Dirty Ground: The Tricky Space Between Sport and Combat

by Kris Wilder, Lawrence A. Kane, Marc MacYoung (Foreword)

Goals―what you are fighting for changes every element of how you fight If you fight, you fight for a goal and you fight in an environment. In a sport environment you want to win quickly and decisively, with solid assurances that your opponent will be able to get up and compete again tomorrow. In a combat environment you also want to win quickly and decisively, but with solid assurances that your adversary cannot get up and re-engage. In the tricky space between sport and combat, termed "drunkle" (a commingling of the words drunk and uncle), you may be wrangling an out-of-control friend or relative, someone you need to restrain but do not want to injure. This puts the responsibility of their safety entirely on you. Understanding these environments is vital! Appropriate use of force is codified in law and any actions that do not accommodate these rules can have severe repercussions. Your martial art techniques must be adapted to best fit the situation at hand. The authors analyze 30 fundamental strikes, kicks and locks, and present 12 well-known sport competition forms modified for each of the three vital Sport, Drunkle, and Combat. Be Smart. Know how to adapt.

Genres: Martial Arts, Nonfiction

176 pages, Paperback

First published April 16, 2013

Reviews

[Bert Edens · Rating 5 out of 5]

From my book review blog at:

http://kickinbooks.wordpress.com/2013...

This book was made available by YMAA Publication Center through NetGalley, and I requested a copy for the purposes of reading it and providing a review.

OK, all the necessary stuff out of the way, how cool is it that you find a book you were willing to pay good money for available for review at no cost? Indeed. Life. Is. Sweet.

This book works off the premise that ground fighting, which is cool in the MMA ring or other competition arena, has to be played by different rules, or no rules at all, when it’s a violent encounter. Or, in the middle space between sport and combat, what the authors refer to as a “Drunkle”, the example being your drunk Uncle Albert at a family reunion. You’re asked to corral him and get him to settle down, but you can’t put the hammer down on him like Anderson Silva or use lethal force. He is, after all, family, like it or not.

The authors do a great job of clearly delineating, as much as possible, the difference between sport, drunkles and combat. They also cover the concepts of what you need to consider before getting involved in a violent encounter, namely Ability, Opportunity, Jeopardy and Preclusion (different sources use different terms and acronyms, but the concepts are the same):

Ability – Is the threat able to hurt you? An armed teen with a knife certainly is. An unarmed toddler isn’t (unless they’re dropping Legos in the hallway, to be found in the middle of the night).
Opportunity – Does the threat have the opportunity to hurt you? The same teen standing forty feet away with the knife wouldn’t have the opportunity. Once that teen gets within that magical 21 feet, he certainly does.
Jeopardy – Are you in what a reasonable person would call jeopardy? Even if the armed teen is cussing and telling you he’s going to kill and describing in detail how he’s going to do it, if he’s walking away from you while doing so, you’re not in jeopardy.
Preclusion – Did you, absolutely, have to fight and not have any escape avenues preceding or during the encounter? If a guy is in the car next to you waving a gun, telling you what he’s going to do to you, and you get out of your car and put a beat down on him, you may have the first three points on your side, but not the last. You could have avoided the encounter by simply putting pedal to metal.
This is just an example of what the authors cover. They spend a great deal of time talking about what ifs and wherefores and whys of violent encounters, giving you many things to think about. While they rightfully stop short of giving legal advice, they do make sure you understand there is much more going on that what might be going on in your head. Also addressed briefly, but in a solid manner, is the difference between social and asocial violence.

They also cover in detail some popular grappling styles through the centuries and how they fit into the sport, drunkle or combat spectrum.

Finally, they show several judo techniques, not because of superiority of that art, but because of the accessibility of terminology because of the popularity of the art, and put each one into the sport, drunkle and combat spectrum, giving examples of how those techniques might be applied. They also provide pictures of each of these examples, demonstrating how the force applied in each would differ.

Overall, I was very pleased with this book. It definitely covered the continuum I was hoping it would, speaking to the differences between each area, the gray areas in between, and how to tell which part of the continuum the encounter falls into. Not only that, but they also try to give you pointers on identifying when the encounter shifts from one area to the other, such as when drunk Uncle Albert suddenly has his three sober, armed brothers coming to his aid (my example, not theirs).

If you have any interest in protecting yourself and those you love in a violent encounter that could end up on the ground, this book is definitely for you.

Rating: 5 stars (out of 5)

[Michael Philliber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why one enters the martial arts world may be for the purpose of competing in the sport, the personal discipline and fitness, a desire to learn self-defense or a mixture of several of these and other motivations. Whatever the reason, the martial arts are exactly what the name means: the method and skill of combat. One is learning how to engage in a hostile situation and survive. But how a practitioner applies the martial art they have learned depends on the circumstance, which is the point of "Dirty Ground: The Tricky Space Between Sport and Combat." This easy-to-read 144 page instructional paperback was pulled together by Kris Wilder and Lawrence Kane, both accomplished martial artists, martial arts instructors and authors.

