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Introduction

On November 12, 1993, the UFC made its debut with the Gracie family introducing their style of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu (BJJ) to the world. This event changed the martial arts world forever. Prior to that time, the vast majority of martial arts schools focused solely on stand-up styles, with little, if any, coverage on what to do if a fight goes to the ground. While the UFC started in 1993, it took a few years before it started to become more mainstream, but by the end of the 90s, BJJ schools started popping up all over North America, and throughout the world.

The publicity the Gracie family received for their style was massive. Suddenly, everyone wanted to learn this “new” art that had stepped up against representatives of a variety of styles in a “no rules” competitive format, beating them out one by one. The average Joe saw BJJ as the new “ultimate” fighting system. People flocked to BJJ schools in droves.

As the years went by, the nature of the UFC changed. Competitors came to realize the deficiencies of training in a single martial arts style. Competitors learned that they needed to train in multiple styles and have a mix of skills including stand-up striking, throws/takedowns, and ground fighting, in order to compete effectively in UFC fights. It no longer pitted one style against another. It evolved to create a new breed of martial art, simply called Mixed Martial Arts or “MMA.” The Gracie family no longer dominated the UFC ring, but BJJ would always have a place in MMA as the ground grappling aspect, which people came to commonly refer to as “Jiu-jitsu.”

Origins of Can-ryu Jiu-jitsu

The year the UFC began was the same year I started my martial arts career. At that time, I was completely unaware of the existence of UFC and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. The only jiu-jitsu I had ever heard of was Japanese jiu-jitsu, and the style I signed up to learn was one such variant, known as Can-ryu Jiu-jitsu or “Canadian Style of Jiu-jitsu.” This style combined stand-up striking, throws/ takedowns, joint locks, ground combat and weapon defense. It was a “mixed” martial art before the term came to carry different connotations, created by Professor Georges Sylvain, a “mixed martial artist” in his own right.

Now retired, Professor Sylvain holds a 10^th degree black belt in jiu-jitsu, 4^th degree black belt in karate, and has also trained extensively in Western boxing and judo. A Black Belt Hall of Fame inductee, he has also been acclaimed by the martial arts community for his pioneering work in developing and innovating training methods for the sport of kickboxing. In addition to his martial arts training background, Professor Sylvain served as a Canadian Military Police officer during the Korean War and as an Ottawa Municipal Police officer for 15 years. He is also a Tactical Training Officer with an international reputation. He was the Chief Instructor of physical defense training at Algonquin College in Ottawa for its Law and Security program, having taught there for 25 years, in addition to having been Chief Instructor to RCMP self-defense instructors in Rockliffe, Ontario before they were relocated to Western Canada. He was also the first Canadian police trainer ever to have been invited as a guest lecturer at the Smith-Wesson Police Academy in 1989. In addition to his instructive capacities, Professor Sylvain has served as an expert witness in self-defense and has testified on the behalf of a number of police officers.

For many years, Professor Sylvain had focused his attention solely in the area of law enforcement, having removed himself from the formal business of the martial arts world entirely. But one day he decided to reclaim his place in the style he created, in conjunction with my Sensei, Ed Hiscoe Hanshi (currently 9^th degree black belt). In doing so, he reaffirmed an emphasis on the original spirit of his style through the base tenets of Can-ryu Jiu-jitsu, which he felt had fallen away. Since Professor Sylvain’s retirement, my Sensei has been appointed the new head of style with his son, Steve Hiscoe Shihan (8^th degree black belt) named as the heir apparent. Steve Hiscoe Shihan is also a 20-year veteran RCMP member with the rank of Corporal, currently assigned to the RCMP Training Academy in Chilliwack and is responsible for training and coordinating the assignments of the academy’s instructors.

The Modernization of Can-Ryu Ground Defense

As I started to teach Can-ryu Jiu-jitsu, I became more aware of the UFC and BJJ as its impact on the martial arts world grew over time. More and more new students showing up to try classes at our dojo came to us mistakenly looking for a place to learn BJJ. We learned that we had to more clearly distinguish how we were different from the Brazilian off-shoot, focusing more on self-protection rather than competition. More than that, we learned that we also needed to update our ground defense skills to address its changing nature, as well as the greater variety of moves that had become more commonplace due to the popularity of UFC and BJJ. It wasn’t just that more people were officially learning ground fighting skills at martial arts schools. A great number were also learning simply by watching UFC fights, as well as YouTube videos that were widely available on the Internet.

