Tonight at training, we incorporated strikes into the grappling aspects, starting to get to the "MMA" sorta feel. we've got a good group right now and a few people wanna start gettin into some tourney's and mma matches so we have been going a bit harder lately.

man, what a new world once strikes get added into just the pure grapppling aspect of it all. Usually we train strictly grappling and simulate some strikes, but when you put on soe bag gloves and allow strikes (controlled and not full power of course) it definately livens it up and brings it to a whole new level. It adds another element and you learn how important your technique really is!

I had the best time training, EVER.

Do you all train with strikes or do you do your standup stuff and striking at one time and your BJJ/grappling at another?

When I was training heavily last year, we incorporated strikes all the time. My instructor was an MMAer for the most part, so that's what we got.

I like to throw strikes in BJJ class. No one else really does but I treat it like MMA. Then when I am in MMA class I tend to just strickly grapple, kinda weird.

It is vital to use strikes in your ground training. I just started teaching about a year ago. The first thing I learned was that to be a good MMA fighter you had to always be able to use any weapon. At first I was having ground days and standing days, but I found my students were lacking in the ability to use effective techniqes against the other fighting types. So now after the student has a grasp of the technique to use I simply simulate the best situation to use it. By not forcing a reaction the student feels more comfortable in both situations. I know this does not exactly answer the question. I just wanted to let you know my reasoning from a pure MMA standpoint. So yes we do strike while ground fighting.

-nick