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 I think most of us can remember the day Royce Gracie stepped into the Octagon for the first time. Up until then many people who where practicing the martial arts did not view grappling as a viable option in fighting. This is probably due in part to martial arts movies that have always portrayed fighting in a stand-up environment.
I think most of us can remember the day Royce Gracie stepped into the Octagon for the first time. Up until then many people who where practicing the martial arts did not view grappling as a viable option in fighting. This is probably due in part to martial arts movies that have always portrayed fighting in a stand-up environment. After all watching two people wrestle on the floor does not add to spectator value and especially to the uneducated audience who want to see fists flying and allot of blood. Nevertheless Royce proved that not only was grappling effective, it was now a necessity if you wanted to survive in the Octagon. By the third UFC people had already begun to acquire ground skills and for most that did not, the loss was swift and decisive. Ironically all the martial art styles that have always advertised one punch knockouts, mystical energy and mysterious death touches by the following UFC’s where no where to be found. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu did not remain a secret for long and although many tried to keep it a secret it was to no avail. This is what I have always said, "If something works, then people will find out about it. Nothing that works stays a secret for long". The reason there are so-called secret death touches in the martial arts, is because it does not work, that is why it is a secret. Think about it, if you could drop an opponent or render him unconscious with a single blow of your finger, then why would anyone be training so hard in NHB. Surely if it worked or even existed someone would have found the secret and would be using it by now? By the seventh UFC everyone had realized that either they should evolve or they would become extinct. I realized this myself, with ten years experience in boxing and Muay Thai and after watching the first UFC, I think my feelings where very much the same as everyone else’s at that time who practiced the stand-up arts. I was shocked, impressed but I also felt that possibly the opponents Royce and the other grapplers faced where not actually that good and yes I thought I could do better. To convince myself I sought out two blue belts in BJJ that I had met the year before, but as of yet had not had the opportunity to test my skills against them. In any event what I learnt was firstly what it was like to be a pretzel for hour after hour and secondly I came to the realization that I had to learn the grappling game. I have been doing this ever since. As the UFC continued to grow in popularity, more and more competitions similar in nature began to spring up all over the world. Today most of us are familiar with the UFC as well as Pride in Japan, Extreme Fighting and the NHB events in Brazil. There was a new vibrancy in the martial arts and everyone was trying to learn this new way of fighting or just trying to keep up. What happened next was amazing and reminicent of the gladiators of time gone by. Fighters became athletes, they worked out with weights, employed training methods from all forms of endurance sports, cross-trained in a multitude of martial art disciplines to finally fuse all of these into an unstoppable fighting machine. All of this re-evolution of training and cross training had been in the past often shunned by traditional forms of martial arts. What has emerged are strong agile fighters, multi-disciplined, not bound by tradition but rather performance. When the Gladiators where at their prime in ancient Rome, nothing mattered more but their performance. Perform or die was taken literally. No one had time to spend on fighting imaginary opponents or looking good in their fancy outfits. So what do you need to know now? Again NHB is alive and it continues to evolve. Because of this very few people can just rely on grappling. When grappling was new no one knew about it. It was easy for most fighters versed in this new approach in fighting to gain swift victories. Today everyone has some knowledge of ground skills. So what has happened is that fighter now make sure that they are effective not only on the ground but in the clinch as well as stand-up. So that’s what you need to know now. You need to be good at all the games. When someone is as good as you are on the ground, often the two things that will secure a victory for yourself is your ability to strike hard either knocking him out or injuring him sufficiently to cause him to make a mistake so that you can submit him. The second most important thing is conditioning. The fight between Frank Shamrock and Tito Ortiz in UFC 22 is a good example on how important conditioning is in a fight. Another good example of how a fighter today cannot rely solely on his grappling skills are the latest fights with Royce Gracie and Sakuraba. Royce could not make Sakuraba submit, realizing this he attempted to strike. As there was no real power behind Royce’s strikes he was unable to open Sakuraba up and to capitalize on any mistakes he may make. If Royce spent some considerable time on he’s striking skills I think the next time they meet it may be different. I must point out here that this is my opinion only; I am not attempting to take anything away from Royce or any of the Gracie’s. We all owe them so much, for with out them who would of known that grappling is the greatest equalizer. To conclude to survive NHB today you need to be skilled in all three games, stand-up, clinch and ground. You must be well conditioned and spend allot of time honing your three games. Seek out the best boxing, Muay Thai, BJJ and Greco-Roman coaches. Train hard and be smart and victory will be yours! -Rodney King -Rodney "Chico" King
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