90% of fights go to the ground

Hi Guys,
Thanks for reading.

I'm still just doing some light therapeutic workouts for my hips, so no splits progressions for the time being. I am looking at a new training location for when I get back into things though.

One of the better options is an MMA gym in Sydney that also offers some Japanese Jujitsu taught by a former world ranked #1 full contact shooto champion. Sounds very promising.

If I do decide to start training there, they also offer Thai and BJJ which I will try and do 1 each per week...thats the current plan anyway.

This got me to thinking about the mantra of every BBJer that I know...90% of fights end up on the ground. Don't get me wrong I think BBJ is a fantastic ground art and they have solid training protocols, however in my opinion as an option for self defense, I think any art that focuses primarily on going to the ground has some fundamental issues. THE last place you want to be in any self defense situation is rolling around on the ground with either multiple or armed attackers.

The few guys I know that do BBJ don't think about this, they spend 90% of their time training on the ground and still think they are learning self defense. If they are just doing it for sport/fitness/fun thats fine, but a lot of BJJers believe that what they are doing is the best option for self defense available.

Anyway, back to the topic.

With some time on my hands I thought I would do a little research. It seems that the figure, now famously (or infamously) declared by the Gracies at the start of the BJJ phenomenon comes from a 1997 LAPD study of arrest data. (see link at bottom).
The first thing to note is that this study is looking at arrest data, not fights. In-fact the report clearly shows that only 25% of incidents included the offender actually attacking the officer. The other 4 of 5 responses in  95% of cases was:

33% pulled away from the officers arm grab
19% refused to assume a search position
10% ran
6% took an offensive "stance" or posture but didn't attack the officer.

Of this only 62% of incidents ended with the officer and the offender on the ground. Again, it important to note, this is not a fight, its an arrest. Even if you did think you could draw a correlation between fight and arrest data (which I don't think you should), the altercation only ended on the ground in 62% of cases, thats a long way from 95%.

This is a huge issue and the debate will rage for years to come. No doubt that BJJ has changed the way people look at fighting and probably for the better. I still think that a decent stand up fighting art should be the base of any realistic self defense system, even if only because it allows you to run away if necessary. I also think cross training in a ground fighting system is a great thing to do...and fun! Grappling is an incredibly complex art and if you haven't done any, I recommend you find a good local instructor and get a few lessons even if you only learn the very basics.

I am also aware of the irony of someone that is focusing on training for splits and kicking to the head talking about how unrealistic BJJ is for self defense. This is a purely personal goal for athletic and artistic reasons, not for practical self defense skills.

LAPD study