Hi Burton,
This is a interesting point you bring up. I was taught that students must learn to become comfortable in the grappling environment and understand the principles behind the techniques. Striking is added after the basics are sufficiently understood. The problem comes from students and/or instructor only focusing on sport grappling.
Do you think that adding the emphasis to strike from the beginning will cause students to have a shallower grasp of the underlying principles?
My own grappling training had me training BJJ w/ gi for the first 6-8 months. This was to learn the basics and to get us used to grappling. Next, we trained positions and grappling w/o the gi while slowly adding open hands strikes. Part of the training consisted of learning how to throw elbows, headbutts and lowline kicks. As we progressed we would use headgear and gloves and go harder. We had to learn the different strategies and tactics used in "fighting" as opposed to straight grappling.
I have told many students who had no experience in JJ to train for 6-8 months in the gi class. Then enter the no gi class, after they had aquired an understanding of the basics. I look at it like marksmanship training. First, you must learn the mechanical aspects of operating a weapons system before attempting to fire it. Secondly, learn how to maximize the stability between you and the weapon (position & dryfiring). Next, actually firing the weapon and gaining shooting experience. Once you have a basic grasp of the skills needed ,you move on to advanced skills like move and shoot, moving and timed targets, etc. Am I wrong, or is it a case of different strokes-for different folks?
It's great having a forum for us to bounce ideas around. See you Thursday night.
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