What martial art is best for being a ground fighter and being comfortable on your back.?

Question

I know this doesn't happen overnight.

Answer 1

Jiu-Jitsu. Submissions and lots of learning how to fight on the ground. Have been doing it for 6 years. It's great to learn. It's also one great fighting styles that when you learn it size no longer matters. If you watch UFC or anything like that the tougest guys out there are usually the Jiu-Jitsu fighters and are only like 5'5-5-9'' 170-200lbs.

Answer 2

Thank you Kris for mentioning us. But Kajukenbo may be hard to find. Because so few people actually stay long enough to get a Black Belt, there aren't as many qualified Kajukenbo instructors as there are in other more popular martial arts. And most Black Belts don't even bother to open up schools because there is such a high dropout rate that it is very difficult to break even with a commercial school. And there are some Kajukenbo instructors who make the training easier than it should be in order to keep students. But if you do find a hardcore or an extremely hard core Kajukenbo school, you will be learning the Hawaiian street fighting art. But I must warn you that the training is brutal, violent, painful and dangerous. For the beginning student as well as for the intermediate and advanced students. The average stay at a Kajukenbo school is about a week or two before the student quits. If there is a hardcore Kajukenbo school in your area, look into it. But you have to know what you are getting into first. And getting beaten up in the class is considered part of the training, it is to desensitize the student to real violence.

Answer 3

Specificly for fighting on the ground from your back, the answer would be Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. It was developed as a subset and later expansion of Judo techniques by Helio Gracie because he was a smaller fellow, and constantly ended up in this position when wrestling his larger, stronger brothers and cousins. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) specializes in groundwork just about to the exclusion of all else, and also has a well developed tournament circut where you can test yourself against other players from other places with a similar amount of training time.

I would have to disagree with Blitzkrieg's statment that fighting from the back or the "gaurd" position as it's refered to in BJJ is a last resort. Though he is quite correct that BJJ does foccus on constantly moving into a more dominant position, BJJ players frequently choose to fight from the gaurd positon and structure their game plan around that postion. The reason for this is there are litterally hundreds of options open to a good BJJ player from the gaurd.

A great example of the gaurd being the first choice not the last is Rodriguo "Minitaruo" Noguira's first fight against Fedor Emelianko in PRIDE. Noguira is arguably one of the best BJJ players in the world right now, and he stated plainly before the fight his plan was to put Fedor in his guard and work from there. For more evidence look into the early UFC's for other examples. Royce Gracie used the guard against Kimo Leopoldo who outweighed him by over 100lbs. Why? because Rocye had the most options to win the fight from that position (and did).

That being said, BJJ is by no means the be all and end all of fighting, and you're better served learning a more well rounded approach. Learn fighting from all the essential ranges (striking, clinching as well as groundwork), rather than just one. Find a good MMA gym and they'll likely have a BJJ coach as well as a Boxing and Muay Thai coach on staff. Many also have wrestling, judo or even sambo (russian syle ground fighting) instructors. The takedowns in western wrestling are generally acknowledge to be better than those in BJJ (observe Matt Hughes crushing defeat of Royce Gracie for an example), and are definetly greater in diversity.

If you're willing to put in the time, fighting is a bottomless art where you can get continually new and deeper insite into yourself and life as a whole. Be well.

Answer 4

Jiu Jitsu and Traditional Wrestling would probably be your best bets. It doesn't happen overnight but within 2 weeks you will be more comfortable on your back than you will be at the moment. Jiu Jitsu is really awesome.

Answer 5

Ju-Jitsu, especially the Brazilian style taught at the Gracie schools, a background in wrestling is very helpful--Matt Hughes (mixed martial arts champion) recently beat Royce Gracie, and Matt has an excellent wrestling background.

Answer 6

In my oppinion the best ground art id Ju-Jitsu. The best form of Ju-Jistu is Gracie Brazilian Ju-Jitsu. If you can find a Gracie school then that would be best. If not then do Ju-Jitsu anyway.

Judo you stay on your feet.
Capoiera is more of a dance art
Muy Thai is more like kickboxing with the knees

Answer 7

Gracie Jiu Jitsu. But the goal of Jiu Jitsu is to maintain a dominant position. To pull guard or go on your back is when you have no other option.

Answer 8

brazilian jujitsu is great for learning how to be comfortable in your guard and how to defend and submit from the guard position: http://bjj.org/

submission grappling is also a great ground game and is taught by many different instructors. some of the better known names of the business are:
frank shamrock - http://www.frankshamrock.com/
bas rutten - http://www.basrutten.tv/
pat miletich - http://miletich-fight-minn.tripod.com/

and many others.. they have great ground techniques and certified instructors around the country in most cases. you can even purchase instructional videos that you can use to learn at home. its never as good as the real thing but it can give you an idea, a starting point if that's what you are interested in.

we have actually taken an interest in bas ruttens instructional dvds. his mma ground fighting is phenomenal and innovative and his instruction is simple enough for someone who isn't versed in bjj lingo, great for a beginner. and great for someone who's already in the game, a great resource tape...

well, i hope this helps!

~*good luck*~

Answer 9

Judo-there are good jujutsu instructors out there, but most aren't the athletes that elite judoka are. If it were otherwise the jujutsu guys would be winning Olympic judo medals instead of running a dojo in a shopping mall.

Answer 10

100% Jiu-jitsu