Hand-to-Hand Styles: Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

In my last work, I tackled some concepts and principles about effective training. I talked a little about simplicity, functionality, and reality. In this, and a few of the following pieces, I will be discussing specific styles of combat training/martial arts.

* I will only be discussing those arts and methods I am familiar with. If I only have a passing knowledge of a particular style or method, I will make my experience clear and note that my opinion is based on observation more than direct experience in training or fighting within that style or system. *

In this piece, I will be discussing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Full disclosure: I’m a BJJ Brown Belt with 12 years training gi and no gi, teaching for at least 6. I’ve competed in tournaments and consider myself a jobber. BJJ to me is a means to an end and not a lifestyle I see so many adopting nowdays. My BJJ is Vale Tudo based. Im old school.

A little history

To start, we should lay down a little of BJJs history. I often joke that BJJ stand for “Basically Just Judo.” The traditional arts of Japans usually fall into 4 major families. And this is by far not a complete list, just some markers for discussion sake.

Karate….which is a striking art focusing on punching and kicking and a few throws.

Jiu-Jitsu….which is an all around fighting style that includes strikes, locks, throws and breaks.

Judo….which in itself has two focuses; on the throwing aspects traditional Jiu-Jitsu (Nage waza) and/or on the ground work (ne-waza)/grappling in traditional Jiu-Jitsu (Katame waza).

And Aikido….which tends to focus on basic weapons of sword and staff and translates those movements into a wristlock and throwing system.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu can trace its roots fairly directly to the Judo styles that focused on the Katame waza (grappling) and ne-waza (ground fighting). First brought to Brazil by Mitsuyo Maeda in the early 20th century, Meada passed his grappling style on to the now famous Gracie family under Carlos Gracie Sr. Not exclusively, however, as Meada also trained men such as Luis Franca, Jacinto Ferro, and others. Thus Brazilian jiu-Jitsu was born. Soon, Carlos Gracie’s younger brother Helio began to develop what would become Gracie Jiu-Jitsu…BJJ’s most famous and influential style.

As time progressed, so did BJJ. During the early-mid 20th century, Vale Tudo (Anything Goes) fighting became popular in Brazil and proved to be a testing ground for BJJ practitioners. Popularity waxed and waned. In 1970, Helio’s oldest son, Rorion, moved to America to begin and began teaching BJJ and trying to promote Vale Tudo style fighting. The advent of the Ultimate Fighting Championship in the early 1990s saw the true rise to mainstream for BJJ when Rorion’s younger brother, Royce, dominated at UFC events wearing a BJJ gi and using solid basic BJJ to defeat much larger and stronger opponents who were unfamiliar with his grappling style.

Fast forward to today

Fast forward to today. We see the proliferation and saturation of BJJ all across America and many parts of the world. Multiple federations for competitions, huge training teams and affiliations, and even pay-per-views of high level invitation only contests have become a regular thing. BJJ quickly rose to the forefront of training and competition thanks to the UFC and has most definitely become the main stream. And it has hit the water down point where we have begun to see some of the issues more traditional martial arts had experienced….on-line certifications, belt trading, fake black belts, etc… But one thing BJJ has done is maintained a LOT of integrity due to vigilance of what we loving refer to as the “Jiu-Jitsu Police”….BJJ is almost self-policing in that you can simply judge a person skills by the belt they wear. If you’re not a black belt, and you claim to be, someone will show up with a video camera to test your skills. Lineage is well kept and black belts are easily verifiable. If the chain of promotion is broken, the BJJ Police will find out and you will be exposed as a fraud.

Technique and principles

So enough about BJJ itself, lets discuss training and technique and principles. Let’s start with what BJJ is and is not. BJJ is a grappling art. Whether training in a Gi or beach shorts, the focus is on grappling from the feet, to the clinch, to the ground and focusing on ground work. Traditionally BJJ does not teach any form of striking…no kicks, no punches, no knees or elbows. You do however learn to defend from these attacks. BJJ is fairly “gentlemanly” in that fish hooking, eye gouging and gnad grabbing are not seen as legitimate techniques. In the immortal worlds of De La Riva black Belt, Draculino, “Grabbing my bawls aren’t so easy my brother. I do this) *throws up a triangle choke*), how da hell he gonna grab my bawls now, eh?” So let’s look at BJJ through the lenses of the three primary factors I mentioned in my first article. Simplicity, functionality, reality.

