All posts by Cecil Burch

The Yay or Nay of Grappling Dummies

I get a good number of emails and PMs asking me advice on solo training, especially for grappling. One of the recurring themes is if a grappling dummy is a good piece of gear?

For those who are unfamiliar with them, a grappling dummy is sort of like a heavy bag with limbs. There are different ones, but they tend to look like this:

 

 

While I hate to try to stop people from doing training, my attitude is that putting time into a grappling dummy is that the juice that is not worth the squeeze.

Here is the problem – to get a good one that is rugged enough and is shaped in a way to be useful, you have to spend a boat load, generally around $500 or so. But you are only getting a tiny fraction of performance out of it that you can’t get solo. Most of what is unable to do solo needs to be done against a resisting opponent with aliveness and ambiguity, and the dummy gives you no help at all in that regard. For example, the hard part of doing a duckunder (a hugely important move to defeat the other person’s arms and to set up takedowns, clinch control, or to take the back) is

1) The proper mechanics of a level change and keeping your heard vertical

2) Seeing or setting up the opening to do the move and

3) Finishing while the other guy reacts.

 

So to make sure you have the move down, the first part can be done shadow boxing, and the other two parts need a moving opponent. That’s not to say you can’t do the shadow boxing (or shadow wrestling in this case) on the dummy, but it is not needed and you have spent $500 to boot. Working armdrags (or something similar like a 2on1) on a dummy is fractionally better and more useful because to do a drag you have to actually grasp an arm, but again, is that worth the money?

I do think there is one specific time a dummy is worthwhile. If you truly live in an area where you are more than an hour travel from a BJJ/Judo/Sambo/Wrestling gym, AND you have had some hands on training (as in a short course like ECQC, Paul’s MDOC, my courses, or similar), then having a dummy will be the best you can do as far as an opponent for the bulk of your practice. Then it is a good investment. It is a bad investment IMO if you have not had the hands on coaching. Trying to learn any kind of entangled fighting through DVDs or YouTube is useless, so again no need to spend the cash on a dummy.

If you have one, or can get one inexpensively, then by all means use it. But don’t drop lots of cash on something that won’t fully return the investment.

Stress is Stress

One of the most acrimonious arguments in the self-defense community is whether competition is good or bad for the tactical SD minded practitioner. The anti side will say that no sport can replicate the stress of real life combat so therefore it is useless and a waste of time. Unfortunately, the ones who argue this are wrong.

What they fail to realize is that the chemical make up that causes our body to feel stress does not change. Regardless of what stressor there is, the hormonal cocktail consists of the same things whether the stressor is someone trying to kill you or worry about financial natters.

From WedMD – “your bodies react the same to stressors.”

And from Medicine.net – “scientists understand much about how the response to stress works. The two main systems involved are the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and the sympathetic nervous system (SNS). (These systems are described later.) Triggered (activated) primarily by an area in the brain stem (lowest part of brain) called the locus coeruleus, the SNS results in the secretion of epinephrine and norepinephrine.” And “The HPA axis is a grouping of responses to stress by the brain and the pituitary and adrenal glands. First, the hypothalamus (a central part of the brain) releases a compound called corticotrophin releasing factor (CRF), which was discovered in 1981. The CRF then travels to the pituitary gland, where it triggers the release of a hormone, adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH). ACTH is released into the bloodstream and causes the cortex of the adrenal gland to release the stress hormones, particularly cortisol, which is a corticosteroid hormone. Cortisol increases the availability of the body’s fuel supply (carbohydrate, fat, and glucose), which is needed to respond to stress”

This occurs in some form of EVERY stress event, period. The body does not know the difference between a life threatening action such as a violent criminal assault and a fear of losing a job.

In other words, if you feel stress in a competitive event, you are feeling the same type of chemical response that you feel in fight for your life. So if you want to argue that competition is bad and/or useless, that is all well and good, but you absolutely cannot say it is dissimilar to combat. Because to your body, it is. The medical and clinical evidence is settled science.

