Preparing for the Street! with Eli Knight

 

Jiu-Jitsu’s deepest roots are in self defense. IF you look back at the history of BJJ and its growth, you’ll see it was built on a foundation of self-defense, proving its worth through a great number of contests where the rules were minimal. When BJJ arrived in the US, it was met with heavy criticism and skepticism, but the truth was soon realized. Being forged in the fires of real combat and emerging as a front runner in the category of the most effective martial arts, BJJ quickly cemented its position as one of the great combative arts of our time. 

Of course, I’m biased, but I believe BJJ remains, and will remain at the top of this list for all time. BJJ does something extraordinary, in that it accounts for the basic, most primal common reactions of the average human in a combative scenario. This allows the practitioner to understand the flow of a fight and prepare accordingly. This doesn’t mean that unpredictability is not a factor, but after several years on the mat, there’s probably not going to be many curve balls the average civilian can throw your way. 

Do you consider strikes when your training? Most academies keep this type of curriculum in their studies, as it is very important, especially ar the beginner level to consider the possibility of strikes coming in to play in a self-defense setting. Managing the distance in a street fight is an incredibly important skill to obtain. This distance management can make all the difference where injury is concerned. This concept needs to be observed in all positions to mitigate the amount of damage we could possibly absorb in an altercation. This concept also applies to training without strikes so its not something that you can’t grasp if you haven’t paid a ton of attention to this particular aspect of your training. 

Let’s look at some instruction from Eli Knight. Eli is known for his innovations to the self defense concepts of BJJ. His “Blade Grappler” work has also made a huge impact on the BJJ community, bleeding basic conceptual BJJ with knife defense that’s practical and applicable. Here, he shows us how we can acknowledge and deal with strikes in side control. He’ll demonstrate a few ways to get from the bottom to the top in a self-defense scenario. In a real street fight this is a paramount skill. Take a look!

 

As Knight explains, he strives to develop technique that not only works in a street defense setting but also in his day to day training. This can be helpful, limiting the disconnect between the two scenarios.

IN the first example, Knight is simply using a frame at his partner’s neck and arm. This defends the forward progress of his partner, as well as his ability to reach the head. This would keep punches at bay as well as a cross face and the ability for his partner to close the gap between Knight and himself. AS Knight controls the arm, its likely his partner will try to retract it so that he can use it. As this occurs Knight simply creates a wedge with his opposite hand and sits up, tipping his partner backward and reversing the position.

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As his partner reacts to the first technique, he may want to free his arm and try to transition it to the opposite side of Knight’s body. When he begins this motion, Knight simply changes the orientation of his hands, finding a wedge in the elbow area, to gain control over the limb, and uses his partner’s momentum to guide his arm away. He uses what he refers to as a kettle bell style Turkish get up motion to complete the technique and again reverse his partner. Knight is working heavily with momentum and using his partners reactions against him. It seems it would be important here to not stall out and continue moving. If we don’t stay active here, we may allow our partners to settle in and flatten us. As he arrives in the top position, Knights can now assess the situation and choose to inflict damage, control the opposing party, or simply get away.

Continuing to build on the series, Knight now demonstrates what to do if we miss the second technique and we find ourselves still on the bottom with the top person across our side. Here, Knight sits up and wraps the waist, facing his partners hips. This creates an urgency for his partner to retreat backward in order to keep Knight from sneaking out from underneath. As his partner begins this backward movement, Knight comes back to the ground and transitions the arm from the waist to the other side of the head, blocking his partner’s arm from making any kind of base. As he secures his grip with a gable or s-style configuration of the hands, Knight now employs a basic bridge to once again reverse his partner and claim the top position.

IN the final example, Knight again continues to exploit his partners reactions. With the waist wrap variation, Knight works to reverse his partner and meets resistance in the form of a kickstand base from his partner. AS Knight pushes in to his partner, he keeps his partner committed to the kickstand base. This allows him the opportunity to easily travel back in tot eh guard and begin to work from there. 

This is an incredibly systematized approach to working from the bottom in a self defense scenario. What’s also great about this sequence is that its going to work just as well in a situation where strikes are not begin considered. It seems Knight puts this concept to work across the board when developing and testing his material. This kind of approach can be incredibly beneficial to tightening up all aspects of your BJJ training. There’s lots of great ideas at work here to consider. Great stuff from Eli Knight! 

Whether you are a Black-Belt, White-Belt, or No Belt Jiu-Jitsu Based Solutions By Eli Knight will give you the tools required to survive a real life altercation where your attacker is trying to inflict serious harm to you. Will you accept less than the best in training, when your life depends on it? If the answer is a resounding NO, than Jiu-Jitsu Based Solutions By Eli Knight is for YOU!

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