BJJ and Self-defence

These seem to be coming fairly thick and fast at the moment - probably because I'm not actually training at the moment (I am aware of the irony of writing about BJJ without actually doing it!), but if you've read this far, I hope you'll hang in there until the pace slows a bit! Take heart, probably not such a long one this time!

Growing up in and around London, I have seen more than my fair share of fights and even had to participate in a few of them as well (not usually very successfully!). From training in striking arts as well I would generally not recommend them overly as methods of self-defence. In any stand-up striking battle, whether in the ring or on the streets there is a real likelihood of taking damage. This link (http://blog.fightmetric.com/2011/10/diaz-vs-penn-official-ufc-statistics.html) shows the Compustrike tally for the Nick Diaz vs BJ Penn fight. BJ Penn came out of that fight looking like he'd had a minor disagreement with King Kong and then insulted Godzilla on his way home.

However, despite the fight being what I think all witnesses agreed was a pretty one-sided beating handed out by Diaz, Penn still managed to land 88 punches on Nick Diaz - count'em, 88! Whilst this is still half the number that Diaz was happy to provide him with, I think we can agree that to anyone caught defending themselves on the street or in a bar, they would like to avoid as much damage as possible - one rarely sees two boxers going at it and being willing to take one to give one. There is also the aspect that if one of those strikes had been a touch harder and better placed, Nick Diaz and BJ Penn would have swapped places on the winner's podium - something that would spell total disaster in our imaginary street scenario. To further bear this out, here is Jones vs Machida - Machida was dominated, but in the first round actually managed to land the same number of strikes - going blow for blow with Jones.  http://hosteddb.fightmetric.com/fights/index/3678

Whilst I am not suggesting that Muay Thai, boxing, karate, Wing Chun or many other striking arts would not come in handy in a self-defence situation, I hope I have properly explained my point - that standing and striking with someone carries with it a level of unacceptable risk. I do completely agree with the standpoint that the increased fitness, awareness and, indeed, ability that comes with training in one of these arts can definitely help one out and certainly the heightened confidence is something that can help one become less of a victim simply due to one's bearing, however, I think there is a way to further even the odds.

Oddly enough, this being a blog about BJJ, I am going to propose BJJ as a great art to start thinking about in terms of a way to protect yourself. First and foremost, it has the 'surprise' factor. When you take down your assailant and then move into position to control, there are unlikely to be too many people that have the training to recognise what is happening. When you then start wrapping your arms around their throat or bending limbs in impossible directions, it's hard to imagine too many people having the skills to resist. This is unlikely getting in a standup fight, where anyone can throw some sort of punch by simply extending a fist and putting it in your face - maybe not scientific, and it's unlikely to impress Floyd Mayweather Jr., but it may well be enough to impress you.

Simply put, BJJ is counter-intuitive to most and rudimentary training should go a long way towards confounding and beating someone with no training, even with just positional awareness rather than showing off by transitioning from a flying armbar to a triangle to an omoplata! However, if you are unlucky enough to get attacked by a BJJ player with more skill than you, particularly a black belt - tap and see if they let go - otherwise, to quote Aaron Goh, 'resistance is futile'!

Apart from the drunken barfight situation, there is, I believe, an even better argument for women in particular to take up the art, or at least get some training in it. Simply put, women are sometimes in danger of assaults far more objectionable than simply getting punched and I genuinely think that BJJ is the perfect art to help them defend themselves. First things first, the BJJ guard position is the rape position. We lie on our backs with someone between our legs, which is exactly where a would-be rapist is looking to put his victim. For many women, this may well be the moment of panic - on her back with someone already halfway towards his goal and the additional stress of the close proximity of his body.

For a BJJ player though, this is where the nastiness begins, not for the attacker, but for the 'victim'. Almost every beginner starts learning BJJ from the closed guard as it allows for maximum control of the opponent and gives a wide range of submission and sweep options - in other words, the attempted rapist would be in the 'victim's' world now. Getting used to the proximity of another human in a stressful situation is also a massive advantage. BJJ can teach women not to panic in this situation and instead relax and prepare to not just defend, but go on the offensive. Heaven help anyone foolish enough to try something like this on the girls we have training at Leverage Combat Academy - because certainly no-one else would.

Wristlocks, leglocks and all manner of nastiness can also help with assaults a step down from rape - how can someone snatch your purse with a broken wrist? Same for men - just let him grab your shirt or wallet from a tight guillotine! And for pity's sake, if you have to defend yourself, defend yourself with PRIDE FC rules - stomps, soccer kicks and knees to a downed opponent!

Apologies - this HAS gone on for a while - I hope you've stuck with it and I hope that anybody reading this will chime in in the comments section. It really means a lot to see the pageviews going up so thank you for your support so far. As always, if there is something you disagree with then post it too - the more you disagree with it the better - I'm always very interested in opposing views. Thank you again for reading!