BJJers why did you choose BJJ?

[fourfif**]

It's just better than JuJitsu or Judo. Period.

do you cross train?

watch the video above, consider that one is essentially the other, and then write "I will stop being a close minded tma throwback" on the chalk board 100x.

 

[fourfif**]

holy smoke!

Fourfif got his bb!

nice!

 

[PikachuManson]

Cuz i wanted to get in shape for the ladies.

 

[navita]

I started because I wanted self defense. Then when i saw BJJ it looked like a good mix of the judo my dad did and my wrestling my brothers did not I'm addicted. While judo is nice and good bjj just gives more freedom...

 

[Drift Wood]

I started out in Muay Thai in Argentina. I trained with a guy, Patricio, who won the South American Cup. Tough kid. In the second round he landed a rear leg roundhouse that broke his opponents humerous... the fight ended there... pussy j/k. Training was tough and I got the crap beat out of me... I decided that Muay Thai (at that point in time) was not for me. Then over to Aikido. It was prety, it looked amazing in movies, but it did not seem as though it was an art I could apply confidently in a combative situation without years upon years of training...
Next I went to Judo... Those mofo's wanted to throw me!!! F*%@ that!! Your instructor/master can throw me, he can throw me all over the place if he likes, I'm open to that... I know how to fall... I'm not going to get hurt. I CAME HERE TO LEARN HOW TO THROW OTHER PEOPLE, and the was it. I offered to bring in my own throwing person ( I guess it would have been more of a falling person)... Baseball has got them pinch hitters... to me it was the Judo equavalent they didn't like that idea. I thought it was innovative. So then I found BJJ and all is well in my world... I have definitely found a home.

 

[BJJHERO]

Because BJJ is the truth!

 

[BWC]

I got into it because I am the type of person that sees something that might be fun and I go check it out. Of course everyone knows MMA is essentially centered around BJJ, but like many I started out wanting to get into MMA but learned to love BJJ by itself. I am actually more talented at stand-up I think, but BJJ just keeps me coming back. Frankly it's not as punishing as training say MT, MMA, or even wrestling. It's actually very easy to just relax while in BJJ class now. No one is throwing bombs at my head and trying for double legs.

I think that's been the biggest surprise for me, how relaxing BJJ can be. I mean training is really laid back for the most part. I've competed in a couple local tourneys and a NAGA and that was intense but at the end of the day honestly BJJ is pretty laid back for a martial art..

 

[fourfif**]

^^. I totally agree with you, what you said is just one of the many reasons I love bjj.

 

[Groundfighter75]

I'm guessing you've never actually trained MMA, specifically takedowns off of a wall/cage. Totally changes things up, and what you're describing is an effective way to get your opponent to the ground if done properly. Completely unrelated to styles discussions.

I train MMA at the moment. I watch plenty of MMA fights where the same mistakes are repeated. I've been to BJJ before, the classes started on knees and ended on knees. There's no way a BJJ club trains throws as much as you're making out. I train with lots of people who go to BJJ and they can't throw standing for toffee.

 

[Groundfighter75]

speaking of royce, his double leg was good enough to take down a Jr national judo champion of Holland.

How many bjj classes teach those throws? Mine for one.

Who Remco?

Not saying they don't work, I'm saying everyone uses it and it's so overused it's utterly obvious when someone's going in for it.

 

[CajunJudoka]

I started training Jiu Jitsu because my Judo school only had one class a week and I wanted more mat time. Now my Judo school has more classes a week and I have fallen in love with Judo and Jiu Jitsu just the same. I train both and love both. I really can't tell the difference except for when I'm talking to all the tough guys here who know everything about Judo and Jiu Jitsu.

Train hard, stay safe.

 

[laohu69]

......except for when I'm talking to all the tough guys here who know everything about Judo and Jiu Jitsu.

Train hard, stay safe.

:icon_lol: That's OK, 99.9% of the people on this forum don't & haven't trained, don't know their ass from a hole in the ground & would probably get whipped by a 14 year old TKD "black belt".

 

[Il Wop-O]

It does, but from experience it's mostly double or single leg. How many BJJ classes teach O Goshi, or Harai Goshi or even Taitoshi for instance?

You just need to watch Royce's (and other Gracies) total reliance on the double leg morote gari time after time to see that.