The authors define three environments where one may use their martial art: Sport, Drunkle and Combat. The sport is simply that, a competition where one is engaged for the purpose of pleasure where normally there is no threat of death or serious bodily harm. Drunkle is that setting where the family's "Drunk Uncle," for his own safety and others, simply needs to be controlled with minimal injury. Combat is the arena where one's life is at stake or it is the situation that is "designed to kill people, break things, and blow stuff up" (1). Wilder and Kane spend a lot of time distinguishing between these three settings, giving an important amount of attention to combat. I found much of their instruction on combat helpful: the significance of avoiding it if at all possible; the value of ending the engagement swiftly; the weightiness of driving the opponent to the ground, clearing away his weapons while bringing your own to bear; and having a ground game yourself.

"Dirty Ground" has a complete chapter on "The Morality of Fighting" that explains the different levels of force and what constitutes ethical self-defense. Though not a highly technical chapter, it unpacks the four aspects necessary to reasonably justify personal use of force: (1) Does the opponent have the ability to "seriously injure, maim, or kill you" (17)? (2) Does the attacker have the immediate opportunity to do so? (3) Is your life in real jeopardy? (4) Are all other safe alternatives precluded? The authors clearly are not promoting gratuitous violence. The goal of their non-legal advice show the benefit of having one's head squarely on one's shoulders!

The first half of "Dirty Ground" opens up with unnumbered chapters that are normally very short, concise and to the point. Their topics run the gambit from theory, to the anecdotal, on into the history of combative arts. The second half of the book moves its way through various grappling techniques and how each one is used in (1) sport, (2) drunkle and (3) in combat. The pictures are fairly clear in demonstrating the point of each move being illustrated. The explanatory notes next to each picture are lucid and unmistakable. It would be very easy for a martial arts instructor to thumb through this section and quickly teach a move to his or her students for all three circumstances.

It is plain to see how "Dirty Ground" achieved finalist status in the 2013 USA Best Book Awards for Sports. This book would be an ideal addition to any Dojo's library, as well as a valuable extra-curricular tool for any student of the martial arts. I highly recommend the book.

Thanks to YMAA for the free copy of this volume used for this review.

[Raymond Goss · Rating 4 out of 5]

The idea of the book is great. The authors present the need to curtail techniques from the most violent combat situation, yet keep them practical for encounters where many martial artists might find themselves in, among "drunkles" or those who are in a semi-social situation. There are numerous examples of classic judo/jujutsu techniques shown in three different settings. I think I was a little disappointed the the book was so short, yet after a handful of examples it was easy to extrapolate to just about any technique. Maybe more of the book could have focused on the level of damage and the legal and ethical aspects in various situations. Some techniques might be better go-to options.

[Miroku Nemeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

While there are many useful things to be gained from this book, I did expect a bit more of an elucidation along the lines of actual dirty ground fighting itself. I love Rory Miller and Marc MacYoung, and was glad there were introductory writings from them, but with a title like "Dirty Ground Fighting", again, I would expect more along the lines of what to do if on the ground--not just taking someone down, locking, striking, or stomping them. I do agree with the philosophy of staying off the ground oneself and putting someone down effectively, as this is what I have trained to do in my 30+ years of training in martial arts (and I have also seen some brutal reality on the street as far as what happens when you are on the ground too long), but I was really hoping for some systematic insights to actual ground fighting itself. We have counters that break all the rules of combat sports in the styles I train in, and I bought this in the hope of seeing something like this laid out for me with illustrations, etc. The Judo-based illustrations of techniques along with the "drunkle" and "combat" modifications are the most valuable part of the book, and should be an essential part of any martial artists "toolbox." I have read a lot of Miller and MacYoung, and even some works from Kane, and I am currently reading "Scaling Force"--so I actually appreciate the summaries of some of the principles that are more further expanded upon in that book, and this could be a useful book for many martial artists.

[Owen · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first I thought this book was misguided, in that I wasn't sure what the point was but it got better later on. It is definitely not a comprehensive guide to martial arts or self defense but it covers the very basics of a few different fighting styles from around the world and self defense techniques to be used in competition, combat, or against "drunkles" (drunk uncles). The point of being able to justify your actions in court, say, if you stomp on someone's head, is repeated to hopefully ensure that people will think before causing more harm than is needed, even if it is against someone wishing to cause you harm.

[Steve Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the way Wilder and Kane go over the law of self defense and caution the sport enthusiast about the limitations of their arts in combat. The actual "how to" section was limited by the medium. This would have been a good self defense video, and the techniques would have been easier to master using that format.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book with good depth of practical techniques

Well done and clearly written - photos are plentiful and clear as well as accompanied by clear instruction. The authors do a great job of affording you a variety of approaches for each technique to address various use of force scenarios. Highly recommended as it is practical and easy to follow as well as effective.

[Shawn Mcvay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Application for combat, addressing out of control relatives or friends, and competition. These are very different arenas and this book puts the same techniques in each space, altering them to suit the circumstances. The differences are worth years of study.

[Rolando Vega · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book

Good book! Give the reader a detailed explanation identifying the difference between sport, control/submission and street combat. Gives martial arts instructors more tools.