BJJ as self defense?

[PhillyD45]

Grappling/BJJ is great if an individual attacks you and that's where it stands. Just an individual.
I'm just wondering where you all live where only one person attacks you?
I bounced in Chicago for 10 years at several clubs. I have never seen or been in a fight consisting of only 2 people.

This goes for the hood too. If a fight starts out as an honorable 1 on 1 it always seems everyone jumps in anyway.

Just outta curiosity who has actaully been in a street fight?

 

[georgejjr]

Grappling/BJJ is great if an individual attacks you and that's where it stands. Just an individual.
I'm just wondering where you all live where only one person attacks you?
I bounced in Chicago for 10 years at several clubs. I have never seen or been in a fight consisting of only 2 people.

This goes for the hood too. If a fight starts out as an honorable 1 on 1 it always seems everyone jumps in anyway.

Just outta curiosity who has actaully been in a street fight?

On the other hand, a lot of real fights seem to be many on many. The trick is probably to play a sport like rugby, where you learn to work in unison. The fights I've been in (in my younger days) for the most part were of this type - a group of guys would attack me and my friends, usually a free for all. If you could co-ordinate your group (ie like you're taught in armed services) it'd be a huge advantage.

 

[Darksky]

Just have to seperate the sport aspect from the self defense, but I agree sometimes I feel like we focus too much on sport and not on self defense.

 

[Darksky]

Just have to seperate the sport aspect from the self defense, but I agree sometimes I feel like we focus too much on sport and not on self defense.

 

[PhillyD45]

On the other hand, a lot of real fights seem to be many on many. The trick is probably to play a sport like rugby, where you learn to work in unison. The fights I've been in (in my younger days) for the most part were of this type - a group of guys would attack me and my friends, usually a free for all. If you could co-ordinate your group (ie like you're taught in armed services) it'd be a huge advantage.

good point

 

[Defy]

Only if:
1 on 1
unarmed
they arent good strikers

Its really quite limited on the streets

train sprinting instead

so jiujitsu never overcomes good strikers? lol @ you

 

[Davii]

Maybe I dont understand the question - but if youre asking whether BJJ is good at self defense... the answer is obviously yes.

Self defense, as in a dude attacks you and you defend yourself.

NO ART will ever overcome multiple attackers with high success. NO ART will ever beat guns - knives. Some are a bit better at disarming.. some are better at other things.

Point is - bjj has proven itself time and time again to probably be the most effective 1v1 art.

... now, use some common sense. Why do we learn X guard? Why do we turtle, do inverted guards and gogoplatas? Obviously its for the sport, its for widening your knowledge and applying basic principles to advanced moves to further your game in sport BJJ.

Being able to pull these things off SHOULD make basic bjj moves easier. It should tell you how well you understand the art.


By the way.. this is exactly what most of the old school BJJers find wrong with BJJ.. its the sport aspect that has drifted away from self defense. Most schools though, will still teach the self defense portions since they belong to the curriculum.

 

[YeahBee]

parkour is the best seld defence. Just run up your nearest building!

I never look at BJJ as a self defence art but it definitely helps to knw how to disable/sweep someone if you end up geting taken down. Also good for just getting back up off the floor quickly and proceeding to kick their nuts or slam their head into the bar, rutten stylee.

Didn't ZAnkou have a parkour sig?

Like: "It sems fitting that the only french martial arts is the one about running"

 

[ssckp86]

so jiujitsu never overcomes good strikers? lol @ you

If they are good strikers
1st of all they may just get good hits in and keep the distance
READ: YOU CANT TAKE EM DOWN
2nd of all if they have just OK takedown def. with good striking your dead
READ: YOU JUST GOT OWNED
The Royce Gracie takedown isnt so effective agaisnt people who train a bit

edit: watch the most recent mma fights, people are not taken down at will and submitted. While pure grapplers work for subs, they get attacked and lose. [need to be well rounded]

Takedowns are hard, esp. with punches, knees, elbows, friends, beer bottles, knives coming at you, and even if you do take em down, the same dangerous objects will be coming at you when you are on the ground.

 

[georgejjr]

Takedowns are hard, esp. with punches, knees, elbows, friends, beer bottles, knives coming at you, and even if you do take em down, the same dangerous objects will be coming at you when you are on the ground.

If knives are coming at you, the last thing you want to do is to trade strikes ... just sayin' :icon_chee

Basically, once weapons are involved you either want to be far away, or have one of your own (improvise, pick up something off the street if nothing else). Or have a friend - BJJ'ers have friends too, you know :icon_twis

 

[JRT6]

And if my aunt had balls she'd be my uncle. I hate these "what if" games.

For every bar fight where a dickhead's friends jump in I show you a fight where some regular joe got sucker punched over a parking space by another regular joe.

Guy breaks a beer bottle and attacks someone on the ground with it, it turns in a weapons fight not a modified jits match.

Studies suggest that 99% of assholes don't train in standup so I'll let them break their hands and get their knuckles cut on the bleeding face of some dude with the HIV. I'll just stick with my standing takedowns.

