The
VITAL Tour -- Brazilian Ju-Jitsu
Well this one has got to be the
best martial arts out there, right? After all, beginning in
the 1990’s with the Ultimate Fighting Championships,
Brazilian Ju-Jitsu was extremely successful. (We will talk
more about these cage matches in the Extreme Sports
Fighting section. But it is closely related to the
Brazilian Ju-Jitsu topic as well.)
For those not familiar with the
UFC popularization of Brazilian Ju-Jitsu, let us explain.
The UFC are pay-per-view fighting events. Nowadays there
are plenty of those types of things under different labels
such as No-Holds-Barred (NHB), Mixed Martial Arts (MMA),
etc. The premise behind these events is that 2 big guys
with massive amounts of martial arts experience fight each
other inside a cage with virtually no rules. So it’s
basically a clash of various martial arts styles.
So which one won the clash? Brazilian Ju-Jitsu pretty much
dominated, especially in the beginning. Heading up this
movement was the Gracie family from Brazil. They came out
of nowhere and defeated all kinds of different martial
artists. They won by bypassing the standup fight
altogether. They would take the opponents down to the
ground into a position they were expert in. Once on the
ground, most of the other martial arts style failed or
fumbled to work. In essence, Brazilian Ju-Jitsu nullified
other non-ground-grappling styles altogether.
So that’s it. After all those martial arts styles were
mashed together in a virtually no rules fight, Brazilian
Ju-Jitsu pretty much came out on top. So it’s the best
martial arts to learn for self-defense, right?
That line of faulty reasoning has convinced many people
over the years. Brazilian Ju-Jitsu is NO better than any
other martial arts style at dealing with real life
violence, period. In fact, it might even be worse in some
regards. Now you are asking yourself how that can be true
when it kick all the other style’s butts.
First of all, the actual physical fighting is only one
small slice our of the personal protection pie. Secondly,
the only claim to fame Brazilian Ju-Jitsu has is that it
exploited a loop-hole of sorts in most other traditional
martial arts; that being the lack of ground grappling.
Thirdly, the fighting cage was clean and clear with a
referee standing by to enforce the few rules they had… but
those few rules were all that was need to contaminate the
experiment. Rules like: ok, let’s not really kill each
other, no eye attacks, no biting, no small joint (fingers
and toes) manipulation, etc. all setup a false environment
that was fundamentally different than the predator prey
violent crime model. Lastly, Brazilian Ju-Jitsu is a really
dangerous way to physical deal with multiple opponents.
While you are grappling a guy on the ground, his buddy has
free reign to stomp in your head.
So, do you want to get into a ring and wrestle around with
a Brazilian Ju-Jitsu Black Belt? I don’t think so. That
would not be a wise idea. But the point is this. Yes, in
the right context (a sports fighting competition, that’s
one-on-one, in a controlled setting) Brazilian Ju-Jitsu is
a very effective physical skill, but only in that context.
In the context of actual violence that ordinary people may
be involved in, Brazilian Ju-Jitsu has all the
disadvantages, and maybe even a few more, than other
martial arts styles.
SIDE NOTE: All of the 10 flaws with martial arts used for
self-defense purposes also apply to Brazilian Ju-Jitsu:
#1. Narrow vision of violence with limited response options
#2. A foundation built on fighting with techniques
#3. Lack of psychological and physiological considerations
#4. Omission of preventative and pre-contact
counter-measures
#5. Exclusion of medical, legal, and emotional aftermath
issues
#6. Male-centric with size, speed, strength, and macho
aggression prevalent
#7. Ideal training / fighting conditions make a convincing
illusion
#8. Ineffective and antithetical educational methodology
#9. Techniques are rarely effective (not too complex, just
only applicable in a controlled environment, and only
one-on-one).
#10. Absence of criminological and violence mindset
information