 The ground is hard and unforgiving and it's usually the last place you want to be in the fight and if things don't go in your favor then it's going to be. However that being said sometimes it's unavoidable so today we're going to talk about self-defense at the ground level. There's a well-known expression going around that says most fights will go to the ground but all fights start on your feet. Now while there are of course exceptions to this it's a pretty good generality to how fights and conflicts usually start. Most of the time it does start in a standing position. Today we're going to talk about why the ground is most dangerous place, how to practice for it, how to avoid going to the ground if possible, what to do if you find yourself down there and for added measure we're going to take a look at roles, when it is appropriate to do so and when it is not. So as to look at why the ground is the most dangerous place first let's look about how you might have wound up there. Did you fall, trip or were you taken down? If that's the case well most of the time the ground is hard it could be a parking lot you know concrete asphalt sidewalk you could be inside of a club inside of a restaurant where the floor is harder even on grass and on the beach if you fall the wrong way it's not always forgiving it's hard and it hurts and you can sustain a lot of injuries just from being taken down in itself. It's also very limiting you know immediately you've lost a lot of the advantages that you have standing up such as you know you've got your footwork you can close and gain distance you can evade you know you can punch you can kick all that has pretty much gone on the ground while you can still do some punches and kicks you're extremely limited at what you can do and perhaps you're even pressed up against something or pressed down to the ground so right away a lot of options get taken off the table. You have to be worried about do they have friends there's not a whole lot you could do to defend against multiple people on the ground then you have your environmental hazards like we talked about the surfaces is it asphalt is it is a gravel so something that's going to tear you up are you going to sustain injury just from rolling in itself are you in a parking lot or on a road you have to worry about traffic and cars these are all real concerns and realistic scenarios if you are to engage in ground fighting in the real world you know tournaments and competitions in the classroom setting rolling is one thing but in a real struggle you do not want to be down there any longer than you have to be it could be the difference of life or death so all you bjj guys just keep that in mind you might be an exceptional grappler and i know a lot of you guys are bjj is a fantastic art but don't automatically take the fight to the ground because that's what you know or because you feel you're gonna have the advantage down there there is so much at risk you know i sparred guys in the past you know we had a lot of bjj guys come in and we had a mixture of students and i was sparring one guy and the match started and he just dropped onto the floor onto his back and was ready for his guard and i'm like what are you doing he goes we'll get my guard and i said no stand up he goes well i could get my guard and i said if you want me in your guard you have to put me there i'm not gonna go down and play his game for him and so if you are a grappler don't just drop to the ground don't just expect to take it to the ground and automatically win the fight there are dangers involved so with that i would recommend definitely learning some sort of a stand-up art you know grappling is awesome and you're gonna you're gonna do some damage on the ground but maybe learn some boxing moitai karate whatever floats your boat learn some good stand-up arts too because don't forget in a real life fight on the ground punches kicks bites all that stuff is allowed elbows and if you haven't trained for it practice it you might end up being at the disadvantage now for those of you who are not grapplers do not discount those who are anyone who's got grappling experience and is good at it we'll tear you up if you don't know what to expect i've seen far too many practitioners discount or blow off grappling because it's not their thing or oh we don't need to learn how to do that because we have x y z technique no the best defense against grappling is to understand grappling okay so how do you practice for ground fighting well the obvious answer there is practicing ground fighting you know learn your takedowns learn grappling do roll in and class the other thing too is i place a lot of importance on this is be sure to learn the break fall properly most schools will teach this first it's just a common sense safety method but it's extremely important to learn how to fall properly because the last thing you want to do is get hurt in the class while learning how not to get hurt there are also some supplemental benefits to learning how to break fall properly one is better body coordination you know it's one thing to learn you know how to punch and kick and strike on your feet but when you add rolls or flips and falls into it and you learn how to coordinate your body in the air you start to get a better sense of what your body can do and a little bit more awareness in your spatial setting so that's a definite benefit also too is it might you know take away your fear of falling my first judo class jiu-jitsu class i'm not a small guy i stepped on the mat i was this was my introductory class by the end of the night he had us doing break falls by jumping in the air flipping and doing a break fall my first response was you expect me to do that today but by the end of the class i was doing it because i had he showed me how to properly do it so that apprehension of going down and i know there's a lot of big guys who don't want to fall because for all the reasons we talked about how hard the ground is and there's a risk of injury but learning to do it properly takes away some of that fear so you get your coordination and also to you develop some great habits you never know when it's going to save you in real life you know if you just happen to fall down just the habit of lifting your head up and making sure you don't smack it on the floor look at basketball for example watch a basketball game on tv and you can see that almost every time when those players say fall backwards what do they do they lift their head up they tuck their chin to the chest and they they might not slap the ground they might not kick out but you can kind of see the way they fall on the slide they kind of disperse the energy but they lift that head up that habit alone could save your butt more than you can realize okay so now the next step is well how do you avoid going to the ground well we got the first and obvious answer is try to avoid a conflict try to avoid a fight if possible if you can diffuse the situation that is the best case scenario if you cannot well then you're going to have to understand some techniques and some tactics and how to avoid going to the ground once again i'll repeat the best way to learn how to defend against grappling is to understand grappling if you have