MMA Training

Interesting, I've heard that claim in BJJ a lot, but was always skeptical.

Honestly growing up, we saw fights almost everyday in high school (same school BJ Penn went to, but we attended at different times), and almost no time was spent on the ground.  Occassionaly someone would drop from a blow, or lose balance, but it usually quickly got back to the feet or it was over and the person that dropped gave up.

With the BJ Penn Academy teaching MMA for years, I wonder if the fights in that high school are quite different now?

Anyone who has a fight on the streets and takes it to the ground is mentally unbalanced in my opinion.  If its one on one and no one around ok (how rare is that though), but do you really want to be tying some chump up with a perfectly executed armbar or RNC while his mates kicking your head of its shoulders?

Both my sons train in mma (as i do), eldest took out two guys who started on him last night, all he used was knees as he has a broken wrist (pot just off Friday) and two fractured knuckles on other hand, he couldnt strike with his hands so going to the ground would have been the best thing but not with two.

Over here in the UK, the striking arts have always been strong and so you have it in your head not to take a fight to the ground and just use leg kicks, knees and elbows.  The main reason most of our fighters lose to good wrestlers :(

True, here in the UK knives are gaining a strong hold with youngsters. They give the excuse that they carry them for protection, but I know two lads dead because of that poor excuse. 

we are lucky that gun crime is relatively rare and that you cannot own a gun at all unless you fit into a narrow band eg a farmer (double barrel shotgun only), target shooting (must be affiliated to a gun club and .22 cal only allowed), there is a growing trend for those dealing in drugs to use them on each other, but they know to avoid getting into trouble with police tactical teams (highly skilled, heavily armed, double tap if weapon not dropped on first request).  Our police are unarmed so those who carry weapons are trained by the military eg SAS to ensure top class performance, every area has 24/7 armed response unit patrolling at all times.

We have as a nation seen a massive influx of immigrants from the likes of Somalia, Ethiopia, Africa, Iraq, Iran etc who all see carrying a blade as a way of life and I think until they realise it is not the British "way" we will see a lot more stabbings. As you say why go to the ground if you end up with a knife in the neck while doing a kimura?

i loved the artical, its great to see that someone has acutally studeid and can back up his words when he says 42% of the fights go to the ground and 72% of the fights go to the ground when one person is kocked out. 

as for fighting you don't need to fight, its dumb to get into a street fight unless if your protecting someone that needs help. its really frustrating to walk away from a fight specially when they have said some nasty stuff. eaven if you can beat the crap out of that person you could get into really bad trouble with the law. As maney people have said in this thread people could be carrying weapons to

its always good to go back to the traditional arts and take some of the concepts from them, specially conditioning your hands.  when i joined a mma gym i have never hurt my hands.

i had some back yard brawl and fights with my yunger brother when i was a teenager but if i wasn't so hot headed i could have avoided the fight.

its great to learn and practice as much as you can from everybody with different back rounds