Sometimes people may question whether Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu works for self-defense.
They see two people rolling on the ground and wonder what happened to punches and kicks? It usually happens when they only see the ground training, which is just a part of Jiu-Jitsu.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) is much more than only ground fighting, although the ground fight is what makes Jiu-Jitsu unique from any other martial art style in the world.
Of course, there are Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu schools that only focus on one part of the style, such as the ground “game” for competition. That’s probably one of the reasons why people get confused when they watch a class in one of these schools. They don’t see the connection between BJJ and self-defense.
A complete Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu curriculum teaches Jiu-Jitsu as a form of self-defense and also prepares its students for BJJ competitions and Mixed Martial Arts – MMA fights if that is one of the students’ priorities.
The Jiu-Jitsu self-defense focuses 100% on defending from any kind of physical attacks. That’s why you don’t see professional BJJ schools teaching strikes as much as they teach how to defend from them.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu explores an array of self-defense situations that are beyond punching and kicking. There are defenses against knives, guns, chokes, an enormous variety of ways of grabbing and so forth.
Also, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is the only martial art specialized at fighting on the ground, and real-life events prove that 9 out of 10 fights go to the ground.
A little-Known Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Story
Back in the days, when Grand Master Carlos and Helio Gracie were trying to make Jiu-Jitsu popular in Brazil, they challenged every possible martial art style to prove that Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was superior.
Practitioners of other styles that accepted the challenge ended up losing, except by Kimura, a much heavier and younger Japanese who was considered by many the greatest Japanese Jiu-Jitsu fighter of all time.
When some members of the Gracie family came to the USA, they did the same. They called it the “Gracie Challenge.”
