Billy Riley (left), founder of the "Snake Pit" gym, legendary submission wrestler, skilled in the use of "hooks", trainer of champions.
Jiu-jitsu, Judo, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Sambo, Greco-Roman wrestling, pankration, freestyle wrestling, Shuia Chiao, Chin Na, Aikido, Aikijutsu, Hapkido, Turkish wrestling, Mongolian wrestling, Catch-as-Catch-Can, Dumog, Shootwrestling, Hooking, etc.--if you haven't noticed, these are all grappling styles in one way or another, each style having its good and bad points.
Even though some of these styles have dissimilar goals, when you compare their techniques, you will find they are more similar than they are different. Why is this?
Grappling is not about styles. It is a continuum. All forms of combat should be viewed as a continuum of falsifiable (testable) facts, not highly specific and dogmatic "truths."
Styles are only human abstractions, bringing some of these facts together and presenting them in a manner easily understood and learned by individuals.
Don't be deceived! No abstraction, no matter how detailed, can ever encompass the continuum of facts which dicate combat.
Any system or style that claims to have all the answers to every situation, has the techniques that will allow you to take out any attacker, or claims to be "complete," is lying to you or deceiving itself. It's easy to believe your own lies when those lies make you think you're invincible.
Some schools of martial thought have become so encompassed and enraptured in their abstractions, they have forgotten to think of combat as a continuum. They've been conditioned to believe that life can be reduced to a set of convenient abstractions. Sorry folks. It doesn't work that way. Abstractions are limited. Thought experiments can get you only so far. Life (and combat, and grappling) is far more complicated than that.
Attitude adjustment
"Okay, I've read my Tao of Jeet Kune Do*, The Art of War**, and The Book of Five Rings***. This is old news to me," you might be saying. What does this have to do with grappling? Plenty.
You can take and learn from any fighting style, but it's your attitude that is important. When you're learning how to grapple, you have to have the right attitude, and that's an attitude of self-reliance.
You have to find out the facts by yourself, by self-study and by experimentation, because your instructor won't be able to hand you the truths. It isn't possible for him to do so.
He can guide you, but ultimately, you must depend on yourself. You really have to learn and question--not just mimic your instructors--and find out the facts by getting on the mat, gym floor, concrete, whatever.
You'll find that the truth isn't as clear cut as some people would have you believe--if it were, all you'd have to do is buy some expensive video tapes to become an expert fighter.