Playing Dead

So I've been watching a ton of bjj videos including the old footage of Helio Gracie fighting in the 1930's and some of the later footage of no hold barred fights with a Karate school. People had mentioned it to me before and let's put it this way, where I wasn't convinced before, I am now convinced even though the world seems to have moved beyond the whole jujitsu is the Ultimate because so many strikers now win in the MMA.

I'm not convinced I would necessarily lose against  someone just because they do BJJ for 10 years or 6 months in a street fight (though I might) their answer would be of course "you will definitely lose and what you have learned is bs and is on of no use."

There are some aspects of positioning that I noticed and not BJJ practictioners have tried to shoot in and because of certain stances basically I even paused there and told them not to do that because their head was right there and my cup was right there. But again, this was someone who did not practice the art and know how to hide those vital areas etc.

But what I am convinced of now is the genius of Helio Gracie. He independently mastered, not only a way to fight, but a way to train. For instance, all of his or his children's students train in rolling, a way to train where the participants can practice every day without getting hurt... and when they fight they can pretty much fight the same way. Now there is something to be said for the fact that their strikes were a bit under developed. But they still won the fight. And developing strikes (as in boxing) has nothing to do with sparring and more to do with drills, which can be boring and children hate doing. Adults hate doing those basics too. Probably from a bjj perspective, that is not even a good use of time because they can win with an underdeveloped strike. And although developing a "death strike" with the hand takes so much practice... you can stab someone with a tool (let's not even say a knife yet) and that can easily be a death strike without training.

If you can achieve a dominant position to deliver this blow (or even better deliver it from a non dominant position) or just choke the person out... after this if you need to cut their head off (so this would go back to the original purpose of Japanese Samurai jiu-jitsu) it's really easy now. In fact you will probably hold the choke until they are dead. Or if you can ransom them you can make a bit of money.


Now we get to the fact that going to the ground is not always a good idea because in a real situation you want to be able to run. Let me get this straight... that is 100% where I was coming from before. But now I see things a little different. There are some situations when going to the ground is a GREAT idea. A one on one fight in a rice paddy?

No.


A mass shooting?

Okay so running is one option. But for some of those Mass shootings, I think the one I am thinking of was in Nairobi, one of the survivors said he put his friends blood on himself... and played dead.

Isn't that going to the ground?

In fact this is a classic move for survival both in human history and the animal kingdom.

If you read the Novel "Musashi" that is what (though a fictional account of the historical man) Musashi basically did on his first real battle. And real war is different than a one on one fight. If he had tried to run with a leg injury he would probably be dead.

So going to the ground... without training... is a real thing.

Now...you played dead... awww crap! Their standing over you. Is this a gun situation? or is it just one shooter or soldier by himself and he would like to prod you with a bayonet or perhaps rape you for fun? Maybe he wants to see what it's like to make a human head go squish under his boot. I don't know, I've never been in this situation. Maybe you really are just done for.

But there are actually some moves you can do.. and you are on the ground.

Now Kung Fu does have these moves yes. But if you only ever did them in a form and not with another body you will not be as good at them.

But if you did both, you have a better chance.

So I feel like Helio's genius was bringing back the ground game in a way that was not only practical fro a fight, but practical for training. Many kids have said to me that they learned better from sparring.

I put the gloves on them and had them strike me and honestly I DID go in and tackle them with no real technique. Because I am stronger, faster, more experienced, have better horse stance, I mean I am their Sifu.. I am older before that becomes a drawback....I taught them everything I know... and in the end it's like they are my own kids. How can I strike them with chuen pow cup even lightly?

I dare not to. Maybe a tap. Plus I wanted to show that their striking and stance was underdeveloped.

Helio Gracie developed a way to fight even if you are weaker and you are on your back. Are their drawbacks? Of course. I've really been wondering about that whole guard. I mean I had dismissed that position because you can punch the guy in the balls (in fact that was in Way of the Dragon because Bruce Lee wanted to say something about that position)

But again is someone is trying to get you with a Katana and they are wearing Armour.. I'm just saying that position is not just for cage matches.

And I thought about it as I ran through some moves.. This is a lot like "sleeping man" Kung Fu. In fact you can fight multiple attackers from the ground. Many systems from Silat to Impact Self defense have this theory. It is not crazy. It is also of course not a 100% type of thing. Nothing is.

But I'm really liking the whole, you practice this way (and don't hurt each other) and then you fight this way too. You should still develop strikes... but do you need to strike each other? In practice?

I mean the military is right. Because striking with a weapon, especially pulling a trigger, is a better way to spend time to kill than developing a hand strike. So you just have to work on position and accuracy.
Then in the field things do come up where you have to apprehend someone. So that's body positioning again.

Then there is just the whole, "I need something to do with my down time" and a lot of people really like the social aspect of rolling. It's fun because it is a game. I see in this in my son. He would rather lose at wrestling to his friend over and over, than be forced to do forms.

So for my Kung Fu to survive I have to adapt to this mind set.

Of course I will still do forms and I will still teach my kids forms (even if they don't want to learn them.) And I can see the danger here of the modern martial arts school where since the forms aren't practiced.. they look like crap and eventually fall away. But I can see many of the positions wheere certain striked or animal positioning for the forms.. would have worked better in those Jiu-Jitsu fights... for the Jiu Jitsu guy. Maybe they didn't want to kill the opponent or something, but maybe they also hadn't train that type of strike. After all a lot of the strikes in Kung Fu are strangely positioned, and then there is the Chi Shaking (for another post) In the end they will say (I don't need that I won anyway) But a lot of those strikes are.. for a human without training, Actually kind of common sense. Or rather, common nature, and it has been trained out of us. More on that another time.