Thursday, November 6, 2008

Groundfighting Night

Wednesday night was the inauguration of our training center’s groundfighting night. Sometime ago, groundfighting was offered as an additional class. And more recently, we had a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class that overlapped an all levels Krav Maga class on Wednesdays.

The new groundfighting night is dedicated to groundfighting for the entire night. This class augments the rotating Krav Maga groundfighting curriculum that is taught in the each Krav Maga level. The techniques that are being taught are from various grappling disciplines… primarily Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu… but in keeping with Krav Maga’s guiding principles.

From the book Complete Krav Maga:
A Note on Krav Maga’s Approach to groundfighting: Whether you are proficient on the ground or not, our main objective during a groundfight always remains the same: to get up as quickly as possible! During groundfights, you are extremely vulnerable to a second attacker, or to stabs if the opponent produces an edged/pointed weapon.
The bottom line is that you do not want to go to the ground if you can help it. However, you may get pushed, tripped, thrown or slip and end up there. When you are there, you want to know what to do to protect yourself and be able to get up and get away.

The first hour concentrated on the basic fundamentals of groundfighting. In the second hour, we learned an escape and reversal technique to use when someone is on top of you and you have him or her in your full guard (your legs wrapped around your opponent’s midsection). We also learned how to apply an arm/shoulder lock called a Kimura (a lock named after Masahiko Kimura, a judo expert who fought in the 1950s).
The second hour ended with us practicing the techniques we learned. First, we practiced with our partner and then every 90 seconds, we had to switch partners. The instructors rotated themselves into the mix, which added some stress to the drills.

The third hour was designated as “free rolling” time. You got a chance to get some more practice in or a little more instruction.

From the book Advanced Krav Maga:

...in krav maga, whatever we do from an upright position, we do from a ground position, with modifications and with weight properly positioned. Just as there are no rules in an "up" fight, there are no rules in a "down" fight.
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