight from here? Obviously you will have to try. Think of it as reverse-engineering the fight. Pick the worst spot and learn to deal with it, everything else will be gravy.
Now for my own thoughts.
Most fights aren't duels to the death. They are generally escalated confrontations of varying degree. And not all responses should be dealt with with deadly or extreme force. A guy shoves you at the 7-11 does not warrant a couple of hooks and 5 knees to the head. Your drunk uncle/brother starting a shoving match in the front yard doesn't require you smash his face in. In many of these cases people just need to be restrained or stopped. Legally, morally, and civily BJJ can often be THE art for this kind of thing. Throwing your drunk uncle on the ground in side control until he gets tired of struggling is probably going to be the BEST option. Again, not every 'street fight' is some mano-a-mano duel. And if you start smashing some fools head in, no matter how good your story is - you are going to jail. A police officer is probably going to be much more forgiving if your knuckles aren't bloody, and the guys face doesn't look like hamburger.
Just something to think about.
