The Ground is Your Friend

There are a couple of martial arts forums on the Internet in which I lurk and read about the state martial arts. Obviously, I'm prone to wander into the sections concerning ninjutsu, and the Bujinkan in particular.

Several weeks ago, I noticed a spate of postings about Mixed Martial Arts and the Bujinkan that I have been thinking over. In one Bujinkan forum, a MMA fighter posted a short video of himself defeating a "Boojie" in a sporting contest. First, I want to note that this was poor taste on the MMA fighter's part. Clearly he was baiting the post for a reaction. But the reaction he got was as interesting as it was predictable. He was roundly shouted down and asked to leave the forum.

At about the same time, on a different and more broadly focused forum, some MMA students started asking leading questions in the Ninjutsu section of the site. Again, these were somewhat baiting and along the line of "Which art is better? Yours, or obviously mine?" Again, this started a senseless flame war with predictable results.

But the responses from the Bujinkan posters intrigued me. The responses were variations on:

"MMA has nothing to do with how I train."

"If I ever had to fight a MMA guy, I'd find a weapon and kill him."

"Fighting on the ground is too dangerous for a self-sefense situation."

"Two martial artists are unlikely to fight each other, so I don't have to worry about a MMA fighter."

I was stunned that people believed these statements. If you think about them for any length of time, you can see they are built on false premises.

Let's take it -- quickly -- in reverse order.

You can find a martial arts school practically on every other street corner in this country. Just consider all the thousands of kids who have been through martial arts training. I'm to believe that only law abiding people have martial arts training? None of those kids made a couple of wrong decisions and ended up on the worng side of the law? Sure, I believe that proper martial arts training can provide a shining beacon to follow a moral life -- but I don't believe everyone is open to that message. Frankly, I think the odds are that two martial artists could end up in an altercation. And let's not forget that several of the 9/11 hijackers had formal training in martial arts -- and one of the Flight 93 passengers who fought back was a Judoka. Still think two martial artists will never end up in a fight today? Train for a worst case scenario: a trained attacker.

Yes, fighting on the ground is a very dangerous situation. Which is why you must know how to win on the ground if you ever end up there. The ground is especially dangerous in a multiple attacker scenario. So it is even more important that you know how to fight from the ground and get back to your feet quickly. If you don't train in ground fighting skills, you will lose on the ground. Oh, and those MMA guys? They like the ground, so I can almost guarantee they are training harder in how to get you to the ground than you are training to stay on your feet. And don't forget that major advantage a trained ground fighter has on his side: Gravity. Again, train for the worst case scenario: a trained attacker on the ground.

In a life and death situation, having a weapon to use is a major advantage. Unfortunately, your friends and neighbors in many places around this great country have elected officials who have stripped you of your right to contiuously carry effective self-defense weapons. Even if you are lucky enough to be carrying a weapon, you will be limited in what you carry on your Batman Utility Belt, and the amount of force you can apply within the law. It's not unlikely that a situation can escalate faster than your ability to bring a lethal weapon into play. Even though I'm sympathetic to someone feeling the need to escalate to lethal force when caught in a rear naked choke variation, do you have faith that the average jury will believe you needed to use your knife? And do you think you have the skills to get to your knife if a trained grappler is working on you? Train for the worst case scenario: a trained attacker, on the ground, when you have no weapon.

Still think MMA has no relevance to your training? Maybe if you are 89 years old and doing Tai Chi just so you have an excuse to hit on the little old ladies in the day room.

When Fearless Leader brought his interest in MMA into our classes, I was very skeptical myself. But over the past several months, I've come to understand the importance of this type of training. I've also learned that good jiu jutsu, or MMA, is completely compatible with the kind of propoer body movement we learn through Budo Taijutsu. The ground may be a disorienting environment, but the techniques are no different from stand-up fighting. In fact, the ground opens your eyes to new variations on old techniques. If ground techniques aren't part of your regular training, I urge you to reconsider adding them to your practice.