There is no what if, you either train to fight or you don't. You have no control over most of the other variables.

 

[txfighter13]

If you already train BJJ, use what you know to defend yourself. Clinching...takingdown...and submitting. When it comes to self defense it does make sense to train BJJ and then go take a self defense class. Just train BJJ and learn it well enough so you can apply it on the street.

 

[razor840]

I think it is important to train with your weapon of choice, if you seriously plan on attempting to defend yourself with it. I had to take a bunch of hours of classes in order to get my conceal and carry permit. I go to the shooting range almost every day, I train with guns now more than I train BJJ. Quite frankly, I would carry an automatic pistol (like a tech 9) if I could (of course I would also carry a pistol for better aiming because sometimes automatic pistols tend to 'ride up' as you shoot). It is important to know the gun laws in your areas, as someone pointed out in another post. If someone takes a swing at you or brandishes a knife, that doesn't give you the go ahead to just reach and blast (it should, but America is a society run by greedy lawyers).​

I will often ask my new instructor about grappling with guns if the situation presents itself and his philosophy is that you need to take away the danger of a street confrontation which means working really tight and not giving your opponent the chance to grab his knife or his gun. So, if you decide to attempt to take the guy out without a weapon, you still need to be careful because even an untrained guy could bite you or poke you in the eye or something. Stuff like trapping someone's hand bettween your legs is probably not a good idea in a street fight because your balls are right there. I've been thinking more about using knives but what if the guy you're fighting has aids or something? Do you really want to get his blood on you? If I get tackled, I'm going to try to use my guard to create space, kick away, shrimp away, and throw up kicks, and I'll basically try to create space to unholster my gun so I can fire (or annouce that I will fire) from a prone position.​

You could also join your local milita or gun club, they have good advice about protecting yourself and your family. Many people advocate keeping your weapons in a safe but I disagree, because if someone breaks in you have to have that shit close. Get a good alarm system and use one of those bike locks to lock your gun up close to your person if you have kids (that way if they come in when you're asleep, they won't be able to run off with your gun or something). Some companies offer remote locking doors, you could put those on your kids' bedroom doors if you have kids, you can program them to lock if your alarm goes off.​

So, in closing, in a street confrontation if I sense that there might be escalating danger, I'm trying to create space so I can open those lines of fire. Five times out of ten, if you pull a gun people are going to take off anyway, you need to train for those other five times.​

 

[U.S. Soldier]

one on one, its a good art

 

[Wingslaught]

BJJ is highly effective for self defense, you just don't want to start playing inverted guard or anything. You'd use BJJ to sweep your opponent or minimalize damage while on your back. You'd use BJJ if you were on top to control your opponent while landing strikes of your own. BJJ as a whole is effective, just some aspects of BJJ like certain guards, would not be. Also, as someone else said, if you are concerned with street defense, you might want to mix in 1 or 2 days a week of boxing or muay thai.

dumbest post ever

 

[Goat Meal]

dumbest post ever

You just signed your death certificate, mister.

 

[johil d'o]

I do disagree about judo being better than bjj for pure self defense. I trained in judo for a while. It requires an opponent that is willing to come into your range for a throw -- it's necessary to be able to get your grips. It's hard to get grips while someone is keeping at a distance and/or throwing bombs at you. You also have to be at a pretty high level to throw someone with regularity and in such fashion that they are incapacitated as a result... BJJ seems to have a lot to offer for self defense, but I agree that too much "sport" element can expose you to getting your butt kicked. Then again, I never got into it for self defense. The best self defense is not being a bad drunk, using your head and not putting yourself at risk.

 

[The Brand]

BJJ is the most overrated ma in the history of mma in my opinion. I wouldn't even waste my time going to a ju jitsu school.

 

[BestMMA]

I prefer Submission Wrestling/Grappling and CSW.
Grappling brings bjj and freestyle wrestling but includes techniques from catch wrestling, sambo, greco-roman wrestling and judo.

Combat Submission Wrestling is Grappling with a system of striking (muay thai and boxing).

 

[MatthewC]

dumbest post ever

How is that even close to a dumb post? Please elaborate on that, as I found it to be quite succinct. Saying something is dumb without backing it up is pretty dumb in itself.

My take on the subject is this. BJJ is a very good martial art to use as a self defense, but it is not the be all and end all. Neither is boxing, karate, muay thai etc....Each martial art definately has something to contribute to real-life self defense, but none are the "perfect martial art".

For example.

I used to work at a prison. If I had ever been stuck on the range with a guy with a couple of murders under his belt, would I have pulled guard? No. Would I have been content to allow the game to hit the ground? No. I would possibly rely on my front kicks, and punches while I waited for the ERT team to arrive. But IF the game had hit the floor, then yes, my knowledge of BJJ would have come into use to firstly sweep him, or to incapacitate him.

BJJ is great, I find, in that everything that you are taught is directly applicable, unlike, for example, the hundreds of katas that you are required to learn in Karate, of which, only a portion are generally useful in real combat. But, as great as I find BJJ to be, it is what it is, a predominantly ground art.