Grappling

Grappling is a martial art that consists of grabbing, holding, pinning, locking, choking, etc., while on the ground. Grapplers may start standing and use some standing grappling techniques, but they quickly go to ground and mostly grapple there. As with any other martial art, to be an expert at grappling, you must study and train in grappling as a separate martial art.

In Taekwondo, to attempt to kick or punch an opponent, you execute the technique and quickly withdraw the leg or arm used in the attack. The attack may miss, may be blocked, or may hit its target. Either way, you are quickly back into your guard position and ready to try another technique. This is not the case in grappling. In grappling, every part of your body may be grabbed and used against you and, instead of standing, you are fighting in an unfamiliar place to humans, on the ground. Every time you attempt a technique in grappling, it may lead to your being pinned and incapacitated. You must fully commit yourself to every technique you attempt or it will surely fail. In addition, if it fails, you will have to fight yourself out of the situation before you may get back to your original guard position.

In grappling, even if you are fighting an inexperienced opponent, you constantly must deal with the opponent's mass and muscular strength. Think about how difficult it is to control a struggling two-year-old child, and then imagine trying to control a two-year-old child that is six-feet tall and weighs 200 pounds. Grappling is a very physically demanding martial art. You are in constant physical contact with your opponent. You are grabbing, pulling, pushing, and squeezing the opponent, and constantly dealing with the opponent's body.

Just with many other martial arts, grappling has a sport version and a combat version. There are numerous styles of sport grappling, such as wrestling, Brazilian Jiujutsu, Judo, and submission grappling. While the techniques of sport grappling may be used for self-defense, they were not designed for this use; they were designed for competition. Even in brutal no-holds-barred competitions, the fights are under controlled conditions with specific rules so the competitors are able to compete on another day.