If you are reading this article, it is likely that you are a practitioner or at least an enthusiast of Jiu-Jitsu. Nice. However, I am sorry to say that – except for rare cases – what you believe Jiu-Jitsu to be has little to do with the martial art developed by the ancient Japanese and perfected (perhaps even re-created) by brothers Carlos and Helio Gracie, their family and disciples.

But how can that be? After all, you probably train with a black-belt who has fought in a number of tournaments, who has taught you how to do arm-locks, sweeps and so on. If he didn’t know Jiu-Jitsu, he wouldn’t be a black-belt, wouldn’t have ever won a competition and wouldn’t be teaching in an academy, right? Well, sort of.

Nowadays, when one speaks about BJJ, what immediately come to mind are competitions, like the World and Pan-American championships. That is because our art has been reduced to merely a competition sport. When a new student signs up in a gym to learn how to defend himself, he is only going to learn competitive Jiu-Jitsu (remember: there are rare exceptions) – even if he is never going to compete at all. I have nothing against sports, but whatever happened to the other elements that make Jiu-Jitsu the most efficient martial art of all times?

Why self-defense is fundamental

Many decades ago, the lessons at the first “Academia Gracie” in Rio de Janeiro were taught individually and following a structured program of self-defense. The idea was to give the students a real and practical knowledge of how to use the Jiu-Jitsu technique to defend against a bigger and stronger aggressor. In an interview given in 1998, Grand Master Helio Gracie explained this concept: “The Jiu-Jitsu I have created is not a competition sport. I was never a competitor. I have always been weak, weighing around 135lb. I’ve never had the physical characteristics to create a method for competing. Every competitor is an athlete. I was never an athlete. But I created the Federation so that Jiu-Jitsu had an official projection, to put emphasis on my art. The thing is that my Jiu-Jitsu is a self-defense art. It’s for actual fighting. It’s meant to protect the citizens, the old men, a child, a woman, a young lady from being beat up by some thug just because they have no athletic abilities to fight.”

If you are interested in competing, Jiu-Jitsu’s competitive side is undoubtedly an option. But this doesn’t mean self-defense should be left aside because it’s not very useful in competition. Here is a good example: how many ways of passing the half-guard do you know? And how many ways of escaping from an aggressor that is giving you a “bouncer’s headlock”? I wouldn’t be surprised if the answers are 10 and 0, respectively.

I learned this lesson during a curious episode that changed my way of understanding Jiu-Jitsu. I accompanied Gracie Magazine’s editor, Luca Atalla, in a visit to Grand Master Helio Gracie’s house in Itaipava, Rio de Janeiro, while he did one of the several interviews that wound up becoming the article on the master’s life. Hours into the interview, Helio put his hands on my neck and asked if I knew how to escape such common attack. I then tried to improvise something that didn’t work, and got reprehended right there. Quite in his style, he asked me to grab his neck in the same fashion. “Squeeze it as strong as you can,” he sternly requested. I felt awkward, but did as he said and witnessed one of the clearest examples of the philosophy behind Gracie Jiu-Jitsu: “minimum effort for maximum efficiency.” With an extremely simple move, master Helio escaped from my hands and opened a wide smile. Embarrassing. I felt like trash.

“Minimum effort for maximum efficiency,” have you ever heard of it? Well, I had heard of it, but it took me a long time to really comprehend the concept. Choose each and every move in an intelligent way; calculate the precise amount of force needed to execute it; make your opponent constantly waste more energy than you. Summarizing, find the easiest way to reach your goal. Therefore, let’s go back to the “bouncer’s headlock”: what use is it to be the best half-guard passer in the world if you are left defenseless when this funny named move is used against you?

Wait a second. Obviously, even without knowing the right way to escape, you might be able to break away from the headlock and use your competition Jiu-Jitsu to kick your aggressor’s ass. I don’t doubt it, but I’d like to point out that, just like you strive to find the most efficient technique to pass a half-guard in the academy or in a tournament, you should also try to have in your arsenal the most efficient way to get rid of a rough headlock, for example. Think about it: if your only concern is about techniques related to competition and not self-defense, then practicing Jiu-Jitsu, karate, ping-pong or volleyball end up being all the same thing: just a game.

