grappling dominance?

[red5angel]

Why does it appear that one guy always seems to dominate in a match? Is it that hard to turn it around?

[Shaolin-Do]

Not much anti Chin na on the ground once your locked and have no root...

Best answer I can think of at least.

[Ford Prefect]

Since sport grappling is point based, once somebody gets a point, there is a likelyhood that the person will then stall to ensure victory. Most reversals are done while the other guy is in transition or moving. If he is experienced, and just wants to lay there, it will be pretty hard to move him. This may cause the other guy to be more frantic in attempts to reverse, which will leave him open for positional changes/submissions.

Imagine trying to punch a guy who's sole purpose was to avoid being hit; no offense in his mind at all. It would be pretty **** hard and you're bound to leave yourself open for a good counter.

[Ford Prefect]

Of course there's always the case where most people in the same division in tournies will be equally matched. Most fights are relatively close. If somebody scores some quick points, chances are his skill level is that much higher than his opponent, so he can pretty much run right over him.

I like watching beginners myself. They usually make a lot of mistakes, so there are plenty of reversals and excitement.

[ShaolinTiger00]

Red,

Its all about control.

Good control starts with the clinch and progresses, compounding your advantage.

Clinch->throw/takedown->ground domination-> submission/strikes.

If you have a good clinch, you're going to get a better shot at throwing. If you get the throw, you'll land (or stand!) in a controlling manner over your opponent. If you start out in a better position, it's much easier to submit your opponent!

See the chain?

You can break it at any place (disrupt clinch, counter throw, escape to better position), but understand that he (person in control) has the advantage.

[red5angel]

that makes sense ST00. I am just noticing that in general it seems that once a person begins to dominate a match, he tends to dominate throughout the entire thing. There is a lot of jockeying for position, pauses, things like that, it just seems to me that two, roughly equivelant opponents should sort of swap dominance form time to time.

[Judge Pen]

Originally posted by Ford Prefect
Since sport grappling is point based, once somebody gets a point, there is a likelyhood that the person will then stall to ensure victory. Most reversals are done while the other guy is in transition or moving. If he is experienced, and just wants to lay there, it will be pretty hard to move him. This may cause the other guy to be more frantic in attempts to reverse, which will leave him open for positional changes/submissions.

Imagine trying to punch a guy who's sole purpose was to avoid being hit; no offense in his mind at all. It would be pretty **** hard and you're bound to leave yourself open for a good counter.

Not that I'm an advocate, but you see that bs in point sparring all the time. One guy gets ahead on points and becomes evasive the rest of the time. Smart strategy, but boring as hell. I guess it's similar in grappling. One you get control you maintain position and try not to make any mistakes. Smart, but boring.

[ShaolinTiger00]

Red,

As Ford mentioned, when athletes are in the advanced skill level the match is usually lost by the first one that commits a mistake because the other guy is going to capitalize on it ...

newbies (like me!) tend to go back and forth alot more. as we are of comparable skills, but still make many mistakes.

[Merryprankster]

Actually, good grappling is exciting to watch, provided you know what's going on.

Red, the reason one guy who gets points seems to stay dominant is because he had to dominate in order to get those points! In other words, a match between two evenly matched opponents is likely to be very tight, without a lot of back and forth--one guy may initiate a scoring move and the other guy blocks and attacks and the other guy blocks and attacks... and round and round and round. A whole BUNCH of stuff happenned in one of my matches that was really quite exciting....but the score was 0-0 anyway!

Stalling really isn't quite as bad as some would make it out to be....It's also not that easy to stall, IMO. It is easy to play conservatively though--only going for a move if you really think you'll get it, instead of working to create openings, etc

[red5angel]

I have to agree that the more I watch and learn about grappling the more exciting it becomes, even when it appears not much is going on.

I should clarify something here, I am not talking about points, you don't see the points during the match and I do not have the eye to see where points are being scored yet. What I am seeing in general, and this could just be me, is one guy gets a dominate position and for the most part keeps it for the match. From time to time it switches but usually only briefly. Is there something I am missing? Is it that once you get that superior position then it is hard to get out of an inferior position? Does the guy in the superior position control the matchup that much?

[yenhoi]

What makes ground fighting so special compared to the other ranges of fighting?

Honest.

[Shaolin-Do]

Best answer you'll get?

"because 80-60-70-90% (never get a straight statistic) of fights wind up on the ground in the first 10-20-30-40 seconds."

[red5angel]

yenhoi, I don't think it is, but I used to be of the mind that watching grappling was boring. For the most part it looked like they were just sort of sitting there tugging on each other. Now that I have been introduced to it and understand it more, then I can see what is really going on.
It's sort of like watching a good kungfu movie. For the most part the martial arts you are seeing is made up. Without any martial experience you may not really understand what is going on but after doing a few years of training you can point out some real world techniques, or what art they belong to or whatever.

[SevenStar]

Another thing is that an experienced grappler knows how to hold his position VERY WELL. He knows when you are moving and can feel where you are moving to. He'll block your hips, trap limbs, etc. making reversing his position difficult, especially if he is more skilled than you.