update on Groundfighting

A while back, I wrote my opinions on groundfighting. I have trained for almost a year longer now and thought it would be a good time to revisit the issue. Being a martial artist, I am constantly re-evaluating everything I know, seeking more opinions on subjects and trying to improve.

Last time I wrote, I covered that for the most part I do not care for groundfighting and went over ways to try to avoid it, and then what to do in a last resort situation once they have gotten you to the ground. With further consideration, I realized I forgot to mention one of my favorite things that can help both standing and on the ground, which is the art of Chi Na. I am personaly a huge fan of Chi Na, which means to seize and control. Anytime a fight does go to the ground and a lock is applied, that is just one aspect of Chi Na. I prefer standing up as I can usually submit someone while still standing without the struggle of wrestling them to the ground, though once any good Chi technique is correctly applied you can easily take them down if you like.

There are thousands upon thousands of martial arts styles, each containing some Chi Na yet no style consist completely of Chi Na. One style that does have a wealth of knowledge in it is Eagle Claw Kung Fu. I have never trained in Eagle Claw before but did take the time to learn the 108 Chi Na techniques because I liked it so much and have read some books on the subject as well about the science behind it.

The basic way Chi Na works is that you will either displace a bone, seperate the tendons of a muscle group, hyper extend joints, and use pressure points as they can help control the opponet easier. Chi Na is considered a very gentle art because you can stop fighting and your opponets pain is instantally gone when you release the lock most of the time. There are exceptions such as when you rip ligament from the bone or break the bone itself, there is also a Chi Na technique known as sealing the breath that may leave them unconcious. Chi Na can be further seperated into types, such as leg Chin Na, arm Chi Na, finger Chi Na etc. Generally the manipulation of small joints such as wrist and fingers can be classified as small circle Chi Na while locks holding larger and often multiple areas such as the arm and shoulder is known as large circle Chi Na.

There are some examples of some of these locks in my previous blogs titled Chi Na I think. The main problem when performing Chi Na is that you do need some advantage over your opponet to pull it off, such as more speed to be able to grab the hand as it is punching. That is somewhat true for groundfighting as well, strength will win that match if the other person is not a more skilled ground fighter.

I emphasize Chi Na so much with ground fighting because just about any lock you do standing can be done on the ground. On the ground you do gain the advantage of being able to use your legs for leverage or squeezing. I have been in situations sparring where I was taken down and couldn’t get a lock in and was able to just squeeze tight enough with my legs to keep them from breathing and gotten submissions from that alone. You do have the disadvantage of less mobility though and for soft style fighters like me, it can become difficult to move with fluidity on the ground. One rule of thumb I like to use to help with that is to over cooperate. If someone is trying to throw me forward, will let them and roll further forward than they expect so I know exactally where they are, where they are going, and how to continue them on their extremely easy path of tossing me around until I can roll them into a lock that puts me at an advantage, this is something I learned from playing dummy for my teacher as he always told me coopertate when playing dummy, resistance only makes it hurt more. I’ve used that lesson to no end and learned to relax in fights because I know tension will do nothing but slow me down.

The main point in writting this is to inform my readers that if you are indeed interested in ground fighting, you should seriously consider analysing some Chi Na. If you are already studying a martial art, you probably already know some joint locks. It may be fun t play with thim and see if you can apply them from ground fighting situations, if nothing else it will be a great learning experience and possibly a fun sparring match.