How striking, takedowns and groundfighting interact

An excellent essay on MMA combat. It's actually almost exactly what we're going into. I'm OK with that as long as we keep the "reality" in, and the "sport leakage" out, as Hock would say. In other words, does every technique pass the test of being a real technique without a sport-only usage or practicality. Anyway, here are the key points, but read it all:

The MMA Formula:
Striking + Takedowns + Groundwork

... For the sake of argument we can divide MMA combat into 3 phases: Striking, Standing Grappling and Groundfighting. Each of these phases is composed of a large number of sub-categories. For the sake of discussion, I will divide each major phase into some simple and sometimes arbitrary categories.

Standing Striking
1 – Punching
2 – Kicking
3 – Knees
4 – Elbows
5 - Headbutts

Standing Grappling
1 – The Clinch (e.g. inside trip, whizzer, lateral drops, knee strikes, etc.)
2 – The Shoot (e.g. single leg, double leg, high crotch)

Groundwork
1 – Position fighting (guard passing, pin maintenance, etc.)
2 – Submission attacks and defenses
3 – Striking attacks and defenses

... Some fighters are most skilled in the clinch - this doesn't mean that they don't have other skills, but only that this is where they feel most at home. The clinch can helps them negate the punches and kicks of an opponent and keep the fight standing or on the ground.

... Other fighters have superior striking skills, and back up their gameplan by developing their takedown defenses and a survival-oriented bottom game.

[The point-NDT]
A striker without any takedown defenses and ground survival skills is very vulnerable. A grappler without any takedown skills or striking skills is likewise vulnerable. Someone hoping to be successful in the NHB arena should definately seek to develop a variety of skills, at the very least becoming somewhat familiar with the basic attacks and strategies in each phase of combat.

Agreed? Great. Let's get to work!