Surviving the Ground

The very first thing to focus on when learning to fight on the ground is survival. If you can't stop a submission or a pass, then learning submissions won't help you much. You first need to know how to stop your opponent, then work on mastering transition, then finally focus on becoming a submission pro.

This doesn't mean to completely neglect transition and submissions in your training. Just don't make them the main focus of your development.

When I was newer to MMA I had a ground sparring session with a Brazillian Jiujitsu black belt. Even with my own Judo background, I couldn't believe how easily he could counter everything I did. There was no hope! After that day, I began working hard on my ground fighting (something I neglected until then). I spent a lot of time thinking about what made him so capable of defeating me.

I realized that the first thing I needed to do was stop him from controling the fight. I needed to block his advancements and develop a tight game from my back. So that's what I focused on. I learned every trick in the book for stopping submissions and escaping them, how to hold a tight guard, and how to return to guard. All this time I tested these skills in sparring at the gym. Then, once I was good enough at stuffing submission attempts and passes, I began focusing on my own ability to transition. Then finally I worked on my submission skills.

Eventually, I faced him again. This time was different. He could not pass my guard, and then I swept him over. I was in control, this time. The fight went until the end of class (no winner), but considering he was the best grappler there, I was satisfied with my results.

I give this story to help you to understand that what I'm saying isn't something I'm just repeating. I'm speaking from experience. And not just my own experience. People who have trained with me, who I push to master the survival techniques, can attest to the same results.

So what are survival techniques? When I use the term "survival," I am refering to methods which allow you to stay in the fight. These are techniques that stop submissions, stop transitions, and keep you from ending up in bad situations. For instance, if someone goes for a triangle choke, how can you escape it when you don't know how to stop it from getting tighter? It's as simple as pushing your elbow to the mat. That stops your opponent from finishing, and it will allow you time to work on an escape. How about the arm bar? Just clasping your hands together is easy to defeat. But if you use a figure four grip, it is much harder to break.

So let's go over the four phases of training focus.

1) Survival

2) Transition

3) Controlling Your Opponent

4) Submission

Of course, we want to always be learning submissions, work on transitioning, and knowing how to maintain control over the opponent, but the main focus in your training and in your sparring needs to come from whichever phase you are in. When no one seems able to submit you, and you can hold a tight guard, and people find it difficult to sweep you, then you can move on to transition mastery, which includes setting up those submission. If you can't get into position, how can you submit the person?

Then comes control. If you get the position, but you don't know how to maintain control, your opponent will escape and you'll be right back where you started from. I've seen a lot of MMA submission failures in the pro leagues because the guy became too eager to finish and he made some very basic mistakes.

As for phase four, by that time you should already be very capable with your submissions. But now, we can focus on submission chaining and going for some more complex submission attempts.

And that's how it works. Many who read this are training at gym which have their own routines, and in class situations it is very difficult to focus in on one student's weaknesses. Therefor, it is up to you to learn all the survival techniques you can, and practice them while sparring at the gym. Youtube is loaded with videos that will help you to accomplish this. And if you need help, most instructors are willing to give you a quick lesson on using a technique after class. I know this from experience, since that's how I learned the twister (never taught in class, but the coach knew how to do it).

#survival #grappling #ground