Let talk simplicity. First let me say BJJ is a deep well to draw from. There are solid basic movements and principles. For the general practitioner looking for a fun hobby or for some basic self-defense, BJJ offers pretty much all you’d need. For the competitive minded individual, the well goes even deeper where one strives to use BJJ against BJJ and it becomes play. The techniques themselves generally never exceed a combination of two or three principles and a usually contains no more than 3-5 technique steps to execute. Attacks come in the form of chokes, locks, sweeps, reversals, and maintain dominant positioning. For an average individual, early development of basic ground movements and application of basic principles will begin to click in the first three months of solid practice. And will continue to develop all through their career from absorption to refinement. Learning to move, as I always put it to new students, “in ways you haven’t moved since before you could crawl,” is paramount. We bridge and roll, we knee crawl, we flop, and butt scoot, just like we did before we were toddlers. One generally has to re-learn these simple movements. As these movements develop, we begin to absorb principles about weight distribution, prone mobility, curved spine balance and movement, and much more. We also become more body aware in ourselves and our opponents. We begin to develop a basic understanding of muscular and skeletal structure. …in order to break it. Principles and movements are often found in various techniques and applications, so familiarity increases success across many aspects of BJJ. In the end, BJJ is as simple as you’d like to make it. I personally train solid basics and know enough advanced BJJ to give anyone of my rank or higher a good run if not a bad day. I avoid flash in the pan and gimmicky techniques and fads because they generally lean towards the BJJ vs BJJ field. And this is one of the best things about BJJ, it’s a personal journey where you are in charge of your own development.

Now, as we discuss functionality, keep in mind two things:
1: the BJJ community has come up with their own measurement for how long it takes a BJJ person to beat another martial artist or civie: The Kwon. The Kwon is 1 15 second period.

Blue gi: “5$ says it takes you 3 Kwons to beat this Tae Kwon Do Black Belt by armbar.”
White gi: “Double or nothing, I do it in 2 Kwons by Triangle.”
Blue gi: “You’re on.”

2: Royce Gracie pretty much proved BJJs functionality in early UFCs by fighting other styles and basically taking very little punishment and earning submissions over almost all of his opponents.

Now, #1 is kinda tongue in cheek, but time and again, we see first-hand BJJs effectiveness in defeating those unfamiliar with its potency. And #2 is a matter for history.
BJJ lends itself to functionality because of its training methods and the style itself. Unlike striking arts such as Karate or Boxing, its not difficult to spar at a high level of intensity without injuring an opponent. For example, I can go 100% on a sweep in BJJ and do no actual damage to my training partner or opponent. I can even choke and opponent as hard as I like and cause no real damage. Contrast that with traditional boxing and I throw a straight cross at 100% and I may break bones or cause concussions. Injuries do happen, but sparring at this high level of intensity lends to using BJJ in an intense environment and a familiarity with a high level of resistance. It allows for a student to develop the techniques during training sessions and really see how they have to refine and make adjustments to the raw technique in order to make it effective against a fully resistant opponent.

Adding to this effective sparring component, BJJ in itself, and in particular Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, was developed with the principles of leverage and a focus on timing to allow a smaller and weaker opponent to defend and attack larger and stronger opponents. It’s been said of Helio that even if he couldn’t beat everyone, no one could really defeat him. His skills were such that he could use his small frame to move about and minimize any damage given and his techniques we such that he could protect himself and attack from any position. Not all BJJ is oriented towards the small frame…especially in the contemporary setting. But principles and techniques remain.

Physical training tends to focus on technique and principle based movements to develop skills and bring the students physical attributes up to higher levels of function. Many of the drills are simple mirrors of the movement we find in many techniques. These are the parts and pieces of movements and principles found within techniques. The training in BJJ and the sparring component at high intensity combined with the solid techniques deliver functional training and functional application.

So let’s look at the reality. Is BJJ the end all be all of combat? In my opinion, not even close. Is it high up the list? Yes indeed it is. But with a few caveats. I often refer to BJJ as the Ace In the Hole for personal defense. As stated above, BJJ tends to dominate most other styles of Martial Arts when they stand alone. And it is ridiculously effective against someone who has no real martial training. But BJJ does have its shortcomings. Two glaring examples are weapons and multiple opponents.

BJJ really doesn’t deal with weapons. In contemporary circles, some have begun to integrate stick, blades, and guns into their style, but this is a departure from the BJJ we know as a whole. But, just because it doesn’t really have a focus on weapons, doesn’t mean there are not effective tools in BJJ to deal with the questions of violence as they are presented. The principles of wrist control, mobility, posture control, balance disruption ALL play a key role in using BJJ against a weapon. BJJ also provides us with one of the best, IMO, tools for being attacked on the ground by a blade, stick, or gun. We attack with the legs. An attacker on his knees is limited to two hands. Someone defending themselves from the guard position, BJJ’s home base so to say, has the ability to use both hands to control a weapon arm, and attack that arm or the neck or head with the legs or knees. So while, traditionally, BJJ does not have a developed set of techniques for weapons, the well does run deep and does provide a student with plenty of tools to develop a defensive strategy against weapons based around their BJJ.

