Theme of the Week: The Ground

Teach someone how to play chess and upon playing their first game, they will most likely be looking to capture pieces.  After ten or so games, they might begin to worry about how to protect the pieces that they march forward into battle.  After a hundred games, if they’re really connecting the dots, they will begin to contemplate the overall position of their pieces on the board.

So it is with grappling.  Teach someone the rules and show them a few techniques and upon saluting in with a partner, they’re bound to dive straight for a submission.  And why not?  That’s the goal after all, right?  To submit your partner?  To corner their king?  To make them admit defeat?

Perhaps the trouble is in the methodology of teaching the games.  Perhaps chess should be taught first where you aren’t allowed to capture any pieces but are only allowed to move them around the board and create various offensive/defensive shapes with them.  Perhaps grappling should be taught the same way, with students first learning positions and not even worrying about submissions.  Then from there they try and hold various positions.

Sounds like a plan.