Grappling in any "live" situation is really last resort stuff. The priority - if avoidance and escape is not an option - is pre-emptive action via ballistic impact. If you have ended up on the ground, then a mistake has been made and you will have to make the best out of a bad situation - and quickly. The priority is to hurt your combative subject and get back to your feet as soons as you can.

Topics include:

• An introduction to counter-grappling
• Secondary tools from ECQ
• Restricted striking
• Biting and gouging
• Ballistic manipulations
• Use of the environment
• Counter grappling - vertical
• Dealing with common grabs/holds
• Countering tackles
• Counter grappling - horizontal
• Passing the guard (street style)
• Attacking from the pins
• Weapon access & deployment from ECQ
• And more...

Product Reviews

So you have heard me go on about the importance of the "clinching range"...the range at which two human bodies collide and the instinctively fight for purchase and balance. Usually, in the street, this is a fairly undignified affair that relies on opportunistic clutching of whatever is present (clothes, hair, throat, arms, legs, girlfriends etc) rooted more in aggression and sheer strength rather than skill or the manifestation of any kind of real game plan.

Not every fight will go to this range, in fact if you've followed your S.O.P.s and sought to 1.escape, 2.verbally deescalate, or 3. line up and preemptive strike to a clean clinical knockout...then you are having a very good day!

But as they, say not every day is a good day, "Sometimes you get the bear, sometimes the bear gets you." (got that from Dan Innosanto) "Even monkeys fall out of trees." (got that from Geoff Thompson) and my favourite, oft quoted in the British Army: "No plan survives contact with the enemy."

And now Ive got a new one that Ive picked up from Instructor Lee Morrison of www.urbancombatives.com: "Better to have a tool and not need it, than need it and not have it."

Lee has released a DVD series on Street Focussed Grappling called "The Last Resort" that I've just had the pleasure of watching. I'll be honest, after just 3 short years on planet Self Protection it really does take a lot to impress me. I've waded through hours of combatively themed crap that is allegedly "for the realest of real streets that are really really real" and is in fact just garbage.

I think we are entering a bit of a golden age in martial arts: the sacred cows are being shoved aside, taboos are being broken and fat, lazy instructors are being ignored while we, the real students are forcing instructors and martial arts organisations to new levels of research and development. I think this DVD series "The Last Resort" is a fine example of this movement towards a fresh approach to combatives and street focussed fighting systems. It is packed with useful techniques, concepts, principles and drills giving the student all he needs to not just cope with this range... but to be a real f@@@ing handful at this range!!!

I always try and alter my perspective when studying any field. I know that the questions I ask control my mental focus. So I asked myself after watching this series "Would I be intimidated by the prospect of fighting someone who had soley obsessively drilled JUST THESE TECHNIQUES alone for a few months?" and the answer is: your effing right I would be!

What is outlined in these DVDs is what I have always thought of as "my secret weapon" if you like. By that I mean: what do I personally do if my main game plan goes wrong? what would be my "last resort"? What is my personal plan B? I would do what is shown in this DVD series!

I would smash bodily into my attacker with full intent, ripping, clawing, bighting and mauling - attacking their sight, balance, breathing and breaking violently back to a striking range to knock them out or down for a stamping... But doing it in such a way that you are not lost in the red mist of a "berserker" mindset, far from it, this is the PRACTISED skillful application of ferocious, visceral violence. You will use "MMA" or sporting style clinches if they are what is appropriate to use in that moment. (The day we get over this ridiculous MMA vs. STREET mental map limitation will be a happy day indeed - I should invent a style of martial art just for fun called "human beings fighting").

The key here is skillful application of VIOLENCE: "Explode like an atom, in all directions" as Lee says on the DVD, "make them feel like they are holding a rabid dog." Excellent advice I would say.

If you're going to buy the DVD series and I highly recommend you do, especially if you are an instructor or running a class yourself, then expect to sit with a pen and pad making notes with your finger floating over the pause button. I have several DT instructors from various agencies in the States and canada who buy my material just for a bit of inspiration: gentlemen, this is definitely one for your library.

Lee has taken concepts from all over, he is like an assimilation and dissemination machine! Its all presented clearly and flows in an instructional direction using different clips from seminars and one on one sessions and flows as a kind of pastiche of extreme close quarter nastiness.

Trust me I am very easily bored and as a DVD producer (and effectively a competitor) I am highly critical. I have no affiliation scheme running with Mr. Morrison (or indeed anyone), I am not politically affiliated or anything like that. I am talking to you as a fellow student. My business model has always been that if I look after my customers then they look after me.

So here is my free tip: if you want an excellent back up plan for if you DO get shocked and ambushed and caught off guard or if that well practised preemptive strike comes out a bit sloppy after your 7th pint: buy this DVD from Lee Morrison.