Saw this on proelite a while back. Ed is bang on with some of the topics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMiMRQGnoIk
Yup, Chuck doesn't know the first thing about boxing, Hughes beat Royce using Jiu Jitsu (wrestling had nothing to do with it.) If they took off the gloves and removed standups Royce would dominate the UFC fighters of today.
Royce would beat Fedor but only if he came out wearing his gi pants AND he wore his black belt in the fight too!
Thats what was missing in the Hughes fight. its like taking a luchadores mask off. he looses the powers. and was unable to implement the "Gracie Guard"
Self Defense:
1) You wake up in the middle of the night to find a maniac holding a
gun on your kid and ordering your wife to tie you up
2) You're at McDonalds (asking for the salad, 'natch) when some nutjob
opens fire with a mini-gun.
3) You're traveling in the US when you take the wrong off-ramp and
your car breaks down in the midst of a heavily graffiti covered area.
4) You come out of 7/11 to find a bunch of teens, in baggy (weapon-
concealing) clothes smoking up while sitting on your car.
"Self-defense" has very little to do with any martial art (experts in the
field say MA may relate to a maximum of 10% of real self defense
situations). So, BJJ doesn't really qualify as "self defense" or for use in
"self defense" situations either.
One-on-one dueling at a bar or playground? Maybe.
haha so true ^^ great post.
We teach self defense techniques in our BJJ classes, it's part of our curriculum. That is something a lot of our students appreciate with the ground work.
@ddinks:
MA and self defense are two separate subjects that require separate
training. Many MA teachers have never trained in real, modern self
defense, but in generational cultural artifacts that have somehow
become called self defense.
Real self defense uses mind-setting, role playing,
personal/environmental awareness, very difficult personal insight, and
a host of other things very far removed from MA. (And what's scary is
how stuff shown in things like the Royce book looks so much like the
Aikijujitsu the Gracies (rightly) discounted as ineffective under stress
conditions)
@ddinks:
No worries. It's a bit of a pet peeve of mine. For some reason, MA
instructors who are basically well trained in formalized cultural
dueling/fighting methods are treated as defacto experts in spirituality,
religion, lifestyle coaching, diet and nutrition, meditation, self
defense/personal protection, strength and conditioning training, and a
host of other disciplines each of which require independent, in depth
skill sets and individual expertise.
BJJ may be excellent for certain narrow situations like getting out a
headlock on a playground when someone is giving you nuggies, but
that's a far cry from very serious, potentially life altering/ending
situations, like crashing a jacked car (with your kid in it?) to avoid
being taken to a secondary location (which is almost always secluded
and much worse), never mind gender specific issues like whether a
woman will fight back against an assault or not (and the guilt/blame
that can follow either personal decision), or whether a man could
abandon his family temporarily to get help (and like fallout).
Another problem with "MA as Self Defense" is the hero complex, which
has happened in the real world: someone with a little (or even a lot) of
MA training goes out of their way to put themself into (or back into)
danger they may otherwise have avoided. E.g. not giving up a wallet, or
surviving an initial encounter, then trying to chase down a perp and
getting killed by the perp or an accomplice.
Even small things like passing off "run away" as advice becomes
complicated, when we don't know the relative running cardio levels, or
whether there's a safe place to run to (or just more dangerous places).
/end rant
rene.r
I think that most people are mixed up on the definition of self defense. Some of the situations you mentioned seemed to fall into more of a survival skills or self preservation or common sense.
Personally when I am talking about self defense it is in a limited parameter of physical contact between 1 or 2 other people. In which case MA certainly helps.
Even if for no other reason than to get you back to your feet once you're on the ground BJJ would be a valuable tool in any of the situations you mentioned.
We do some self defence moves at our bjj club, and some of the moves are good, others, not necessarily as practical (IN my opinion)
But people are starting to use certain wierd things that you wouldn't figure would work, but i've seen one of our teenagers take down a judo black belt (Good judo black belt) with a damn standing wrist lock. lol
For years I shunned or thought these types of techniques were stupid, but even jsut the initial part of some of the moves are good. For breaking grips for example.