MMA is another thing

Jiu-Jitsu and martial arts in general have changed a lot over the past ten years or so. In 1993 Royce Gracie opened the eyes of the world to the incredible efficiency of his family’s art in vale-tudo (“anything goes”) combats. It was clear then that in a hand-to-hand fight with almost no rules against a bigger, stronger opponent, the best weapon is definitely Jiu-Jitsu. And I’m not talking about sport techniques only, but also the “street Jiu-Jitsu” the Gracie family and its followers have developed. Myths and legends have gone down the drain in the USA, Japan and the rest of the world. But for Brazilians it wasn’t a new idea, after all Jiu-Jitsu has always reigned supreme in their country.

The vale-tudo – or No Holds Barred, as it was earlier called in the U.S. – fever swept the planet, and events started to pop up everywhere. It didn’t take long for “anything goes” to become “mixed martial arts,” taking an universal shape and following pretty much the same set of rules in every country. No matter what your favorite show is, whether it’s Pride (Japan), UFC (USA) or Cage Rage (UK), they all feature rounds, judges and gloves. It’s undeniable that these factors helped create a more marketable product for TV and the masses. But the essence of vale-tudo was lost.

Think about it: when there is a time limit for the match, you train to give your best during those 15 or 20 minutes of fighting. If there is no submission or KO, three “experts” will determine the winner. And how about the gloves, those hand pillows? Just imagine what would happen to Fedor Emelianenko’s hands after he launches his missiles onto his opponent’s skull and you will see my point here.

This vale-tudo mutation called MMA resembles the original idea, although it is in fact something very different. It has become a sport. And as such, its competitors strive to make the best use of the rules in order to win. Physical preparation is intense and fundamental, because, in order to enter a ring nowadays, one must have as much strength, explosion and endurance as possible during all rounds. When a fighter starts thinking he won’t be able to finish the match before time elapses, he begins to look for the best positioning to assure a decision victory. This usually translates into take down + stalling from the top, throwing punches to score points. This issue has become so serious that certain MMA professionals are specialists in winning that way. Professional competitors. Evidently, submissions and knock outs aren’t easy tasks, but there is nothing more subversive to the martial arts’ philosophy than a fight where the opponents want to win by points or judges decision.

Just like the first UFCs redefined the way to fight (barely) with no rules, the current success of MMA events has been strongly affecting the understanding of Jiu-Jitsu and the way it must be used during a fight. Original vale-tudo – no gloves, no time limit, no rounds, no judges, the only illegal moves being bites and eye gouging – is the closest you can get to a real hand-to-hand fight. Jiu-Jitsu’s efficiency under these conditions is more than proven. And that’s why nowadays there is no MMA competitor who doesn’t train Jiu-Jitsu or one of its sub-products, such as submission wrestling or grappling. In this professional arena all athletes strive to become complete. They also practice other arts like boxing, wrestling and muay thai. The more tools one has in the ring, the better.

But what if you have no intentions of ever stepping into a ring or octagon? Cross-training is only important to a MMA professional or to someone who decides to dedicate his life to the practice of several martial arts. For the common citizen who is not an athlete (the vast majority), only Jiu-Jitsu provides solid chances of successfully defending against a bigger, stronger aggressor on the streets. What takes place in the Pride ring, for example, is not applicable to me, my girlfriend, my grandfather or my 13-year-old brother. As a wise man once put it: “One thing is one thing, another thing is another thing.” Well, MMA is definitely another thing.

Jiu-Jitsu is fought with the Gi (Kimono). Period

 One of the myths that mixed martial arts helped create is that everyone has got to train with no gi on. It happens to be that Jiu-Jitsu is fought with the Gi, period. Training without it is interesting and fun, opening one’s eyes to different types of grips, variations of many moves and a much faster game. But it is far from fundamental to the ordinary student with no perspective of fighting in the ADCC World Championship. The Gi is made of a fabric strong enough to resist the rough routine of the mats. It simulates the clothes we wear in our everyday life. Even in a hot country like Brazil. And if one day you find yourself in a dark alley facing a sweaty man wearing nothing but Speedos, I suggest you simply run as fast as you can and do not engage him.

