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

height, weight, and body type create different challenges for each person when it comes to ground defense techniques. The challenges also change depending on the size and body type of your attacker. Different techniques work better for different people. While in this book, we strive to present techniques that will work best for the widest range of people, inevitably there are exceptions that may necessitate an altered approach. Or you may find advantages that are unique to you that serve to improve your defensive capabilities on the ground. Whatever the situation, experiment and improvise using the materials in this book and any other useful resources to find what works best for your unique body type.

      1. Petite Bodies. If you’re this body type, you are usually shorter, lighter, and weaker than the average attacker (for the purposes of this book, we assume that the average attacker is a man). Because your legs and arms are shorter, you are able to strike more effectively and move more freely when your limbs are not immobilized. If you try to use strength to fight strength, you will tire out quickly, making yourself less capable of mounting an effective defense. If you’re fully pinned and there is not an immediate and/or urgent need to escape, you may want to wait for opportunities in which you have more freedom of movement rather than fighting hard in a scenario that will exhaust you.

      2. Tall and Lanky Bodies. If you’re this body type, may find it more difficult to use your limbs strategically because they tend to be longer and harder to manuever in the confines of certain types of ground defense situations. You’ll likely need to use strikes to create more space so that you can more effectively use your body. Fortunately, when you have the space, the extra reach that your body type affords can make it easier to access targets that are farther away.

      3. Big and Broad Bodies. If you’re this body type, you probably won’t find ground defense very challenging when facing an average sized man without a skill advantage. You may not have the speed and flexibility that other body types are more likely to have, but you are more likely to be able to make up for that with mass and strength. Because of your breadth, you can more easily off-balance an attacker that is on top of you without using much strength. This is an ability that you should develop in your training whenever possible. Practice your ground defense skills against people who are closer to your own size (or bigger) whenever possible for the purposes of realism as this is more likely going to be situation on the street.

      Safety Practices in Training

      While we want to create as realistic an environment as practical when training, it is important to do so and still maintain the safety of all participants. No one wants to get an injury that will keep them from training whether it’s a small cut that interrupts their class in order to receive first aid, or a more serious joint injury that can keep them away for months. As such, we encourage everyone to follow the practices below to keep everyone safe.

      1. Tap early, tap often. If your partner achieves a strong submission position, don’t delay in tapping in the hopes of muscling your way out. If they have superior positioning, you risk injury by trying to force your way out. The best way to tap is to tap the person’s body, or if that is not possible, you can tap the mat very loudly. If tapping is impossible, or simply not fast enough, you can do so verbally by saying, “Tap!” or “Stop!”

      2. Stay relaxed and avoid using strength. When tousling on the ground, the tendency for an untrained person is to use frantic movements to fight the person off. This tendency should be avoided in training. Staying relaxed and avoiding the use of strength helps you conserve energy, makes you harder to move, helps you to see more opportunities, and keeps everyone safer as they train in ground defense. While this is a general training rule, and in a real self-protection scenario, there may be cases in which using frantic kicks with less abandon, what we call “going alley cat crazy,” in a forceful, all-out defense makes sense, particularly when the defender has little to no ground defense training (a concept we regularly teach in our women’s self-defense courses).

      3. Have fun and check macho attitudes at the door. Your training partner is your friend and is there to help you learn. Failing to get out of a hold or being tapped out is educational and will make you a better martial artist. Embrace these experiences and actively try to learn from them by asking questions and striving to improve your defensive capabilities. Having too much ego keeps you from learning and having fun.

      4. Wear protective equipment. When training in self-defense oriented ground combat, the groin is an often used target. In order to train strikes to the groin realistically and safely, students, both men and women, should wear groin protectors. When doing more live training drills, wearing a mouth guard is also a good idea for preventing incidental damage to mouth area and for absorbing some of the shock of accidental blows to the head/jaw.

      5. Keep your nails trimmed. Finger and toe nails can cause nasty cuts and gashes when doing ground defense training. Breaking a nail can also be quite painful. You should always keep your finger and toe nails trimmed and filed. A freshly cut nail that isn’t filed can be just as dangerous as a long nail.

      6. Maintain good hygiene. While this may seem obvious, not everyone realizes how far they have to go for training safety and comfort. Keep your body sensibly clean and keep your B.O. under control. Pay particular attention to the cleanliness of feet because you are in closer proximity of them during ground defense training. If you eat strong foods, brush your teeth or use a mouthwash/breath freshener before training. Lastly, keep your uniform clean. Don’t just leave it in your bag after a sweaty session. The next time you open your bag, the smell will be appalling. If you had a light session, you might be able to get away with just hanging your uniform up to air out, but most of the time, you should be washing it.

      7. Don’t train sick or when suffering from an infection. There is a lot of body contact in ground defense and if you’re sick, there is a good chance you’ll pass on your illness to others. You’re also more likely to tire yourself out and make mistakes that can cause injuries when you’re not in good health. It is also very important not to go on the mats if you have a skin infection like ringworm or staph. They are highly contagious and easily spread from person to person or from person to mat to person.

      Live Training as a Learning Tool

      When you first start training in ground defense, you usually stick to choreographed attacks and defenses giving you more opportunities to develop your skills and techniques. Eventually though, you’ll need to move on from this style of training and apply what you have learned in a more “live” training environment. Ground fighting can be fast and dynamic. Things can change very quickly on the ground, and if you’re not trained to adapt quickly, you may find yourself helpless on the ground if someone gets the jump on you.

      Whether you do live training with a partner or in a training circle, you can train at different levels of intensity depending on whether you want to improve your technical applications or increase the difficulty level and realism of the exercise. I like to work with three different levels of intensity with my students, which are as follows:

      Level #1: The attacking partner sticks to a single hold down (no striking is allowed). The attacker may resist the defender’s attempts to escape if ineffective, but must always return to their original attack rather than changing their attack. The attacker should loosen up or respond appropriately to the defender’s attacks to vital targets without changing their attack. This style of live training is designed to increase technical understanding and confidence with defensive techniques.

      Level #2: Punching attacks are allowed and hold-downs are done with higher intensity. Defenders should strive to get back to their feet within 10 seconds of the start of the attack. If the defender fails to get to their feet, the attacker may change their method of attack. The attacker should still loosen up or respond appropriately to the defender’s vital target attacks without changing their attack. When attacking with punches, use appropriate protective equipment such as mouth guards and gloves. As an alternative to using gloves, light open hand strikes to non-injurious areas may be used. Whichever method you use, the attacker should strike at a power level that is safe for training. Not even MMA fighters spar at full power and intensity for safety reasons. You don’t need to in order to develop your skills. This style of live training is designed to give you a higher level of realism to help you apply your skills under greater