Grappling itself lends to difficulties when confronting multiple assailants. Grappling by nature focuses one’s attention on one specific opponent and once contact is achieved, generally limits a person’s mobility while dealing with an individual. In BJJ the mantra is ‘get it to the ground.’ Which is fine and dandy if you know there is a single opponent. But this hyper-focus on an individual creates awareness gaps and mobility issues that can be detrimental to the individual. In all honesty, this is where BJJ falls apart as top animal on the food chain. The ability to render an attacker unconscious in a few seconds by choke, or cripple them in seconds with knee lock pales in comparison to the off-switch a good hard straight cross to the noggin provides. I may stay standing in an altercation with three opponents. I may put opponent 1 in a front guillotine and use his body as a meat shield as I choke him to sleep in about 6 or so seconds. But in the end, that was six seconds. Where it may take a BJJ person 6 -10 seconds to render an attacker ineffective, a good kicker or puncher can to the same to three opponents in about the same amount of time. Ill talk about ‘The Toolbox’ principle of training in later writings, but suffice it to say, Id like to be able to do both. And most BJJ today doesn’t provide these tools.

Training and application of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu on a mat vs concrete

Which brings me to my last point….training and application of BJJ on a mat vs concrete. The BJJ community has always been touchy on the subject of “street vs sport.” It has become a prevalent topic recently in part due to the proliferation of BJJ schools across the US in the last 10-15 years. Many schools focus solely on ground work and train pretty much to fight other BJJ competitors. The game becomes about points and positions and strategies. Training itself focuses on dealing with what you would be confronted with when you meet another competitor on the mat. Takedowns are mostly neglected. Certain maneuvers are favored because when applied in combination they create the greatest point spread. ….let me repeat that…maneuvers are trained and favored because when applied in combination, they create the GREATEST POINT SPREAD. Not because they are effective or practical in most situations, but because they are most beneficial to one very specific situation.

I recently saw a glaring example of this first hand. I was teaching and a new guy had showed up. Now keep in mind our school is very Vale Tudo oriented. We’re good at sport, but our focus is “parking lot tough.” New guy tells me he has 13 month BJJ experience. That amount of time means he’s no stranger to BJJ. But as we start working on very basic things like escaping a headlock, throwing an opponent when they lock in a rear naked choke, breaking an opponent’s waist lock grips….things you’re going to encounter in a scuffle….this fella is shooting blanks. No clue how to do the simplest escape for when he’s at the family reunion and Cousin Earl sticks him in a headlock and goes “Come on BOY! Show me that fancy karate stuff you do! Yee haw!”
One of the instructors Ive worked with a few times, Marc Denny, has a saying, “We deal with primal probabilities first.” Your typical attacker isn’t going to set up a triple threat entry to do a takedown or throw and proceed to pass your halfguard with a combination of shoulder pressure and hip leverage forcing you to turn your shoulder and hips away as he passes directly to your back for a choke. No. Chances are it’s some dude attempting a football tackle because he saw someone blast a clean double-leg on the UFC last night. You deal with the reality. You deal with the highest probabilities. You save the sports until you’re functional in an alleyway. That’s not saying sport does not work on the streets. It does. But does it make sense to buttscoot on concrete and maybe slam your knees to do a takedown….especially when you can train more effective means and still be doing BJJ? It’s a personal preference and a personal journey. But in this guy’s opinion, I’d much rather ruin Cousin Earl’s picnic and be able to FUBAR 98% of the criminal population’s plans and actions than I would want to be able to go undefeated at a tournament just to have two thugs with knives beat me senseless, stab me and steal my medals to pawn for meth money.

Final Evaluation

Simplicity
BJJ is a deep well. The journey can focus on solid basics or deep advancement. Practice, principles, and technique lack unnecessary complexity and are adaptable to many body styles. Some people find learning how to move on the ground difficult, however.
7/10

Functionality
Whether trained as either sport or street, BJJ provides an incredible level of functionality. It provides an understanding of both groundwork and standing. If the ground is where we don’t want to be, BJJ gives us the tools to get back up. If we do want to be there, we have the tools to take the fight where we want it. The functional training found in sparring at near 100% creates a laboratory environment for testing of skills and new techniques other arts cannot replicate.
10/10

Realism
BJJ presents us with an awesome toolbox for dealing with an individual opponent. Cops, Bouncers, Bail Bondsmen, COs and others who have to deal hands on with rough situations cannot go wrong with BJJ. It gives us a foundation for adapting our training to deal with weapons. But it lacks guidance in that aspect. Due to its nature, however, dealing with multiple individuals is just not in the cards for BJJ.
6/10

*? Train/ Don’t Train ?*

TRAIN

If you can only do one martial art, do BJJ. If you can do multiple ones, make sure it’s one of them and make sure you do it a lot. As far as base arts and training goes, this is your go-to.