If you've ever watch the Ultimately Fighting Championship (UFC) or any other MMA fight then you will no that in mixed martial arts most fights end up going down to the mat, involve a lot of grappling, and are won and lost by submissions. This is what I mean by ground fighting, and the same thing also happens quite a lot in street fighting.

I've written this page to offer a basic introduction to the main principles and techniques of ground fighting.

 The mount is the best, most dominant position that a fighter can get themselves into, and the person who gains a mount will often win.

The full mount position is when your opponent is on their back and you are straddling their torso. You then have good control of them as their movement is limited, and you can go into either a 'ground and pound' to win by k.o., or go for a submission.

In addition to this there is also a side-mount position, which is not quite so good but is still a dominant position. As this is not quite so simple to explain I have added a video below which domonstrates how to do it:

The guard is when you have gone down to the floor and need to prevent your opponent from gaining the mount position over you.

Lying on your back your legs should be raised and parted. If there is some distance between yourself and your opponent then the legs are used for kicking to ensure the distance is maintained, but often you will find yourself with your opponent between your legs as they try to either get past your legs for the mount, or to strike you. In this case the hips are used to make sure that they cannot get any closer to attack.

There are two main variations on the guard - open and closed. In a closed guard your legs will be wrapped around your opponent and locked together at the ankles, whereas in an open guard the ankles are not brought together. Generally the closed guard is better because it gives you greater control.