When the Fight Goes to the Ground. Lori O'Connell

women of all shapes, sizes, and ages.

      As such police training has seen the emphasis move away from physical hands on combative style training to more of a reliance on the use of intermediate intervention options. The result is that during any arrest situations police officers bring weapons with them. Therefore during a ground fight, these weapons are difficult to access for the officer and could also be available for the subject to grab. Therefore, when you’re rolling around in the mud, the blood and the beer, the goal is not to submit but rather to control your suspect and get them handcuffed. Bad guys are learning to ground fight from watching television and would take extreme pleasure from making a cop “tap out.” Unfortunately, tapping out is not an option for a cop.

      As a martial artist of 35 years and 20+ year veteran police officer, I have found myself in many arrest situations where a suspect has wanted to hurt me or take me to the ground. My ability to recognize pre-attack threat cues and take action immediately has kept me safe. As a police officer the last place I want to be is on the ground. I am also a national level Public and Police Safety Instructor with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (R.C.M.P). As such, I have had the opportunity to participate and evaluate several ground fighting programs advertised as being for law enforcement. Many of these programs have simply taken the sport application and attempted to apply it to law enforcement, which is not that easy.

      I first met Lori O’Connell Sensei about 10 years ago when she moved to the Vancouver area of British Columbia, Canada. After meeting at several training seminars and camps that I had hosted, it was not difficult to recognize her enthusiasm and passion for jiu-jitsu and the martial arts. During these past 10 years she has become the highest ranking woman in Can-Ryu in all of Western Canada. To challenge herself and take her learning to the next level, she began to explore BJJ and MMA concepts related to ground fighting. Lori was also seeking how to incorporate this knowledge into the Can-Ryu system. Recognizing her talent and extreme energy for the topic, I personally asked her to review our curriculum’s existing ground defense techniques and see where improvements could be made. I did place one condition on her research; that the techniques had to be consistent with the existing principles of our style. Lori accepted the challenge and put her analytical to mind to work. Lori spent many hours trying out new techniques and counter tactics while taking her own physical attributes into consideration. You see, Lori is about 5’3” and weighs around 124 pounds, which means she cannot rely on her size to control someone, she has to rely on her technique.

      Lori conducted a seminar to demonstrate the techniques to our black belt instructors, the techniques were so well received that I decided to include them in our main curriculum.

      In my professional opinion, I believe the information you will find in this book to be extremely valuable to your safety and personal well-being. Any instructor who teaches self-defense should have this book in their resource library.

      —Steven Hiscoe Shihan

       8^th Degree Black Belt Can-Ryu Jiu-Jitsu Owner/Chief Instructor Hiscoe Jiu-Jitsu Vice –President Canadian Jiu-Jitsu Union Chilliwack, British Columbia

      Foreword by

       Jennifer Weintz

      Having trained in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu (BJJ) for over 10 years, I’ve developed a long-standing love affair with the cerebral nature of the art. I love the ebb and flow of two energies merging as the roles of attacker and defender shift back and forth in an extended physical chess match. The artistry of the style is something I’ve come to appreciate over the years the more I’ve tuned in to its subtleties through many countless hours of developing my craft.

      The focus of my grappling training has been primarily competition oriented, but I am fully aware that these same ground fighting techniques are also useful in real-life self-defense scenarios. As a smaller woman, I’ve learned how to “take the path of least resistance” and use speed, agility and finesse to hold my own. That being said, there are important factors to defending one’s self on the street that aren’t present in the competitive arena. This naturally raises questions like: What if my attacker tried to kick me in head? What if my attacker pulled a knife? What if there was more than one attacker? What if my attacker is so much bigger and stronger than me that finesse isn’t enough?

      Lori O’Connell answers these questions and many more in this book, addressing issues that are not always regularly discussed in submission grappling schools. It provides a complete look at all the major positions and defensive situations, with detailed, easy-to-follow instruction that walks you through every move step-by-step, making it an ideal choice for learning practical, effective techniques for real-life self-protection.

      Over the course of my training, I’ve discovered the importance of keeping an open mind and learning from people of all walks of life to refine and add to my set of skills. Both men and women, beginners and experts, people with training in BJJ and even other martial art styles can have something to offer. An opportunity to learn can always be found. Being a smaller woman herself, Lori knows what it’s like to be at a physical disadvantage and understands what it takes to overcome it to escape dangerous situations, ones you may not necessarily be able to “tap” your way out of. So if you’re looking to learn to make the most of a bad situation, fighting from the ground without rules or refs to keep you safe, and the odds stacked against you, you’ve come to the right place.

      —Jennifer Weintz

       Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Brown Belt

       2-time Pan-American Champion

      Introduction

      On November 12, 1993, the UFC made its debut with the Gracie family introducing their style of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu (BJJ) to the world. This event changed the martial arts world forever. Prior to that time, the vast majority of martial arts schools focused solely on stand-up styles, with little, if any, coverage on what to do if a fight goes to the ground. While the UFC started in 1993, it took a few years before it started to become more mainstream, but by the end of the 90s, BJJ schools started popping up all over North America, and throughout the world.

      The publicity the Gracie family received for their style was massive. Suddenly, everyone wanted to learn this “new” art that had stepped up against representatives of a variety of styles in a “no rules” competitive format, beating them out one by one. The average Joe saw BJJ as the new “ultimate” fighting system. People flocked to BJJ schools in droves.

      As the years went by, the nature of the UFC changed. Competitors came to realize the deficiencies of training in a single martial arts style. Competitors learned that they needed to train in multiple styles and have a mix of skills including stand-up striking, throws/takedowns, and ground fighting, in order to compete effectively in UFC fights. It no longer pitted one style against another. It evolved to create a new breed of martial art, simply called Mixed Martial Arts or “MMA.” The Gracie family no longer dominated the UFC ring, but BJJ would always have a place in MMA as the ground grappling aspect, which people came to commonly refer to as “Jiu-jitsu.”

      Origins of Can-ryu Jiu-jitsu

      The year the UFC began was the same year I started my martial arts career. At that time, I was completely unaware of the existence of UFC and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. The only jiu-jitsu I had ever heard of was Japanese jiu-jitsu, and the style I signed up to learn was one such variant, known as Can-ryu Jiu-jitsu or “Canadian Style of Jiu-jitsu.” This style combined stand-up striking, throws/ takedowns, joint locks, ground combat and weapon defense. It was a “mixed” martial art before the term came to carry different connotations, created by Professor Georges Sylvain, a “mixed martial artist” in his own right.

      Now retired, Professor Sylvain holds a 10^th degree black belt in jiu-jitsu, 4^th degree black belt in karate, and has also trained extensively in Western boxing and judo. A Black Belt Hall of Fame inductee, he has also been acclaimed by the martial arts community for his pioneering work in developing and innovating training methods for the sport of kickboxing. In addition to his martial arts training background,