catch wrestling Archives

IT’S PROPRIOCEPTION!

Who, what, where, when, how and why? The BIG “W’s and H” questions that one answers in a fight (and life).

“Where?” There are so many “where” questions to answer. One is knowing where your body parts are when you are not looking at them or can’t see them. Oh, I know the word is more technical and diverse than that, and normal people deal with the subject to improve normal activity, rehab injuries and surgeries and fight back age. But we? Oh we…we here, worry about…fighting. Where are your body parts when you are not looking at them in a fight? Especially a ground fight? Horizontal, not vertical?

“Proprioception is an important sensory function for all normal movement activities, including the ability to maintain dynamic balance and move accurately. All exercises elicit proprioceptive responses to some extent.”

The subject is teaching ground-fighting and one of the challenges for practitioners and teachers is not-knowing, not-seeing their body parts in a “horizontal world,” and of course moving in “flat” unfamiliar movements.

I often have to tell grounded practitioners to “FREEZE! Freeze right there!” I step in and grab their legs, knees, feet, whatever into the advantageous position. Lest of all have them freeze and say “take this elbow and strike this face right here,” because they are: a) brainwashed wrestlers, or b) new to the horizontal world, and cannot make the proprioception connection. Out of sight, out of mind.

Ground fighting to a combatives person is, (or certainly should be):

Ground maneuverings
Knee-high versus standing.
Knee-high versus knee-high.
Knee-high topside versus those below.
On right side versus all…
On left side versus all…
On back versus topside.
On back versus kneeling.
On back versus standing.
(I include “seated” in this grouping.)
All strikes and kicks included.
Use of force laws & military rules of engagement, if any?
Hand, stick, knife, gun (pistol and long gun).
The vital W’s and H questions.
This is the 6th Stop, the Stop 6 of the Stop 6 “The Ground Fighting Collision,” my outline list.

Horizontal time in grade, reps, experience, coaching, all contribute to proprioception exercise. While wrestlers (including BJJ-ers) are developing or have developed this ground-fight awareness, combatives people and “stand-up-only-arts” who only dabble in ground fighting don’t, won’t, and haven’t achieved similar awareness. Modern MMA people work on it, (but without weapons and cheating). You can see the importance of organized doctrine timetables.

Another term for this, a bit more heard of, but not by much, is “Kinesthetic Perception.” I would suggest searching on the word to get the fullest understanding of it. Here’s one link, but continue the hunt.

https://journals.lww.com/…/proprioception_in_sports…

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Hock’s email is Hock@SurvivalCentrix.com

Ground maneuvers are covered in this book, available in collectable color hardcover, paperback and KIndle Ebook! For all info, click here:

It is the duty of every martial person to learn each joint and the directions they go in and the directions they don’t go in, standing thru on the ground, whether they think they are studying “survival fighting” or “arts/sports.” This joint knowledge is useful and can comes from many sources. (My personal favorite being “Catch Wrestling,” and bits from here and there.)

The “ground.” Ever been fighting someone on the so-called “ground?” And I mean –

on the tile floor?
on the the cement?
on the asphalt?
on a stairway?
a gravel picnic ground?
a slimy hillside in the pouring rain?
a room full of furniture?
accomplices around?

I have. Arresting people. I’ve worked in the field, line operations, spanning three decades. I’ve caught people in the act and served many warrants.

So, you get some control. And you hold on in a submission. It seems stabilized, but now I have to transition to handcuffs. I might struggle through several holds/transitions to travel to that goal and geography, as well as get one hand free/loose to get the cuffs out. If I lose the hold, lose control, the fight just continues, unlike mat sport, tap-outs. Unless the guy is totally exhausted (which happens at times, thank goodness), when you let go, loose control, the other guy just keeps right on fighting again. Injured or not (remember what adrenaline does), you cannot depend on holds, submissions to end a fight situation.

Lots of times my submission holds might mean my partner, or arriving back up jumps in, to help (whew!) I wait a short time or worse, a longer time? How much time, though ? How long can I keep an angry, resisting person in a submission hold? And, I have not always had backup.

(In my later years, we could not choke anyone. In the 1970s and 80s, chokes were a great police tool.)

So, what does a civilian do? Beat him, break him, damage him up, or wait? And one must consider the legal issues with each.

– Beating is ground and pound.

– Breaking him his breaking up body parts.

– Damaging is busting him up, but not to the breaking point.

– But waiting? Submissions? Waiting for what? Wait for who? What happens next?

I must repeat though, It is the duty of every martial person to learn each joint and the directions they go in and the directions they don’t go in, standing thru on the ground, whether they think they are studying “survival fighting” or “arts/sports.” This body joint knowledge is useful and can comes from many sources. You still simply have to know this material.

My personal path is one of “no hero-worship,” no “system-worship,” as martial arts are cluttered with these distractions. I am not a hobbyist, nor a “joiner.” I am a skeptic. An analyzer. A survivalist. Your path is your path. Whatever path, get on the path of learning the joints and which ways they do and do not twist and bend.