After 22 years of stand up, I had my first Ground Fighting/Brazilian Ju-Jitsu class last night?

This class was with Gi, and it was totally different than anything I've done before. (Kenpo Karate, Goju Karate, Kung-Fu, Tae Kwon Do, Hapkido) However, from my other martial arts training, I knew some self defense and stand up type of throws.





At the end of class, we did "free roll" which is basically sparring without striking. My opponent constantly shot in on me, and I was able to easily sprawl and avoid being taken down. On one occasion, I saw an opening when he tried to reach in for me and I was able to grab his arm do a classic "Judo style" throw over my back and slamming him down. Then I continued to stand up and avoid the take down.





Should I have went ahead and gone to the ground? Is this bad or good for his training?





It's all my natural instinct to stand so it's hard to go down. If I let myself go down, I'm worried that I'll lose that natural "sprawl" ability/instinct.

After 22 years of stand up, I had my first Ground Fighting/Brazilian Ju-Jitsu class last night?
There is no one correct way to grapple and sprawling is a part of grappling, so I say good job on the sprawl. On another note it seems like you did what you could to not end up in a bad position on the ground, to me this is what training is for. I like to spend 15 to 20 minutes a least a couple of times a week just working from the worst positions. working to escape RNC's, side control, tri-angles etc.... sounds like you had a good first day, just don't be afraid to learn something new to add to your tool box, get in those bad positions and learn to be comfortable in them. Have fun man, Jits is a blast.
Reply:He has to be able to deal with all kinds of fighters, so staying up should be fine. Unless the lesson was specifically to be on the ground, you did nothing wrong.





I would think that they would WANT you to sprawl at first and only roll around on the ground out in the street when you had to.
Reply:You will want to get comfortable on the ground. When ever you have free roll take advantage of it. When I started I had wrestled for years. I was able to work pretty well on the ground, however, I always felt funny on my back. In a short time I got comfortable with it. I do believe you should not lose your ability to keep your feet. Too many people abandon their strengths in order to impress others. Just remember, not getting taken down has served Liddel well. Don't let anyone tell you to abandon the strengths you have. You just need to add groundwork.
Reply:I'd say if anything that you did him a favour.





If the guy's a BJJ expert, but unable to take his opponent to the ground, he's going to have a pretty poor showing in a real fight. Better to train now with someone that will force him to work for his takedown than to find out his jits is useless in a ring or a back alley.





By the way, when you make it to the Mundials, you'll be glad to have the option of controlling the angle of descent to the mat. No reason to deprive yourself of good sprawl technique and judo, or to let those skills atrophy. Just train your jiu-jitsu for those times when the fight inevitably does get to the ground.
Reply:Pff, you won't lose your "sprawl" if you go to ground. Having a good takedown defense is key to enforcing your gameplan on another fighter. When you defend the takedown, you put your opponent in an immediately inferior position so that you can control him efficiently. Myself, I like to defend the takedown so that I can take the guy's back off of the sprawl, but I can understand simply standing back up.





Keep in mind though: you signed up for a Brazilian jiu jitsu class. You are there to learn BJJ. If you refuse to roll with your partner, if you refuse to learn the BJJ ground game, then your time and money is better spent in a judo school.





That being said, superior stand up helps make you a superior BJJer. A lot of guys in BJJ absolutely suck at standup because they prefer to be on the ground. Your presence in the class could help other students develop a stand-up game, but if you refuse to go down on the ground, you are going to find yourself ostracized for being too hard headed.





Keep in mind too that there is always someone bigger and better than you. It is only a matter of time before someone comes in who is better at take downs than you are at defending them, or at least someone will have figured out your stand up game. That guy is going to put you on your butt, and then where will you be?





If you are going to learn BJJ, you might as well devote yourself to the study. It's a beautiful martial art and I hope you enjoy it. But you have to be receptive to practicing the techniques in a rolling situation or else you will never learn.
Reply:Good job, but sooner or later they will start you off on the ground in a sitting position, and then what? I think your style is more sprawl and brawl, but it is really a good idea to also learn to be comfortible flat on your back. Good luck
Reply:this is really the same as me ... I learned TKD.. now learning MT.... at first when we sparred.. I was very reluctant to get inside of my kicking range (at least the first 3 months of sparring) and the side kick was what came natural to me (to avoid those nasty leg kicks) but after a while takeing classes for drills i started to mix in some of my "new" arsenol... and even though it hurt to try them.... i wanted to get better at MT... now when I spar I am 75% MT and 25% TKD... and as I start to learn to put it together better it will probably get back to 50/50.... next I am going to learn BJJ (and I can only imagine how complex that will make the game)... finding time to stay limber enough, and practice the arsenol is difficult.... my advice.. is to stick with what you know sparring... and as you learn the "new" style.. try to mix it in when you see the opening (or sparring with someone new) and that will help it become more natural... good luck
Reply:Every martial artist has their own style. Some prefer to go to the ground, some prefer to stay standing. Your martial art probably only has you fighting a single opponent, so you should probably go to the ground, that way you can balance yourself out better. Learn ground techniques as well as standing, but know that ground techniques will help you very little, if at all, in real life situations.





As for me, I prefer to stay up. Once you get a habit for going to the ground, you'll lose your ability to defend against multiple attackers. While you're rolling on the ground with your attacker, his buddies will be stomping you out. When standing, for self defense, the best thing to do is to break an enemy's bone or joint to show that you are serious or to throw or toss them aside so that you can deal with other attackers.





But again, if you're practicing the martial art more for tournament or athletic purposes, then you should go to the ground. Even if you're more comfortable standing, if it's for competition, you should learn to be comfortable on the ground as well. After all, rolling is best described as no-strike sparring, so remember that in real life, you would have the advantage of striking against an opponent trying to bring you down, not just grappling.