Prior to the influence of the UFC and BJJ and before Professor Sylvain re-engaged himself in the martial arts community, our ground defense system comprised of a set of defenses against what were considered common holds and attacks on the ground. The problem with that method of training was that it was overly prescribed and didn’t address the dynamic nature of ground fighting. Some of the defenses also relied on techniques that kept the defender prone on the ground, leaving them open to attacks from additional attackers.

Professor Sylvain brought us back to the focus of getting to our feet as quickly as possible. The first line of defense he taught when you were on the ground and your attacker was on his feet was to keep your legs between you and your attacker, kicking at vulnerable targets as they tried to move in. We were taught to control their legs and take them down if possible. There was little emphasis on what to do if the attacker managed to get on top of you. He said simply that we should “launch an all-out attack against the most accessible, vulnerable areas of his body.” The idea was that we were to try to get an immediate advantage create an opportunity to get off the ground as quickly as possible. This is a very important foundation often completely ignored in modern ground fighting systems designed more for competitive purposes. It did, however, leave much open to interpretation as to how best to apply this principle.

To try and fill this void, I started doing some side training in BJJ and MMA, to learn new defensive tactics to combine with my Canryu skills. Over time, I developed a modernized, simplified approach to ground defense to cover the gap left by Professor Sylvain’s very open concept, one that was practical and adaptable for different body types that more closely fit with the self-protection tenets of our style. Having seen some of these defense methods, I was eventually asked by Steve Hiscoe Shihan several years ago to provide the foundation for an updated ground defense curriculum for our style.

Before you ask, no I do not have a black belt in BJJ, nor a competitive record in MMA. My goal in training in these arts was never to achieve ranks, but to learn what I needed to equip my students for self-protection against the realities of modern ground fighting. I’ve trained in jiu-jitsu for over 20 years and hold the rank of 4^th degree in my style. Being a small woman, I’ve had to develop a set of defensive skills and tactics that make up for my disadvantages in size and strength. The ground defense system I’ve put together is designed with a “worst case scenario” mindset that is meant to be usable even if the attacker has a major size and strength advantage as most attacks don’t come from people who are smaller and weaker than you. That being said, I’ve also included variations in this book to address scenarios in which different body types affect the way a person can move.

Who Can Use This Book

I wrote this book with three types of martial artists in mind. Most BJJ and MMA schools teach their arts specifically for the competitive arena. If you’re a student in this type of school with a desire to learn to apply your skills for self-protection in a street-oriented assault situation, this book will teach you concepts and techniques you can combine with your training for application in this context. There are also many traditional martial arts schools that focus on a single stand-up striking style with little to no defensive techniques for the ground. If you’re a student at such a school and would like to learn a simple, effective system of ground combat you can combine with your stand-up defensive skills, this book has you covered. The last type of martial artist is the one most likely to actually use these skills, but oftentimes spends the least amount of time training. Because of the temporary nature of the physical defense training programs and their demanding schedules, many police officers have very little experience training ground defense skills. This simple ground defense system provides skills they can learn quickly and easily apply on the job.

The ground defense system in this book is NOT a complete system of self-protection. It covers only one aspect to be partnered with other strategies and defensive techniques, including soft skills like personal awareness, conflict avoidance, and de-escalation tactics, as well as hard/physical skills, such as stand-up striking, throws, and takedowns, etc. Nevertheless, ground defense is an important skill to learn if one’s goal is to have a well-rounded system of self-protection.

How to Use this Book

This book teaches self-protection from the ground in a variety of ways. It provides information and concepts that help you understand the realities of fighting from the ground, as well as information on the defensive advantages and disadvantages that are inherent in different combat situations. It teaches you the basic tools of physical defense on the ground, body shifting /positional strategy and attacks to vital targets, which combine to give you a foundation that can be adapted for different situations, body types, situational factors, etc. It also provides detailed descriptions with photos showing you a number of examples of how the basic tools can be used to mount an effective defense. These examples help you consider different ways of applying your skills, but don’t let them bind you. Real physical combat is an entity in itself. Everything can change in an instant. Attackers don’t necessarily react the way you expect. You have to be adaptive and ready for anything. Your attacker could be so high or drunk that they don’t react to pain. Or your first strike could knock them out or simply dissuade them from pursuing further aggressive action. You may even find yourself reacting in a way that you never trained but made sense at the time. Keep an open mind, whether you’re training your defensive skills or your reacting to a real live attacker. As leaders in my style have said countless times in the past: Never say always. Never say never. There are no rules, only results.