Before the eminent question of “How much is your BJJ program gonna cost me?” from a customer, I get the ever important, “Can I use BJJ in a fight?” To make the answer short for the customer, I say yes. But if they want me to elaborate, I try to shorten a two hour answer into one to two minutes. The main point I try to convey to the prospective student is the title of this article.
I personally look at and depend on BJJ as a tool in a self defense situation. I teach the basics to a student, that student trains the basic techniques to an expert level, and then in time I continue with intermediate and advanced positional controls for the blue belt and above. Like any other martial arts, there are the basic positions that a student must learn in order to advance to the next rank. Unfortunately in BJJ compared to Taekwondo, there are only 5 belts to TKD’s (up to) 13 belts. So time spent perfecting your basic skills is essential, time consuming and detailed. This topic will be covered in detail in a later article…I digress…
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in its basic form can make a person with no athletic backround, martial art ability and strength; into an effective ground fighter in any self defense situation. One has to be aware that if you take a BJJ class, you are bettering yourself in a fight because the bad guy knows next to nothing when the fight hits the ground. With the student having a bit of knowledge in the basic positions and submissions (armlocks, and a couple chokes), then the student is good to go. But the student must repeatedly practice said positions and submissions over and over again. With repetition of those moves and submissions, that student will be able to utilized BJJ’s full potential in a self defense situation.
The punch is another important detail in a self defense situation and not used at all in a tournament. A student that is training should always be aware of where a punch could be used by the bad guy in any position. Situational fighting while training (also known as rolling) without punching one another; but making the students AWARE of punching is a great training tool for beginning and intermediate students. Blue Belts and up can start using heavy boxing gloves for a more 'realistic' fight-based self defense scenarios and actually add in the punch aspect.
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in a tournament aspect is quite different from self defense. In tournament style, the student is going up against another student with about the same knowledge of BJJ. So now instead of the student going up against drunken Joe-Crew Redneck in a back alley, that student is going up against a mirror image of him/herself on a mat. With this scenario, the student is in a physical chess match that takes rolling to another level. Now the two contenders are besting each other with the knowledge that they possess to submit the other for the win. The best way to view this is watching, or participating, in NAGA BJJ tournaments, PAN-AM tournaments and Abu Dhabi tournaments. This is BJJ in its purest form and focus.
Another deference between both tournament style and self defense style is its knowledge and how much a student can retain and use. In a back alley fight, the student has about ninety percent certainty that the bad guy knows next to nothing about BJJ or any other ground game. The other ten percent difference is that the bad guy has watched a couple UFC matches and/or played a physical sport in high school. Either way, the bad guy will not know how to effectively choke the student without getting reversed and having an arm broken in two places. All of those moves are used effectively only because the student has learned the basics and perfeted those basics taught to him/her in BJJ classes.
As for the tournament, the two students with the same amount of experience can be very interesting to watch, AND it can be very disappointing to the loser of the roll because the loser will know exactly what he did wrong to get submitted. But sometimes in a tournament, the opponent has an ace up his/her sleeve when the starting buzzer goes. One student knows an advanced technique that the other student doesn’t know, which can be used to submit the other student for the win. Now, is this wrong? Is this fair? Or is this cheating? I believe that there is nothing wrong with knowing an advanced technique. It is a tournament. Anything goes. Especially if the advanced technique is a last-ditch effort that the student resorts to if all other moves have been exhausted. Danny Larusso did it in 1984’s Karate Kid!
The downside of the tournament style for me, as an instructor, is knowing the amount of knowledge a student needs for a certian belt. From what I have learned, it is a bit too much for me because where would the cap be for the ‘basic knowledge’ that a student must know and perfect in order to be effective in a tournament? What is considered an advanced technique for a three stripe white belt? Would my students win with what they knew? Would they know enough? Will my student leave me and go to xyz school because I didn’t teach them enough? These questions are always going through my mind.
So the decision for me, as an instructor, is to teach self defense styly BJJ is a simple one. Because if one of my students gets the unfortunate experience of having to defend him/herself in a fight, I would rather have my student know that the bad guy might have a ten percent chance of knowing very little about how to fight on the ground so my student can dominate the fight using simple but effective positions and submit the bad guy by breaking an arm, and running like crazy to the nearest cop. Then I would feel comfortable knowing that my student will know more than enough techniques, my student would effectively win the fight and would come back to my school and learn more.
As for the white belt student that persists on wanting to go to tournaments? then he/she is can go if they wish. But at least I won't feel bad for the student if he/she doesn't win at white belt. If they do win? great. If not? great. let us just focus on the basics and worry about tournaments when we get to blue belt.
Until then...
Adam Smith