Live Grappling

With live grappling, you get instant feedback. You immediately find out if the technique being applied to your opponent works or doesn’t work. Refer to point 6 in my previous post.

Last night’s groundfighting night reviewed last week’s hip heist sweep from the closed guard position and the application of the Kimura arm lock. In addition, other sweeps were introduced that dealt with an opponent that has mounted you.

One of the drills involved having your partner - wearing boxing gloves - mount you. You had to lie flat on your back with your arms spread eagle. Your partner was allowed to punch you two times. After the two punches, you were to protect yourself from the additional punches and then try to sweep your partner. Once you swept your partner, the roles were reversed.

Another drill had your partner in your closed guard. Punches were thrown and you had to sweep your partner and then get up and get away by throwing punches at vital targets.

During the second hour of training, an additional technique was added to our toolbox, the guillotine. We practiced it from our closed guard position and used it to facilitate a sweep as opposed to a submission. The principle here was to try to escape first instead of rolling around on the ground wrestling with your attacker.

When we finished practicing our techniques, we started to free roll with our partners. This is the time period where the rubber meets the road and you find out if you can apply the techniques that you have learned. When you change partners, you find out what may have worked on your previous partner won't work on the current one. You must adapt and adjust. That's live grappling.