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Iain Abernethy
Iain Abernethy's picture
When the floor hits back

I once heard someone refer to Judo as “the art of hitting people with planets.” I also have a friend in Jujutsu who uses the line “the floor in the biggest fist I’ve got.” Both phrases are witty and communicate a valid point i.e. takedowns can cause impact just as strikes can. However, it’s worth remembering that sometimes the planet hits back.

This video shows some knockouts where takedowns have got wrong such that the person doing the takedown was knocked out by impact with the floor. The video is titled “Self-Inflicted Knockouts in MMA”, but if you watch closely you can see that it is often the grip or the motion of the person being thrown that makes the throwers head hit the floor; or at least prevents them moving their head to avoid it.

All the best,

Iain

Marc
Marc's picture

Iain Abernethy wrote:

I once heard someone refer to Judo as “the art of hitting people with planets.”

That's a nice expression. Sounds a bit like Douglas Adams' "flying is the art of throwing yourself to the ground but miss". ;-)

Iain Abernethy wrote:

[...] if you watch closely you can see that it is often the grip or the motion of the person being thrown that makes the throwers head hit the floor; or at least prevents them moving their head to avoid it.

It also looks like most throws shown are designed to end with both opponents on the ground as opposed to one remaining upright. So there's an inherent risk for the thrower to hit the ground by accident. This seems to be due to the nature of the sport: They want to be on the ground together so they can control and pound their opponent.

It's also another good reason why in self-defence you don't want to go the ground. It's a dangerous place.