School Address
165 (Unit E) New Boston Street
Woburn MA 01801
Krav Maga Yashir is the system/style of Krav Maga taught by 5th Degree Black Belt, Gershon Ben Keren, who in 2010
was inducted into the Museum of Israeli Martial Arts in Herzliya, Israel. He is alos the author of three Amazon
best selling books on Krav Maga. His full-time school is located in Woburn, Massachusetts, just north of Boston.
165 (Unit E) New Boston Street
Woburn MA 01801
The idea/myth that most fights go to the ground is often attributed to the rise in popularity of BJJ (Brazilian Ju-Jitsu) in the 1990’s. It is worth noting why BJJ, uses and promotes such a strategy. As the Gracie family in Brazil, started to promote the effectiveness of their system, by inviting and accepting challenge matches, with other martial artists. These were one-on-one affairs, in controlled environments, where there were no weapons etc. Most martial artists were inexperienced on how to fight on the ground, and experienced great difficulties to stay on their feet, when they were dealing with opponents whose game largely depended on taking others to their ground. In 1993, Rorion Gracie, showcased BJJ, in the first UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), which saw his brother Royce Gracie win. The event is now looked on as having rules that favored grapplers, over strikers etc., and was somewhat designed to see a BJJ practitioner win. Rorion had previously stated a statistic that 90% of fights went to the ground, citing an LAPD (Los Angeles Police Department) study conducted by Sergeant Greg Dossey. What Dossey actually found was that 62% of arrests saw one or two parties (offender and/or law-enforcement officer) end up on the ground i.e., it was arrests not fights, and it was 62% not 90%.
This doesn’t mean that knowing how to fight and survive on the ground isn’t important, however adopting it as a strategy may not be the most effective way of dealing with real-life violence, that could involve multiple attackers, and weapons, such as knives. The other thing to remember is that both the early BJJ challenge matches and UFC contests, took place in controlled environments, where participants usually had a lot of uninterrupted space to work whilst of the ground. In real-life encounters, that may take place on buses, trains and/or in crowded bars, with people and furniture, restricting movement, certain techniques may not be applicable. This means that techniques and solutions need to be designed to worked in cramped and crowded environments and not just on expansive mat areas etc.
Krav Maga takes two approaches when fights end up on the ground. These are: ground-survival and ground-fighting. Ground survival involves surviving the “ground phase/dimension” of a fight, so that you can get back up to your feet, in order to continue fighting standing and/or disengage. This may involve you dealing with attackers who remain standing, or the less likely event of them following you to ground. Ground-fighting teaches the practitioner how to “finish” the fight on the ground, when all parties end up there, via joint breaks, strangulations, and chokes. To be the complete fighter, a Krav Maga practitioner needs to know and be capable with both approaches. Whilst, there are some individuals/instructors who will preach a “never go to the ground” message, this is not something that the Krav Maga Yashir system advocates, as there may well be times when actively going to ground is an effective option e.g., if you understand that you are not being successful standing, and you won’t be able to create an effective disengagement opportunity from here, your best option may be to take the fight to the ground etc. In reality-based self-defense, the word “never” should not be part of the vocabulary.