Most of the other BJJ instructors at my gym are primarily sport oriented. I'm the only one who puts a heavy emphasis on street application of the art. (The physical principles are the same, but the context is different.) Accordingly, I try to make sure my students understand how the tactical requirements differ in self-defense versus in a contest.
In my last class I was covering a couple of basic takedowns as applied to a self-defense scenario. One point I covered was ending up in a position after the takedown where the defender could check the attackers arms in case he tried to draw a weapon and also visually scan the surroundings in case of additional attackers before committing to staying on the ground to finish the attacker. Since we don't work multiple attacker or weapon defense scenarios into sparring that often, I'm never sure how well the students are absorbing those details.
After drilling the techniques of the day, we went on to a variation of what I call structured sparring. I paired up students and had them start out with the scenario we had been practicing - set attack by the "bad guy" with a defense and takedown by the "defender". Once the "bad guy" hit the ground, the drill turned live, with the partner who had just been taken down fighting to get up or escape to a neutral position and the other partner working to keep him down and finish a submission. I like this sort of approach (especially for beginners) because it helps the student link the specific techniques they are working on with their live sparring.
After the first couple of rounds, I thought I'd add a little twist. I pulled aside one of the students without letting the others see and gave him a training knife to hide in his gi. I instructed him that once he was taken down he should pull out the knife and stab his training partner. I figured this sort of surprise would remind the students of what I had told them about street application and situational awareness.
The student with the hidden knife (Jordan) ended up paired with a fellow named Mark - a good student, getting close to earning his blue belt. They started the exercise, Mark executed a clean takedown, and they started working live. To my delight, Mark did exactly what I had shown in terms of controlling the arm and body. Jordan spent the next two minutes trying as hard as he could to pull out the training knife and use it, but was never able to reach it before he got choked out and had to tap. I checked with Mark afterwards and he had no idea the knife was there, he was just doing what I had taught. I even spotted him taking the moment to scan his surroundings before committing to the ground fight.
Moments like this make me very happy as a teacher.
In my last class I was covering a couple of basic takedowns as applied to a self-defense scenario. One point I covered was ending up in a position after the takedown where the defender could check the attackers arms in case he tried to draw a weapon and also visually scan the surroundings in case of additional attackers before committing to staying on the ground to finish the attacker. Since we don't work multiple attacker or weapon defense scenarios into sparring that often, I'm never sure how well the students are absorbing those details.
After drilling the techniques of the day, we went on to a variation of what I call structured sparring. I paired up students and had them start out with the scenario we had been practicing - set attack by the "bad guy" with a defense and takedown by the "defender". Once the "bad guy" hit the ground, the drill turned live, with the partner who had just been taken down fighting to get up or escape to a neutral position and the other partner working to keep him down and finish a submission. I like this sort of approach (especially for beginners) because it helps the student link the specific techniques they are working on with their live sparring.
After the first couple of rounds, I thought I'd add a little twist. I pulled aside one of the students without letting the others see and gave him a training knife to hide in his gi. I instructed him that once he was taken down he should pull out the knife and stab his training partner. I figured this sort of surprise would remind the students of what I had told them about street application and situational awareness.
The student with the hidden knife (Jordan) ended up paired with a fellow named Mark - a good student, getting close to earning his blue belt. They started the exercise, Mark executed a clean takedown, and they started working live. To my delight, Mark did exactly what I had shown in terms of controlling the arm and body. Jordan spent the next two minutes trying as hard as he could to pull out the training knife and use it, but was never able to reach it before he got choked out and had to tap. I checked with Mark afterwards and he had no idea the knife was there, he was just doing what I had taught. I even spotted him taking the moment to scan his surroundings before committing to the ground fight.
Moments like this make me very happy as a teacher.
xo
