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What is Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu/Submission Grappling?
From Wikipedia: Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ)/Submission Grappling is a martial art and combat sport that focuses on grappling and especially ground fighting with the goal of gaining a dominant position and using joint-locks and chokeholds to force an opponent to submit. The art was based on early 20th century Kodokan Judo, which was itself then a recently-developed system (founded in 1882), based on multiple schools of Japanese Jujutsu.
It promotes the principle that a smaller, weaker person using leverage and proper technique can successfully defend themselves against a bigger, stronger assailant. BJJ can be trained for self defense, sport grappling tournaments (gi and no-gi) and mixed martial arts (MMA) competition. Sparring (commonly referred to as 'rolling') and live drilling play a major role in training, and a premium is placed on performance, especially in competition.
Why do I train in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Submission Grappling? Why I think you might want to as well?
Well the obvious selling points would be, it pretty much invented modern professional fighting (MMA) and alone dominated early professional fighting events. And in my opinion it continues to be the dominant driving force behind modern professional fighting (MMA). It is true that fighters are more well rounded today, but for the majority of MMA practitioners, grappling is their core discipline, and all other fancy martial arts stuff comes out of a solid knowledge of grappling. This is my opinion of course and everyone is free to disagree with me.
For me training in BJJ/Submission Grappling is all about ever increasingly complex ways of gaining leverage over your opponent. I think learning the intricacies of gaining leverage over your opponent will give you the highest potential effectiveness in a combative realm. There are a lot of great martial arts out there and it’s important for everyone to have some focus on all of it. With that said I believe focus for most people especially those smaller people like me, should be on predominantly grappling first.
According to FBI statistics 70% of all altercations end up on the ground and my unofficial statistics for MMA competitions and street fights would say about 90% end up on the ground. Also, in my opinion is easier to force a grappling match then force a striking match. If I absolutely didn’t want to strike with someone I could either run away from them and they would have to tackle me to the ground forcing a grappling match or I could lie down and if the guy was really intent on hurting me he would have to jump on me and in doing so would enter into a grappling match. Obviously no one wants to have to do that to force a grappling match, which is why in my classes, closing the distance, clinching, and securing the takedown will always be held in the highest of importance, especially during the drilling portion of the class.
I don’t like to think of striking and grappling as separate. I think you should train in both but grappling is for most people going to be the better base to focus on first. I feel grappling really gets at the heart of what it is to use defense as power, to be truly self-defensive. Where striking someone generally has a feel of self-offense. This is a generalization to be sure, and as one, it is only generally true. Think about it for yourself, it may make sense to you as well.
Grappling is much easier than some arts to practice at a high level of intensity, while maintaining a high level of safety. Think about practicing punching and kicking someone at 100% intensity. Get my point, ouch! Also the idea of restraining someone with grappling is probably going to go over a little better in our modern legal system. I believe throat smashing someone will generally be frowned upon by the courts, in contrast with pinning someone to the ground. My point is that in this modern era we are responsible to act with restraint, and we’re all responsible for are martial arts, and what damage they inflict. It’s the best for me to put someone in their place without hurting them physical, their ego may be a different story. So for me a bonus to grappling being the dominant part of martial arts it’s also the part that will keep you out of trouble. Save most of your punching for the ring, those guys sign waivers.
My personal views on martial arts, my vision for the future of martial arts, and what it is to be an instructor.
I believe that all martial arts are true and correct depending on the perspective you take. If you want to learn martial arts for meditative purposes your best choice will likely be different then someone who is an aspiring pro-fighter. But I also believe you shouldn’t “throw out the baby with the bathwater”. I feel martial artists these days tend to run to one end of the spectrum or another. I have great respect for all of martial arts and it’s my intention to achieve a greater and greater integration of them. It’s important to borrow from all martial arts they all bring so much to bring to the table. As well one should be open to borrowing from any other field. I think when you teach martial arts you should treat your students, as fellow students, as this is what we all truly are, students. We all have something to teach. Also when you work with adults you should treat them as adults. It’s also my intention to use the time I have as wisely as possible to achieve the greatest results along the most important areas of development. This means constantly seeking to improve training by focusing on the best training methods out there. Some developed in house, some borrowed from around the world. I will strive to always be ready to disregard anything regardless of how meaningful the personal attachment. We live in an information age and too often instructors don’t want to think outside of their box or their associations. Evolution is the only truth in martial arts, martial arts like the rest of life will always move in the direction of ever increasing complexity. The level we choose to participate in this process will define our martial arts.
We’re all in this journey together we all need to work together not just as individual schools but as a community of like minded individuals. We don’t have to all agree but everyone should align themselves in the same basic ideas of wanting the best for the martial arts community and realize we’ll all see different ways of getting there. The strength of the individual is a reflection of the strength of the community and vice versa. My intention is to build a school that is strong and flexible with open doors and open minds. This will create the best environment for the individual, to have their best chance to grow and make the school stronger, or become the seed for a new school that will strengthen the whole community. Repeat the process, and enrich the cycle of ever increasing complexity.
My definition of a great instructor is one who lifts his students above himself. I believe the most valuable thing I can do for someone else, is to help them to think for themselves. The worst thing I believe you can do to someone is cause them to not trust their own heart and mind and stop using them. Anyone can be taught and everyone can teach you, but the only thing of absolute importance, that you can teach, or be taught, is to think. I will stumble along the way, but I vow to continually conceive this idea of perpetuating thought.
Recent History of BJJ-edited from Wikipedia
The recent history of the art began with Mitsuyo Maeda (aka Conde Koma, or Count Combat in English), a Japanese expert judoka and member of the Kodokan. Maeda was one of five of the Kodokan's top groundwork experts that Kano sent overseas to spread his Judo to the world. Maeda left Japan in 1904 and visited a number of countries[1] giving "jiu-do" demonstrations and accepting challenges from wrestlers, boxers, savate fighters and various other martial artists before eventually arriving in Brazil on November 14, 1914.[4]
In Brazil, Maeda met an influential businessman named Gastão Gracie who helped him get established. In 1917, his son Carlos Gracie, still a 14 year-old boy, watched a demonstration by Maeda at the Teatro da Paz and decided to learn jiu-jitsu. Maeda accepted Carlos as a student, and Carlos went on to become a great exponent of the art and ultimately, with his younger brother Hélio Gracie became the founder of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, modern Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
In 1921, Gastão Gracie and his family moved to Rio de Janeiro. Carlos, then 17 years old, passed Maeda's teachings on to his brothers Osvaldo, Gastão and Jorge. Hélio was too young and sick at that time to learn the art, and due to medical imposition was prohibited to take part in the training sessions. Despite that, Hélio learned jiu-jitsu by watching his brothers. He eventually overcame his health problems and is now considered by many as the founder of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (though others, such as Carlson Gracie, have pointed to Carlos as the founder of the art).
The Gracie family continued to develop and popularize the system throughout the 20th century, often fighting vale tudo matches (precursors to modern MMA), during which it increased its focus on ground fighting and refined its techniques.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu came to international prominence in the martial arts community in the 1990s, when Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu expert Royce Gracie won the first, second and fourth Ultimate Fighting Championships, which at the time were single elimination martial arts tournaments. Royce fought against often much-larger opponents who were practicing other styles, including boxing, shoot-fighting, karate, judo, tae kwon do and wrestling. It has since become a staple art for many MMA fighters and is largely credited for bringing wide-spread attention to the importance of ground fighting. Sport BJJ tournaments continue to grow in popularity worldwide and have given rise to no-gi submission grappling tournaments, such as the ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship.
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