[TRIANGLEFROMGAURD]

Originally Posted by Joemoplata

I hear ya. The late Carlson Gracie and most of his immediate disciples (Mario Sperry, the head of Brazilian Top Tea most notably) used to always reply to the question "How do you open someone's guard?" with "Open him up with strikes". This holds true for any grappling situation. If you watch the old Royce Gracie fights they usually went like this:

1. Front kick the guy to gauge distance and distract.
2. Shoot.
3. Strike to distract.
4. Takedown.
5. Use strikes to establish mount.
6. Strike until opponent rolls over.
7. Choke or strike until choke is open.

All of Rickson Gracies fights look like this as well. The striking is used to setup the position or submission. This is a consistent message with any BJJ guy I have ever trained with whos concentration was MMA or "Self Defense".

No doubt Carlson was all about using strikes to distract your oppnent and set up your submissions. You can also look at his early Vale Tudo fights and see the same thing. Or more recently Migel's total domination of Chase Bebe for the WEC 135 title. I was disapointed in that fight not because Migel won, of course I was happy about that, but Chase looked like garbage, he throw like one crappy shot.

In the early UFCs I always hated the way Royce shot in he'd shoot in from like a ridiculous range but, goes to show if you don't train to defend the take down you won't be able to do it real life.