Position Before Submission – The BJJ Approach To Combat

 

 

There are a number of reasons Brazilian Jiu-jitsu works so well in the real world. From training methods, to emphasis on always assuming the opponent is bigger, stronger, faster, tougher (which makes the art usable for the smaller and more physically weaker practitioner), to always working against a resisting opponent who is free to do anything back, BJJ has always been able to prove that it works in any context or in any circumstance, whether that is a rules constrained sporting endeavor or an anything goes life or death struggle for with life and death stakes.

However, in my opinion, the feature that may be the biggest factor in jiu-jitsu’s real world efficacy is that it takes a mentally methodical approach to fighting. This is in stark contrast to the typical martial art/combatives approach to being technique focused, and with an emphasis on the end-state (note the push in combatives circles for the big cool move such as cycling hammer fists). The big problem with this way at looking at the fight ignores all the things that happen prior to being able to execute the big flashy move that looks so great on focus mitts. If you try to “win” the fight, there is the chance you will lose because you have opened up a window of vulnerability that the other party takes advantage of. We have all seen the UFC fight where a fighter is winning, and in a rush to finish with the spectacular knock out or the great looking submission gets caught while doing so and gets KO-ed or choked out himself. Almost every UFC has an example of this on some level.

BJJ on the other hand focuses on executing a methodical step by step approach that keeps you from having that window of vulnerability. There is a mantra in BJJ that every practitioner has heard thousands of times and that is POSITION BEFORE SUBMISSION. Essentially what this means is to have good positional dominance and control before thinking about the finish. That keeps you conscious, mobile, and in the fight, and allows you to go to the correct ending move without risking yourself losing.

For example, let’s look at a scenario where you have been taken down and your guard passed by an opponent who is now in top side control. In the standard martial art/combatives reaction to that, you will start desperately trying to pull off some escape, and what happens time after time is that in doing so, the opponent secures a better more dominant position, or even gets the submission or knocks out or is able to use a weapon. The BJJ principle is to make sure you are safe in the moment. Orient to the opponent, make sure your head and neck are protected and keep your limbs from being controlled. Once those things have been done, you can then look to create the space needed to escape, but you never arbitrarily give up your neck/head, limbs, or turn away in doing so. When you create the right space, you move to either a neutral or superior position. And even then, when you have reached either of those, you do not forget the idea of being safe. Again, protect that position before you go for the finish.

Here is a short video that gives you an idea of how this can look:

 

Remember, before we can “win”, we must not “lose”. Throwing away that concept puts you in a risky situation.

While you can see these concepts in any good BJJ match, sometimes things move too fast to see. One of the best places to see it in action and that is easy to follow is this match from 2015 between Roger Gracie and Comprido. Both are two of the finest competitors in jiu-jitsu history (Roger may very well be the greatest ever), and this match is a true showcase.

 

 

Notice how Roger reacts to getting taken down. He knows he is now down two points. He does not panic, nor does he flail away. He makes sure he has some control over Comprido to make sure he does not end up in a worse position, and then he establishes a solid closed guard. Then note at the 3:20 mark how he begins to set up the armdrag. He does not jump to it, but instead makes sure his position and control are solid, and focuses on preventing Comprido from moving his elbow away. Watch how when he does get the drag, he locks everything down before moving to the next step. He does not rush to the sweep, but rather methodically increases his dominance. After the sweep, Roger gets to a solid base and only then does he start to look for the finish. And even when the first choke fails, he does not desperately cling to it or wildly go for something else. He resets the dominant control, and then gets a second choke that ends the fight. A completely masterful example of the step by step process from bad situation to submission win by Roger, and a perfect representation of BJJ.

The beauty of this approach is that it works in any context – competition, self-defense, and just training, and for anyone, whether you are an elite athlete or just an everyday person trying to fit training into a busy schedule.