I despise hypocrisy. Not only does it lead to wrong actions, it is on a fundamental level intellectually corrupt. Hypocrisy makes it easy to take the path of the lazy man. It is comfortable, so a lot of people settle for it. I think comfort is anathema to truth.

Case in point, the following video:

Once again, we have another video showing BJJ being used successfully in a real life self-defense encounter, to go along with the quite literal hours and hours of similar footage. And so how does this get reconciled with the typical, almost clichéd self-defense mantra that any time you go to the ground in a street altercation, you will always get stomped by the bad guy’s legion of buddies just waiting around to pounce? Because that is what you hear EVERY, SINGLE TIME. A dogmatic, written in stone, the sun comes up in the east, the sky is blue certainty. There is never an expression that maybe; just maybe, there is some time when that won’t happen.

And yet, here we are, AGAIN, viewing footage that is in 100% opposition to what actually is happening right before your eyes. Do the internet experts change their tune? Do they have the intellectually honesty to admit they were wrong? Of course not. This is the internet, where everyone’s knowledge is equal. If you did not see this online posted anywhere you might have missed the comments so let me sum them up in an easy to digest paraphrase – “well, this was stupid. The guy should know how lucky he was the other guys did not jump in and stomp him. This is a perfect illustration of why you don’t go to the ground”………

Seriously. While a paraphrase, that is a 100% accurate summing of the comments. Now, let me be clear. Is that idea – that you need to be aware of multiple actors – a valid and important one? Absolutely and beyond a shadow of a doubt. So why does the constant refrain on groundfighting videos annoy me so much? Because the concept of being aware of multiples is valid no matter what the situation is, but you never, ever hear people say the same critique whenever there is a video where a good guy uses a gun to defend themselves. Anybody who has studied this for any time at all will have seen case after case of multiple bad guys killing a lone good guy with a gun. Instead, any failure there is chalked up to either 1) he should have been a better shot or 2) it just was not his day. But if there is a win? No critique at all. Case in point:

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/heroic-mum-daughter-shoot-shotgun-12081162

Find any place where this clip is posted, and you will not once hear a single person make the same comment about the good guy being lucky another party does not jump him from behind. Even though both of these citizens were hyper focused on the bad guy and never looked around for a back up robber. But it’s all good. No need to critique at all in regards to the possibility. Not once. And why not? What miraculous thing happens when you are not grappling with another person? Do you magically get the power to be all-knowing and all-seeing? Of course not. You are subject to, and just as likely to succumb to, the same target focus whether you are on the ground or on your feet shooting. In fact, with a quick web search, we can come up with multiple accounts of just that, with the good guy shooter attacked and often killed from another attacker who was behind.

So why the discrepancy? Because it is easier to try to imply that grappling is more dangerous and that gives people an out so they don’t have to do the work, or it gives an excuse to instructors who cannot teach that context because they have no background in it. Personally, I find that repugnant, and that is why I spend the time for my own well being to work grappling, distance shooting, et al to my personal matrix. Others can do what they want, but please, don’t be a blatant hypocrite about it. Be honest. It’s good for the soul.