A question(s) for anyone who studies Martial Arts.?

Question

What is your personal opinions about brazilian jujitsu? Do you think it is a good martial arts? What do and don't you like about it? What other combat systems do you perfer?

Answer 1

its a great ground fighting system...but thats only one aspect of fighting you also need to learn takedowns and takedown defense(bjj does teach takedowns but thinks like judo and wrestling teaches more) and of course standing up striking.

most martial arts are not complete by complete i mean teaching all ranges of fighting: ground, takedown, striking. to be able to defend yourself because you never know what range you'll be fighting in you need to learn how to at least operate in all these ranges. this is were many people will cross train like in mixed martial arts(mma)

i personally do muay thai which is a very popular striking art. dont get popularity confused with it being the "greatest" fighting system. as long as you train realistically any art can be great.

Answer 2

I think that it is a very tough thing to determine. Some people have that ability and others do not, nor will they. Regardless they must train the techniques and work hard on getting the correct mentality when studying the martial arts in order to apply them. One thing that is needed in the training is what is commonly referred to as adrenale stress conditioning which is when a student is put into a high pressure situation against an attack that will not stop until they are stopped. This often ends up with either the attacking student or the defending student injured regardless of the safety equipment used but it is a great training program. I also think that it has a lot to do with life as well. As some people progress through the years they get less affected by the things around them. I grew up in a small rural town where, if a fight happened, it was more or less a shoving match with a few punches thrown and then it was over. A good friend of mine who teaches Jujitsu in the Bronx grew up in a gang infested neighborhood. He fought to survive against those gangs. His mentality entering a fight situation was much different than mine when were teenagers. We have discussed this in length, and although we are both very much on the same page now as life led us both down paths where we had to be quick to finish the situation effectively, we both have mellowed. When we train he is much quicker to finish the fight than I am though. An offshoot of our upbringing? Perhaps but I do feel that it depends on the environment and experiences of the person if they can or cannot do what is needed to effectively defend themselves.

Answer 3

I like it and it has changed a lot of the attitudes of some of the more traditional martial arts people out there that are not always so accepting of other styles or their approach to things. Some of the others forget it-they never will grasp or accept anything but what their own art or style teaches or emphasizes.

I also think that it has exposed the weakness of stand-up martial arts especially if you are not a skilled one who earned his rank and never bothered to also study Judo, Ju-jitsu, wrestling, or any other type of ground type martial art. This of course carries on into the self-defense aspects and if people want to really be able to defend themselves they need to know more than just a kick to the groin or finger strike to the eyes. As for other systems Russian Sambo is very good and I like that as well.

I will leave you with a comment that one of my first instructors who was a three time Japanese national champion in fighting and forms said forty years ago almost. "It's important to be good at punching and kicking and have strong technique but a good Judoka or Ju-jitsu stylist will beat you almost every time in the street-especially if you play his game." When someone of that ability and stature tells you something like that it has to mean somthing and so ever since that time I have sought, trained, and taught to my own students many ground fighting aspects that have little or nothing to do with karate.

Answer 4

Brazilian jiu jitsu is a very good martial art. i refrain myself to say it's the best, because there's no such thing as the best. it's all depends on the man who uses it. BJJ is good, but you have to remember that if you want to use bjj in a fight, it only would be good in a one on one situation.
what i like about BJJ is because smaller guys can win against bigger guys. of course when both have equal technique, the one with more power will win, but still, the smaller guys have a chance to win. not saying that in other martial art this won't happen. but in bjj the game is slower and that's why you can think while you are doing it

Answer 5

ive only done no gi brazilian jiu jitsu and muay thai. If your looking for self defense in my opinion dont go for bjj because it is not a very effective street fighting system you wont be able to use it in a street fight on concret and stuf like that, for example if you got into an arguement in a bar, things would spur up and there would be glass all over the floor. and most importantly the person you are fighting wont have a clue as to when he lost "tapping out" the person wont tap out...and also you wont learn how to take hits in bjj but bjj is very very fun, and it requires alot of comitment to advance onto the next belt. unlike other belt martial arts, your knowledge really matters. and for muay thai, its a crazy workout, undoubtedly you will lose weight and tone your muscles and have the ability to do stand up, that is if you take sparring classes.

Answer 6

Its an art that i am very interested in studying.

most martial arts are very different, its hard to compare them against each other, they are common and yet different.

At the moment i am studying kung fu and tai chi, for the raw amount of physical /mental training and conditioning among other things. its also a very well rounded striking art, not to mention the weapon training.

eventually i want to study BJJ. i think its something that would be very valuable to learn, mainly to be able to hold my own in that 'field' of fighting. as if you find yourself on the ground kung fu isnt as effective, your supposed to generate position and stay standing but you never know, chance and all.

i started in karate, will probably continue in kung fu/tai chi indefinitely and will get as familiar with BJJ as i can in my free time...

mixed martial arts seem to be the rage these days, though i would rather train each art specifically than do them all at once.

Answer 7

I don't know much about bjj but I know that it is a good fighting system when you're on the ground. If you like fighting on the ground with other guys then you should try it. I would like to try it at some time in my life but right now I'm focusing on karate and aikido. If you haven't done any martial arts then you might want to try karate, tkd, or even muay thai. In my humble opinion I feel that one needs to learn to punch, kick and block first before they learn to fight on the ground.

Answer 8

It's definitely made a name for itself in the MMA community for being the sole reason of Royce Gracie's victories over the other larger fighters in UFC 1 and 2.

Its a great style to learn, even the head leader of Jeet Kune Do (Dan Inosanto) learned BJJ and incorporated it into his Jeet Kune Do.

For me though I would not learn it for street fighting, I prefer wrestling which teaches the sprawl in defense for takedowns plus stand ups, escapes, and reversals for getting back to your feet. In BJJ after you get taken down you go into a "gaurd" position where your legs are wrapped around an opponents waist. I dislike this because in a street fight this nullifies your most important weapon, escaping. Where as with a sprawl you still stay on your feet.

Answer 9

BJJ is known to be dominating in a ground grappling situation. It does not cover all scenarios such as fending off multiple attackers and disarming an armed opponent. It is very good to take with the caveat that it is supplemented with a standing MA that can disarm and deal with multiple attackers. I recommend Enshin karate as I intend to take Enshin, BJJ, and Judo for a complete MA skill set and the ability to deal with any hand to hand threat.

Answer 10

i think brazilian jujitsu is awesome, my karate studio teaches the black belt class brazilian jujitsu. my favorite move is the americana. its fun and all but i like tae kwon do better because of the kicks.