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You can have your attacker in an arm bar, a leg lock, or a choke and be ready to finish him or her, when you suddenly realize that there is a knife sticking in your side and piercing your kidney. At that moment, you realize that you will never realize anything again—ever.

For police officers, grappling may be a better choice when dealing with offenders. In this case, grappling does not necessarily mean going to the ground, it means using standup locks, chokes, and controlling techniques. Standing back and slugging it out with offenders is bad for several reasons:

• It takes too long. The offender gets more time to formulate an escape plan or to find a weapon. The officer may not be physically fit enough for a sustained fight.

• While using stand-off techniques, the officer's actions are more exposed to public view, such as to video recording. Standup grappling is more effective and permits an officer to gain control of the situation more quickly.

• It looks better. When viewed by the public, grappling techniques do not appear as violent and excessive as do punching and kicking techniques.

• Grappling helps limit the confrontation to a small area. A standup slug-out may move the officer away from his or her support network, such as vehicle, radio, other officers, etc.

• Standup grappling allows an officer to use the offender as a shield against other attackers. When using stand-off fighting, the officer is vulnerable to attacks by other attackers. The same is true for ground grappling; on the ground, the officer is vulnerable to kicks from other offenders.

In attempted rape situations, a woman should not take the fight to the ground since that is where the attacker wants to be. The woman should stay back, kick, punch, and escape as soon as possible. Since attackers are trying to get their victims to the ground, women should be trained in ground fighting so they may protect themselves and escape from hold-downs, but women are vulnerable on the ground against strong attackers. Ground fighting should be limited to just techniques that permit the woman to get back to her feet and run away.

When facing multiple attackers, do not to go to ground with an attacker. You will be vulnerable to life-threatening kicks from the other attackers.

In crowded or cramped places, grappling may be more effective but stay off the ground, since your movements on the ground are limited in these situations. If on the ground, fight from the bottom since the crowd will assume the one on top is the attacker. If they decide to intervene, they will go for the one they think is the attacker.

Conclusions

Master Ricardo Murgel, former coach of the Brazil National Jiujutsu team and now a world renown combat Jiujutsu Instructor, emphatically states that he will avoid going to the ground at all costs in a street situation. If you are not skilled in grappling, you should avoid it. However, sometimes you do not have a choice. In these cases, you should know some basic grappling techniques so you may defend against the grappling, escape, and get back to what you know best. Do not avoid training in grappling; instead, learn all you can.

Traditional martial arts were developed for combat or actual self-defense situations, while MMA was developed for NHB type sport fighting. This not to say that grappling is not needed in your self-defense training. In a real situation, if a real fight goes to the ground, you need to know how to defend yourself, escape, and then use the opportunity to run away.

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