The Mutual Benefit of Live Grappling

Live grappling can be fun and it provides instant feedback as was mentioned in a previous post. Moreover, there are mutual benefits to be derived when you roll (wrestle) with your training partner.

We started the first hour of this week's groundfighting class with some games to warm us up.

Game 1: Cowboys and Horses

One person is the cowboy and that person goes to one end of the floor. Everybody else is a horse and goes to the opposite end of the floor. The horses attempt to crawl, on all fours, to the far end of the floor while the cowboy, crawling on all fours, attempts to pin an oncoming horse to the floor. If a horse is pinned to the floor, then that horse becomes a cowboy for the next round.

Game 2: Tunnel Race

Players split into two teams. At one end of the floor, the teams line up in single file. All players spread their legs wide. The last person in the line drops down and belly crawls through the legs of everyone in their line and then stands up in front of the first person. Each player does the same thing until the team reaches the opposite end of the floor. Once the end is reached, the players repeat the process, but this time on their backs. The first team to go down the floor and back wins.

Drills

We always start our grappling from our knees. In this particular drill, two students were on their knees separated by a kicking shield. When the instructor gave the signal to begin, each student delivered punches, hammerfists and elbow strikes to the kicking shield (ground and pound). On the next signal by the instructor, students were to begin grappling with their training partner.

Another drill had two students on his/her knees facing each other. One student was wearing boxing gloves. When the instructor gave the signal to begin, the student wearing the boxing gloves started punching as well as grappling. The ungloved student had to defend, escape from, sweep or submit the attacking student.

Techniques

In our final hour, we reviewed the techniques learned from the past few weeks and then we started to free roll (wrestle using any techniques that we know).

When I roll, I seem to prefer arm chokes (rear naked, cobra, scissors, etc.). It’s probably because… at least for me… they are a lot easier to apply.

Depending on the situation, I have applied arm locks like the Kimura and Americana and on rare occasion, a straight arm bar. However, they seem to take a lot more work to setup... at least for me. Sometimes I even get away with applying an Achilles ankle lock!

When I am able to apply a particular technique to my training partner, repeatedly, I share what I am doing with him/her. The idea is to make my training partner as good as (s)he can be so that (s)he can help me get better also.

When I apply that same technique to my training partner in the future, (s)he is now aware of the technique and can avoid or defend against it. I now have to figure out another way to apply the technique. That raises my game. This is the mutual benefit of live grappling.