Its been awhile since I've trained. I moved back to my hometown after some personal issues and I started trying some gyms out around here, in the Mid-Ohio Valley. I went to a Judo place that was pretty nice, everyone was really cool and I liked it (boy those break falls are no joke ) and I tried a JJ place that trains out of the local YWCA. I was wondering if anybody knew of any other good places in the Parkersburg, WV area. I checked the gym finders online and the yellow pages and what not but I just thought I would ask if anyone knew of a low key place I might have missed. I used to think of JJ and the fighting arts in general as a self defense first kind of thing but I've since gotten my conceal and carry permit and I usually carry a blade in my boot as well, because its getting dangerous around here with all the meth heads wandering around. So I guess I'm really more interested in the sport/MMA aspect at the moment (the whole human chess aspect and what-not). Plus, I want to make sure that if someone tackles me from behind or something, I'll be able to defend and get to one of my weapons in time. I took a self-defense class awhile back that dealt with knives and guns and stuff, I also read a lot of literature about how to stay alert while walking to your car and stuff. Also, I had to become very proficient with fire arms to get my conceal and carry permit. I've been thinking about getting a kevlar vest but I think if I wore it full time, my friends and co-workers might think I was getting too paranoid. I guess, basically, what I want to ask is, as a grappler, or someone involved in MMA, what is your self-defense strategy? How should I approach a future instructor about these issues, if I want some help addressing them? I agree BJJ=self defense but, how do your instructors go about imparting this? I mean, is there any logical break bettween BJJ/self defense? I mean, I know there are things you should and shouldn't do but how do you train for a legit, street confrontation? I was thinking of maybe trying to find an underground fight club but I don't know if anything like thise really exists or how to find it. I guess maybe tough man contests might because you get the flailing and the testosterone. I also see the spiritual, disentegration of society aspect that gets explored in the movie fight club as somewhat interesting. I watched something on the History Channel about an underground sword fighting club. Anyway, I do see the primal, animalistic side of full on competition as being healthy. Do you see your training as full sport, a mixture of sport and self-defense, or do you like the primal, tearing away social nicieties that you sometimes get when you play human chess with someone?
Nice collection of incoherent thoughts and random ramblings. I believe you are slightly crazy. I really don't mean that as an insult. I can tell by the way you write that your mind races with several unfocused thoughts at once. Because of this I'm not to happy you are certified to carry weapons. That said... Use your weapons RESPONSIBLY. I believe you know this. You have the gun cert. so now you should focus on knife. If you can find a kali/escrima school that would be your best bet. If not look it up on youtube. For physical self defense no, BJJ or any other grappling art should NOT be your first choice. Muay Thai, western boxing, savate, or Krav Maga would be in your first choices. The tools you learn in these arts will give you the best chance against several attackers and to get away (the usual street fight situation). Once these are learned and you feel confident then take a grappling class.
There are certain situations where you're better off settling things on the ground, certain situations where you're better off standing, and maybe for the other 50 percent of those situations, you're just better off running, but without any training in grappling, you have no ability to control where the fight's going to end up. Long story short: Grappling/BJJ isn't the style to end all styles, but for self defense, you definitely need it and by the way, PLEASE arrange your thoughts nicely and look over what you write? a "legit street confrontation" is an obvious oxymoron
I think you're already too paranoid. I mean seriously, what the hell man? I was in Iraq in a hostile fire zone and I didn't even wear my body armor full time, and you live in WV and you're seriously considering it? Do you really have that many enemies that you need to be packing a firearm and a knife plus considering wearing a kevlar vest? If the area you live in is so bad that you have to go do these things, my advice to you would be to move.
My self defense strategy consists mostly of avoiding bad neighborhoods late at night and running away. BJJ would not be high on my self defense list because a) muggers have friends too, and BJJ doesnt work too well against groups and b) even the poorest mugger has a knife, and BJJ doesnt work well against knives. On an unrelated note, make sure you are familiar with the conceal carry laws in your area. Many times, just having some guy flash a knife at you isn't enough to warrent shooting him. and never pull your firearmy out unless you are 100% certain you are going to fire it.
You carry a knife and a gun, no need for bjj. You carry a knife and a gun, you need to get rid of them and relax. I grew up in Bosnia and Hercegovina during the war and did just fine with common sense.
Ah, common sense. Probably the most important weapon of all. You can't earn a black belt in that. You can only be born with one.
my self-defense strategy: 5% BJJ training 10% negotiation 25% good running shoes 60% looking for a good job that will let me live somewhere not in the cuts where i'd feel like i had to wear a kevlar vest and carry a knife
Well, I do work at a pizza shop and I have to deliver late at night. I've had some close calls in the past with would-be muggers. We have several public housing areas and every once in awhile there are delivery driver robberies. I got in a fist fight with a guy one time and another time, someone threatened me with an empty forty ounce bottle of beer. Also, like I alluded to in my earlier post, the meth problem around here has gotten pretty serious and in the rust belt, there isn't enough money for the police we need. I've actually been training BJJ off and on for a couple of years now but I haven't been able to find any boxing, thai boxing, krav maga, or any kind of legit stand up places to work at (I'm not saying they don't exist but I haven't been able to find them). So really, I've decided to lean on guns and knives as self defence options but I know they're really just one part of the puzzle. I'm in Law School as well, so hopefully I won't have to stay in a bad neighborhood forever. I hope none of the heroes that post here who have been gallantly defending our freedoms in Iraq and in our other wars against terror don't think that I was making light of their situations. I certainly wasn't. I don't know anything first hand but I know that it must be hell over there and you're all heroes. I still feel that is a great deal of danger out there, right in your backyard, and it pays to be ready. Of the four or five fights I have been unfortunate enough to stumble into, all but one of them went to the ground and in two or three of those, there were several people involved on both sides. My basic question was more about your general strategy when involved in a street confrontation and I apologize for garbling the hell out of my post and sounding somewhat psychotic. It was really more of a semantic/grammar problem and I apologize. I know of kali and escrema but there aren't any places to train those around here so I just thought that maybe some people might have some philosophies about how to mold self defence and BJJ together in a cogent way, or just their personal philsophy on the matter. Any way, I just want to apologize again for the bad post.
Get yourself the kevlar vest, and buy a sword from those guys on late night TV with the Southern accents. You'll be able to tell the quality blades with the one true test of a fine sword: log chopping. Infomercial goes wrong