Yeah, but that was the product of risk/reward thinking against fighters who were primarily strikers. Double unders = limited striking + outside trip = mount + some striking from top = submission.

From very early on, Helio & Carlos could be seen working seio nage, harai goshi, etc. Judo was the start of BJJ, and at many academies it is still in the curriculum. A more old-school BJJ place will even have some striking in the curriculum. It has been a result of BJJ tournament focus that guard-pulling has taken the place of much standup. But a lot of people still do it. Plus, as BJJ was a hybrid (I think of it as a "Pragmatic") martial art in the first place, it has always grown with outside influences. Rolls Gracie borrowed a lot from western wrestling and Sambo. A lot of BJJ BBs are Judo BBs, too, and as such it becomes folded back into the mix. Plus so many BJJ academies are MMA gyms and as such will absorb a lot of wrestling by proxy.

And one other thing - I agree with some other posters about midget wrestling. I just don't do it. If a guy on his knees comes forward, I sit back to guard. If he sits back, I work to pass. If he wants to midget wrestle, I stand up and give him the option of standing too or butt-scooting. I just refuse to midget wrestle.

 

[Respeezy]

I knew BJJ from the ufc and was caught by the "99% of all fights go to the ground" phrase which i heard more than a few times.

 

[chtucker18]

To learn things most people do not know like subs.

 

[cenix]

i wrestled. loved it. i watched the ufc since its beginnings. loved it. bjj caught my curiosity and i just needed to try it. also, it's really been great at keeping me fit and it's a great time altogether.

 

[Little Mac]

I started when I was Sixteen and it was due to the fact that I was and still am a Small guy and there was no way at the time I could do sports at school and I want to find something different besides me sitting on my Butt playing video games after school

I was thinking of Wrestling in school but with my luck and not being the most popular kid in school that was out of the question and too I had most of the jocks kicking the crap out of me.. So I Re-Watched Rickson Gracie and Yuki Nakai's vale tudo fight and had to find out what Rickson's style was.. From there It was Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and did it from there..

 

[RamlebNeral]

Started BJJ when I was 16, was a multi-sport athlete and grew up fighting. Wrestled since I was 9 and thought I was hot shit until i got arrested for simple assault (broke a guys jaw in a fight) and my dad wanting to teach me a lesson introduced me to "uncle dave" aka my 5'11" 155 bjj black belt uncle from rio that was a recently added relative though marriage. After about 15 minutes of meeting uncle dave I found out that I wasn't as much of a badass as I though I was :redface: Hooked ever since.

 

[blfdgrappler]

You guys will totally make fun of me for this response. Oh well.

I started BJJ because the one and only episode of Fight Quest on the Discovery Channel I've ever seen in my whole life was the episode about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. And I thought to myself, "Ya know, that looks kinda cool." Plus I was working at a job where the possibility of assault was high, so I figured it might be a good form of self-defense. I bought a book about jiu-jitsu first (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: Theory and Technique, by Renzo, Royler, and Kid Peligro) and read up on it. Then I surfed the web for schools close to my house and finally got up the nerve to call an instructor, who actually found a gym even closer for me. Another phone call and a nervous drive later, I walked into my first BJJ class. The rest, as they say, is history.

Before that, I was a total nerd with no physical activity. Now I have a badass goatee and a short, clipper-cut haircut. I lift weights. I run. I've dropped 20 pounds and eat healthy for the first time in my life (well, most of the time). I love anything Acai. I started watching UFC and WEC for the first time back then and got stoked when I saw stuff I was doing in class. For the first time, I began to understand that "fighting stuff." I am embarrassed to say, I thought it was kind of barbaric back then before I came to understand it. Now, I get offended when people talk badly about any MMA athletics, and I try to educate others. I began training standup and other disciplines ... muay thai, boxing, judo, karate, and wrestling. I've formed a good overall personal set of self-defense skills that work for me (I will never be a competitive fighter or anything). I even read a few MMA magazines when I make it to the newsstand. And now, Sherdoggers, I am here among the rest of the addicts. I really like the other disciplines, but BJJ is my drug and mistress.

 

[ElKarlo]

On account of KSW, Sambo, Sub Wrestling, and even Judo were non exist in my area.