not take a grappling class learn to take downs learn how they work understand how they operate with the openings and what the weaknesses are so that way if you are up against somebody who knows how to grapple is going for a takedown you know in your mind what not to give them or how to close off openings try to take away some of their advantages so understand how the takedowns work to begin with secondly there are a lot of martial arts that will teach defensive techniques against takedowns and that's great kemple has a lot of techniques a lot of schools have it if you have those don't just practice in the air get the technique comfortable to the point where you understand it and then practice that technique on someone who knows how to grapple and see if it works and if it doesn't work make the adjustments that you need to do make sure it works on a partner in the classroom setting before you try it in real life on the street with someone that you don't know and you haven't tried to see if it even works my next recommendation is to work on quick recoveries if you get to the ground find ways to get right back up to your feet as quickly as possible and on that note one of my favorite tactics is to front roll or back roll rolling i think definitely has its place in self-defense but only if you use it appropriately i do not recommend rolling to be fancy i do not recommend rolling to be on the offensive to attack we see it too many times in movies where you know someone just make because it looks good on camera the actor or the star will go into some cool roles and fancy roles and close some distance in the real world you are becoming extremely vulnerable you are now on the ground while they're standing your back is towards them your limbs are engaged in the role you are at a complete disadvantage so i do not recommend using a roll as an offensive tactic just to show off that is putting yourself in a lot of danger i think that rolls have some great value in terms of recovery and getting back to your feet quickly i myself personally have used them many many many times i've used them you know 20 years ago in sparring even up to today i still utilize them i've had instances where i was you know young and stupid and trying fancy techniques and i tripped over my opponent backwards but i'll use the roll to get right back into my feet before they could advance on me and even when someone gets the better of me and is able to pull off a takedown technique i usually get back up as fast as i can because i don't want to be on the ground because i know i am more advantageous on my feet than on the ground and sometimes if you're lucky even if you're trying to recover from a fall you can leave them with a parting gift i also use a roll one time in real life um several years ago we um my friends and i went on the paintball trip you know it's a scenario game so we were all decked out in gear i had my helmet on i had a vest on i was carrying a two-handed paintball gun you know i had pods on me you know i was loaded down and i was walking in my boots and we're getting off the field well the ground was uneven and i actually stumbled and i started stumbling forward and i couldn't recover my balance and i knew it was going down and without even thinking about it i just kind of jumped forward went into a four roll and got right back up to my feet to the point where people around me were like whoa that was a nice recovery i didn't even think about it i had done it so many times at that point that it was just natural if i hadn't done that then i would have totally face planted possibly breaking my marker or doing some sort of injury because it was a hard rocky ground and just because that was ingrained in me that defensive that break which is basically a breakfall it was there when i needed it i didn't have to think about it so i think rolls are fantastic if they are used in the appropriate situations so if you do find yourself underground the ground fighting is going to happen you couldn't avoid it you weren't able to recover from it you're underground in the ground fight at this point in time if this is a real fight do whatever you have to do to get out of the situation and then includes biting ripping tearing elbows grabbing you know hammer fist whatever you have kick punch use your entire body get damaged in get out and get to your feet as fast as you possibly can now if you are a grappler this is not the time to experiment this is not the time to show off this is the time to get the job done do your damage and get back up on your feet as quickly as possible you know get back up before his buddies arrive or if you are experienced and there are witnesses that said you know when cops show up and they tell the cops that you're down there for 10 minutes bending this guy into a pretzel that's going to put some liability on you no in a real situation if you're a grappler get down there do your job and get back up as fast as possible if you are not a grappler then do everything in your power use every weapon at your disposal to get away from them do your damage and get back on your feet whether it's rolling away or being able to pull away creating some distance get back on your feet do not play their game because if you are not a grappler and they are they're likely going to win that game and keep in mind most of the time tapping out is not going to work in real life they have no obligation to release you so do not count on that tapping if you get caught in a submission so my best advice to you out there is the best defense against grappling is to learn grappling understand how it works understand where the vulnerabilities are understand what opening is not to give them understand how the takedowns work even if you don't want to learn a whole new curriculum at least learn escapes and reversals just so you have at least some understanding of what to expect i've seen too many people brush it off with scoff at it and regret it later so i now have a question for all you grapplers out there you know we do this channel to try to be a resource for everybody to share ideas you know let's make each other better let's let's kind of cross train with each other and just give tips so for those of you who are willing to share what is some advice that you can offer to help people avoid being taken to the ground you know what are some things that they can look out for whether maybe some techniques they can practice on their own what are ways that they can learn to avoid getting taken to the ground so i'm curious to know any insight that you're all willing to share with us guys thank you so much for watching i hope that today's video was at least some sort of a help or awareness i see it's far too common there's a lot of people who want to discount grappling because they don't like it or it's one of those things where it's out of sight out of mind sort of thing i think it's greatly important to have the awareness and become a well-rounded fighter even if it's not your forte or something you enjoy training it definitely is a benefit to understand it so once again thank you guys so much for watching please share all your thoughts below in the comments be sure to like and subscribe this video and we'll see you next week