Pearls of Wisdom

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by Jane Hallander

Black Belt Magazine December 1996

Royce Gracie doesn’t wear a cape or have a red “S” on his chest. He can’t fly, bullets won’t bounce off him, and he never has, or ever will, leap over a tall building - especially in a single bound.

But after the talented Brazilian Jiu Jitsu fighter won titles at three of the first four Ultimate Fighting Championship events, you’d have thought Gracie was Superman, the way people were talking about him. Of course, these days, he’s simply a mild-mannered Jiu Jitsu instructor working at a great metropolitan martial arts school.

But, all analogies to Superman aside, Gracie’s tournament successes have forced martial artists from striking systems to take a serious look at their arts and address the distinct possibility that their styles may be lacking when it comes to fighting on the ground. Many instructors who never before saw a need to teach the topic are now imparting grappling techniques to their students so they will be better prepared if they are taken to the ground.

But just exactly how do you defend against a guy who latches on to you like a boa constrictor and tries to squeeze the life out of you while you lay in a tangled heap on the ground?

Kung Fu stylist Martin Ferreira believes he has the answer.

Ferreira, who wrestled in college, teaches Choy Li Fut Kung Fu and Yang Tai Chi Chuan at his White Dragon martial arts schools in Encinitas and El Cajon, California. Although Choy Li Fut is noted as a long-range fighting system, according to Ferreira, it actually contains many close-quarters techniques which would prove useful against grapplers. And Ferreira claims Tai Chi, while lauded for its health benefits, is an effective fighting art at close range and includes a number of joint locks and pressure-point strikes.

The Kung Fu strategy involves separating a grappling attack into three stages: as the opponent closes the fighting distance, as he is attempting a hold, and while fighting on the ground. “It is necessary to know how to defend against grapplers from the time they approach you to the time they have taken you down,” Ferreira asserts. “Our strategy is to make a grappler come to us. I try to keep my body as compact as possible, because a grappler needs something to work with. Jiu Jitsu stylists need you to extend your limbs to take you down. A true grappler comes up underneath your center of gravity, so when you extend your arms or legs, you are open to his attack.”
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