This is a discussion that seemingly is increasing in popularity around the jiu-jitsu world even as the accessibility of the sport jiu-jitsu increases, along with more and more schools turning out to go towards the direction of teaching the sport jiu-jitsu to students in their classes.
The key question caught up at the core of the discussion is, “Does exercising sport jiu-jitsu set someone fully for a situation involving street self-defense?”
Life is serious business and the practice of jiu-jitsu may just be a joke when added to it, is an opinion that critics of jiu-jitsu may have. The debate is in a state where one side doesn’t agree that positions and strategies in jiu-jitsu would actually help students that are being taught jiu-jitsu, to defend themselves from a violent situation in real life. However, jiu-jitsu may be just what one needs to survive unaccounted for encounters on the streets, hence some oppose and believe that jiu-jitsu is definitely what would make a difference on a street confrontation in real life. The debate at hand will be on jiu-jitsu as a skill for self-defense. Just to be clear, we are not referring to self-defense like when rivaling well trained MMA opponents in the debate. It’s for situations where 95% of the average population might be on the scene on the street.
Jiu-Jitsu Self-Defense
First and foremost jiu-jitsu originated from feudal Japan. It was from its most initial days, tied in with defending against and defeating an adversary in an actual fight. Master Jigoro Kano, who is the originator of what is currently known as Judo, blended a scheme of moves from the timeworn schools of Jiu-jitsu. Jiu-jitsu then found its way to Brazil through one of Jigoro’s students and got refined by the Gracie family into the technique that exists in the present day.
The rising fame of jiu-jitsu spread rapidly after its introduction in the USA. Gracie along with their students used just a few rules to rough up experts of other martial arts. The Gracie family too, in their venture in testing as they redefined the now learned jiu-jitsu, added a few rules to jiu-jitsu and ended up winning most of the challenge matches and contests. This drew more attention to jiu-jitsu and thus resulted in its growing popularity. Jiu-jitsu has been on the rise in fame ever since its entry up until the present day. The increasing fame of jiu-jitsu has proved to be noteworthy as there are tournaments set specifically for jiu-jitsu, on a weekly basis, which are held during the weekends. Schools have moved their accentuation of it being intensely about self-defense to it being a sport too. This has prompted an extraordinary development of new strategies and positions that are important in sport jiu-jitsu competitions.
Despite all of the increasing popularity and practices of jiu-jitsu, it picked up some vocal critics within the years. Their contention is that numerous moves for the sport jiu-jitsu are not capable of being applied on the streets. Moreover, jiu-jitsu is believed to lead to bad conduct by people practicing them. This is because practicing unproductive sports moves may lead to a misguided feeling of certainty for students training for jiu-jitsu. The false confidence would mislead them to thinking they are figuring out how to defend themselves when in reality they are learning and rehearsing strategies similar to pulling half guard and spider guard, and searching to get two points for a sweep to triumph in an opposition match.
An ideal martial art should include reasonable, verified techniques for circumstances that occur in real life.
The opposite side of the debate is that jiu-jitsu practitioners would not employ pull guard and add a lasso guard sweep to it in a real-life altercation. This would be an understatement since these are well trained and experienced individuals with sense and logic. Jiu-jitsu includes not just moves but logic and sense. Thus it would turn out that they would use the most suitable moves for different real-life conflicts that may arise. In the mentioned case, they would instead slam the rival down to hit the ground and control them from the base or the back. What’s more, jiu-jitsu competitors are usually set up for high pressure, high force physical fights with a rival and are generally conversant with these circumstances, unlike a typical untrained person.
On top of whatever particular strategies to apply, that a jiu-jitsu student is being taught, they are likewise preparing their responses to quickly changing and disorderly fights. These are enough physical properties that are basic in a physical encounter.
In some cases, jiu-jitsu training is done through boxing judo where trainees are set to battle live against a completely opposing adversary. This kind of training has demonstrated in a genuine sense to be distinctly much more practical in preparing jiu-jitsu students for the unusual aspects of a street confrontation. The other form of training includes arranged “lethal” self-defense practices performed with amenable training partners.
It is logical to say that experienced wrestlers, boxers, BJJ and judoka competitors have a tremendous bit of leeway in managing physical hostility in comparison to an average untrained person.
Martial arts training has played a major role in boosting confidence in women. Women have always been an inferior group in society compared to men. This has always made them a target of injustices and assaults. Learning self-defense is a life-changing experience since now more women have the capability of defending themselves. This has removed the fear that brought about feelings of inadequacy and replaced them with a feeling of self-esteem and self-confidence along with developing mental resilience and fortitude. This has played an important role in ensuring they don’t fall victim and to avoid altercations before they rise up to becoming physical.
Gracie Barra helps students start on the Fundamentals program that involves training on familiar self-defense circumstances such as clinch and breaking out headlocks to a takedown, which are a basic piece of introduction for all students. On completion of the Fundamental classes, students begin to concentrate further on the sports jiu-jitsu positions, which makes training with different students significantly more fun.
How substantial would you feel training in self-defense is to your encounter with jiu-jitsu?
