Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Demonstration

Why Learn Jiu Jitsu

What is Jiu Jitsu?

Jiu Jitsu is a Japanese martial art including primarily unarmed techniques, but also the use of some weapons. Specifically, it teaches unarmed strategies of combating an opponent who is armed. Like many martial arts, many different forms and styles of jiu-jitsu have evolved over the centuries.

How Does Jiu Jitsu Differ from Other Martial Arts?

Jiu Jitsu developed among the samurai of feudal Japan for use in combat against other samurai. As samurai were usually fully armored, punches and kicks were not very effective. Consequently, jiu-jitsu stressed immobilizing an enemy quickly and permanently using holds, pins, and throws. The idea was to use an enemy samurai’s energy against him, rather than directly opposing it.

Jiu Jitsu, literally translated as “the art of softness” or “way of yielding”, is a “soft” martial art style. “Soft” styles, like jiu-jitsu, prefer yielding to an opponent’s force, using balance and leverage to turn an attacker’s momentum against themselves, rather than opposing force with force. “Hard” martial styles (such as Karate and Kung Fu), in contrast, favor forceful, direct attacks requiring power, speed, and strength.

Different martial arts stress different types of combat. Judo, for example, stresses wrestling, and Tae Kwon Do stresses kicking. In jiu-jitsu, it stresses grappling.

“Grappling”, though similar to wrestling, is subtly different. Grappling techniques include joint-locks (see below), holds, trapping, pinning, throwing, gouging, biting, choking, and strangling. Jiu Jitsu also includes defensive techniques such as disengaging from an opponent’s grasp and breaking your falls.

Joint-locks, incidentally, are pressuring a joint in a way it’s not supposed to bend. Not only does it prevent an opponent from using that limb against you, but it causes them pain the more they struggle?encouraging them to give up. American police are taught to use joint locks to immobilize aggressive criminals.

Why Should I Learn Jiu Jitsu?

Jiu Jitsu is an excellent self-defense martial art to learn for several reasons. First, it teaches how to escape an opponent’s attack. Second, you learn how to immobilize an attacker without necessarily hurting them. Third, it teaches as escalation of force.

First, in terms of self-defense from a mugger or rapist, the longer you stay to fight, the greater the chance that the attacker will overwhelm you (especially since criminal tends to travel in packs, or at least pairs). Therefore, the smartest thing to do is to escape and get to a well-lit public area. Muggers know this, so the first thing they’ll to do is grab and immobilize you. In jiu-jitsu, you are taught how to escape from such grips and get away.

Second, if the only fighting you know how to do involves hurting someone quickly and deeply, you could get in big trouble. In barroom brawls, or even if a mugger attacks you, if you seriously injure them or kill them, you’ll almost certainly face a lawsuit. Being able to escape, immobilize, or subdue an opponent without causing them serious harm neatly avoids this problem.

Escalation of force essentially means only using the minimum necessary force to overcome an opponent. There is a huge combat difference, for example, between a New York City mugger with a knife, and drunken Cousin Eddie who’s getting a bit rowdy at a family reunion.

Obviously, both issues need to be dealt with. Equally obvious, however, is that you need to use much less force against drunken Cousin Eddie than you would against a mugger. Jiu Jitsu, by teaching how to immobilize an opponent with holds, joint-locks, and pins, allows you to do both. You can pin Cousin Eddie until he calms down while causing him little, if any, harm. On the other hand, if you need to, you can disarm the mugger and throw them to the ground dazed.

Disadvantages to using Joint Locks in Jiu Jitsu

In Jiu Jitsu there are many ways to make a person submit, one of these methods is called the joint lock. This is a method that involves manipulating an attacker’s joint in a way that the joint reaches its maximum degree of motion. There are mainly 5 different types of locks, arm, leg small joint manipulation, spinal locks and wristlocks. The bad news is that most people don’t do these the right way, making their attack useless and the are the reasons why.

The most common reason is poor mechanics, in order to keep this from happening you will have to learn the basics of this technique as to be able to apply your strength in an effort to know where to apply your strength.

The joint lock can be ineffective if the person it is being applied to is flexible, although this is rare there are cases of a person being able to bend their arm to the point that it reaches a 90 degree angle, another reason that the lock might be useless is if your attacker can withstand a high level of pain. This means that even if you execute the lock perfectly that your opponent might not be affected by the pain, if you find this to be the case your opponent might be deranged or high on drugs.

If you find yourself in this position then you will have to resort to another move such as a chokehold to render your opponent unconscious.

A good example of this type of move is called the Rear Carotid Restraint, this is executed by reaching deep towards the front of your opponent and wrapping your bicep around the sides of his neck. You will then want to squeeze your arms so that it is pressing against the sides of his neck while you press his downward toward his chest, hold this position until his body goes limp.

Another possible reason that your lock doesn’t work is that the person may have suffered an injury to the same area previously or as mentioned before they may just be extremely flexible.

The last reason that this is ineffective could be any combination of the fore mentioned reasons. However of all of the reasons mentioned the most common reason is lack of proper mechanics, and this is the only one that you have any real control over. All of the other reasons are in your opponents hands. If you find yourself in a situation you can’t handle run and get help.

Jiu Jitsu is the only martial arts used that employs the use of joint locks to make a person submit, the only way to make sure you get this right is to constantly practice this in the event that you may need to use it.