Therefore, since athletes these days train exclusively the elements connected to MMA fighting and its rules, the Jiu-Jitsu they take to the ring is a deformation of true Jiu-Jitsu. In order to better analyze it, let’s not take in consideration a fighter’s natural abilities and personal skills. Then it becomes clear that the reason of their success when it comes to ground fighting is due to two brilliant factors of Jiu-Jitsu: the efficiency of the techniques and the logical transitioning. The first factor is easy to understand. Chokes and foot locks, for example, when correctly applied, are very efficient. The second factor concerns the way of training Jiu-Jitsu and the sense of direction it offers the practitioner. First you shorten the distance to avoid kicks and punches. From the clinch you move on to the takedown. Once you are on the floor, you start looking for increasingly better positions, until you get to a situation where you can end the fight. Naturally, since the Jiu-Jitsu fighter trains following this logic everyday, he always possesses a clear sense of direction and the technical knowledge to implement his strategy the proper way. In contrast, other martial arts offer little more than the idea of hitting until the opponent drops.

The secret is in the philosophy

The genius in Jiu-Jitsu goes well beyond the amazing moves used. It is exactly the way of facing a combat that puts Jiu-Jitsu way above all other arts. Our goal is not to score points, but to make the opponent surrender. With this in mind plus the philosophy of “minimum effort for maximum efficiency,” the technique of Jiu-Jitsu adapted in Brazil by the Gracies got more and more refined. And using this combo to determine the sequence of moves and the general strategy that runs each fight, the BJJ fighter gets, consequently, very close to victory. Master Helio, who tested his art in the battlefield for many years, goes beyond: “To beat Jiu-Jitsu, only if you know Jiu-Jitsu or by accident. If you fight 100 times, you may lose once or twice, but you’ll win all the others.” Once, during an interview, Fabio Gurgel, one of the greatest names in the sport, made a keen observation on the subject: “Jiu-Jitsu is a perfect art, but the human being fails at times.”

Many years ago, during a seminar in the USA, Rickson Gracie explained the BJJ philosophy through a nice example. In order to demonstrate the efficiency of the mount position during a fight, he placed a student of his on top of some spectators, all of them practitioners of other martial arts. On purpose, all the chosen people were bigger than his student. The first one tried hard but could not escape from the bottom. The second one exploded like a mad bull, and eventually reversed the situation. Rickson then asked the guy to try again, this time against him. In a few seconds, the big fellow had given Gracie his back and was trapped in a rear naked choke. The master explained that the only thing that’s worse than being mounted is to offer your back. And he resumed the exercise, this time choosing to only keep the opponent on the bottom. After one minute of insistent attempts, the guy finally gave up. Rickson then sat among the group of almost 50 people and said:

“Well, this is what I wanted to teach you people. Because he is tough (points to the big fellow), even without Jiu-Jitsu. I’m not saying you only have a chance of escaping using Jiu-Jitsu. I try to give a certain problem, and then I offer the easiest solution. He is tough and I think it is hard for anyone to keep him on the bottom, but suppose it’s a 240lb man on top. Then it’s different. Suppose he is recovering from a cold and has no endurance. He will fight for a while then get exhausted. The point is: if we can use leverage in every occasion, it will make things easier. And what we want while facing a stronger opponent is the easiest way of fighting him. You shouldn’t come here (to the seminar) to try and do like he did. That’s a waste of energy. It works, but if he is in a worse situation, if he’s in adverse conditions, he is going to need other options. And you are here to learn the best way. Some people are born tough; they are fast, strong or have a good heart for fighting. These qualities alone represent 50% of a win in any street fight. But in adverse conditions, it is just not enough.”

In other words, it doesn’t matter whether you are an athlete or not. By following the Jiu-Jitsu philosophy, you’ll become a more efficient fighter. Apply this same philosophy to every other aspect of your life and a new universe will open up before you.

BY: BJJ BLACK BELT JOAO PEDRO