I used to believe Shotokan karate was the be all and end all of real fighting.
I used to believe Taekwondo was the most powerful martial art because it emphasised kicks (i.e. legs being our strongest limb).
In the 1980s I walked out of a Classical Jiu Jitsu intro class because they were doing grappling at the end of certain techniques. I thought it was pointless. Duh!
I used to think martial arts would make me irresistible to women, respected by the toughest of men, interesting, charismatic, groovy, immune to all of life’s crisis & dramas, and finally indestructible/immortal!
More recently:-
I dropped Muay Thai boxing for 10 years because I thought Royce Gracie in UFC 1-5 was the final word in Martial arts. I forgot to watch the next 85 competitions such as Don Frye’s annihilation of Amaury Bitetti in UFC 9.
I used to believe my sport BJJ alone was good for the street. I thought jumping to guard and pulling a guillotine or kimura was a good idea if I got into a streetfight.
I’m not 100% sure what would happen as I’ve never got into a fight since doing BJJ/Submission wrestling nor had anyone striking me on the ground: my MMA classes are modular!! It could have a very good success rate against most people or I might get pulped.
Tactically, if I end up in guard in a streetfight I’m struggling to contain someone’s power.
If you have the real BJJ you could instantly armbar or triangle them. You can destroy them from guard. That’s why it’s always safest to just pull guard.
Okay, I need to read here what the word on the street is regarding sport BJJ & surviving street fights. I’ve been concentrating on Olympic Wrestling of late and doing a few Shootbox, boxing, thai boxing classes again. I’m kind of feeling being on the top and punching & striking down might be better: I’m a very defensive guardcentric BJJ player.
Before I saw my UFCs 1-5 in the late 90s I did get into a couple of altercations & Muay Thai did the job in 2 shots on both occasions. Nevertheless, I abandoned this for 10 years.
Now I know you’re kidding me. Don’t think any of my BJJ instructors ever suggested that my Gracie Barra competition orientated Jiu Jitsu might have ANY weaknesses in the street.
Royce Gracie’s system with its headbutts, knees, heels to the kidney stuff i.e. what he did in the first UFC isn’t what I was taught under the banner Gracie Jiu Jitsu.
Sure, that was close to a ‘real’ system so perhaps I don’t have real Jiu Jits.
I’m more convinced by a rounded MMA system consisting of Wrestling, Shootbox, boxing, muay thai, and submission wrestling (combining ‘Catch’ wrestling, sambo and of course BJJ).
The Gracies’ started the MMA thing, they aren’t the final word. I’m really not sure whether you’re pulling my leg but I know Bullshido.com aren’t Gracie nuthuggers nor anyone elses.
My instructors as luck would have it, living in a major city, are top Brazilian competitors. Brazil came to me.
Please. Don’t you know that most sub grappling competitions are won by BJJers? There have only been two non-BJJers to ever win ADCC.
That’s all well and fine, but this is Bullshido.net! (nail’d ya!)
Your profile says you’re in Europe so you’re probably a honkie, in which case the Brazilians are probably holding back the real Jiu-jitsu, lest you teach it to your vanilla-faced bothers.
I transferred to a non-Brazilian club mainly cos I wanted to train submission wrestling/no-gi exclusively. I don’t know how it all breaks down into the various sources but I remember hearing how BJJers took a few broken ankles in the 90s before they knew anything about Sambo’s leglocks.
I’ve heard some BJJ clubs in America have a fuller syllabus for da street. I learnt real Olympic wrestling takedowns once I’d left official Gracie Barra Jiu Jitsu not the passive Judo throws we used to warm-up with.
And yes, I’m from Lancashire home of ‘Catch’ Wrestling. Why the hell I tried every pyjama clad wing wang wa martial art ever invented when the base of MMA was available in my home county from time immemorial I’ll never know.
Why not. Catch wrestling is basically Olympic wrestling with submissions!!! The 20th-century is littered with accounts of ‘catch’ wrestlers defeating Judo and the top Judoka of all-time Masahiko Kimura trounced Helio Gracie.
Yes, it’s tenuous, yes I’m being patriotic, but I’m not going to afford the honour to BJJ which is is just Judo after all. The real base of MMA is Pankration and I don’t see that Randy Couture or Don Frye needed to learn much BJJ to win UFC.
True. There aren’t any peckerwoods who took their vanilla-faces to Brazil. Certainly no Scottish families there with names like–ohh, I don’t know–maybe, um, “Gracie”?