Proposed changes: Mr Eddie Bravo, founder and chairman of EBI, one of the most successful and fastest growing grappling competition organizations, is proposing some radical changes to the shows format that will essential take it out of the grappling competition business and put it somewhere between grappling and MMA. The idea is to allow limited striking on the ground via palm strikes as a means of taking the grappling a step closer to MMA. This is certainly interesting. It may be a solution to a commonly voiced criticism of submission only formats – that they allow athletes to take positions and make moves that would get them severely hurt in a real fight. Also it may encourage athletes to play a more traditional positional game as they will be rewarded with the opportunity to set up submissions with flurries of palm strikes from dominant position. I spent much of the first part of my coaching career developing grapple boxing systems for MMA fighters, but striking with the palm only is a very different game, so from a coaching perspective, this should be interesting. The main danger of the proposal is that it will scare off high level grapplers who don't want to be part of what they may perceive as a crazy slap grappling event that will be quite different from their usual competition training. Also there is a danger that it may end up looking like a mix of weak striking and weak grappling and thus please neither the MMA crowd or the grappling crowd. Obviously there will practical difficulties also, how to deal with cuts, broken noses etc in a tournament where athletes may have to fight four times in an evening. How it will work out is anybodies guess, but as they say, there is only one way to find out. The only certainty is that, as always, training, adaptation and strategy will determine the winners.
