Grappling and Control

Use the word grappling in a martial context, and you’re liable to make folks think of two guys with lightly padded fingerless gloves on rolling around in a cage, trying to beat the tar out of one another.  That is grappling, yes.  But so is any situation in which one person is holding onto another.  The beauty of grappling is that done correctly, you can control an attacker through proper leverage without having to hit them.  It may take several punches and/or kicks to get to that controlling position but in a perfect grappler’s world, the attacker throws a punch, the grappler moves into position, slips in a hold and achieves a hold that makes the attacker cry uncle – a submission.
The “bigger picture” key to a successful hold that gives a grappler control is space.  The less space the attacker has to wiggle, the easier it is to maintain the hold with leverage and not strength.  A proper hold should be able to be applied by a skilled, small sized grappler on a large attacker.  That is the ideal.
The full nelson is one such hold.  Give a skilled grappler the opportunity to put this hold on you, not giving you any space to move and you’ll find it hard to escape.  If the hold is put on and there is too much space then it is easy enough to slip free.  Remember – control means not leaving the attacker an escape route.
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