JKD Ground Fighting

I don’t like to call “Ground Fighting” Grappling because in ground fighting, the way I teach, there are no rules. Everything goes. Another major reason is the word `Martial, which means warlike; fond of fighting. When grappling is used in the ring as a sport, there are many rules and regulations to follow such as: no eye jabs, no hair pulling, no biting, no small joints manipulation, no closed fists, no strikes to the groin, no kicking to the face, no knee shots, no head butts to the face, no pinching, no throat shots, no kicking to the spine, no elbow strikes, and no dirty fighting. When Martial Arts (all combative forms, like Jeet kune do, karate, judo, gung-fu, aikido, Ju-Jitsu etc....are treated as a sport, you will develop weakness in your defense against your attacker and all your weapons will be stripped way from you. It is like sending a soldier to war with a big gun, but without ammo. Like I mentioned before, to be a good JKD practitioner, you must be open-minded and learn all ranges. The way I like to teach is more of a fighting approach and not a competition approach. Besides when facing an opponent that weights 275 lbs and is 6’5”, who wants to be grappling with him? Let me assure you, you will lose if all of your weapons are taken away. Most real fights end up on the ground, so ground-fighting techniques are extremely useful, but you shouldn’t just grapple, you must be a complete fighter to survive on the ground. And a good JKD fighter finishes the fight before it gets to the ground. In addition, you can apply all your techniques on the ground the same way as you would standing up. As Bruce Lee said, “In sports, then we are talking about something else, there are rules and regulations, but in real fighting, babe, you better train every part of your body.” He also said, “Biting is efficient in close quarters, but don’t make it a plan of biting - that is a very good way to lose your teeth.”