Brazilian Jujitsu, commonly referred to as BJJ, is attracting more and more practitioners in North America, the UK, and Australia as both a combat sport and an effective martial art for self-defense. Its rising popularity is thanks to many factors, but the the reason most often cited is because it has been used with terrific results in mixed martial arts (MMA) and no-holds-barred fighting.
BJJ is unique in the martial arts realm in that practitioners can attack from what would normally be considered a defensive position and vice versa. This leads many spectators to assume that a BJJ fighter is defending when he might actually be on the attack.
The underlying principles of BJJ enable a small practitioner to attack and successfully defend against by applying leverage, and using strong muscles (or multiple muscles) to attack weaker muscles or joints. Early vale tudo videos (Brazilian for "anything goes") show these principles in action.
BJJ practitioners can also end a fight through traditional means (punches and kicks), but these are often attacks of opportunity opened when an opponent defends against traditional BJJ attacks, leaving himself vulnerable in the process; or directly through the use of BJJ attack sequences. BJJ attack techniques are designed to render an opponent unconscious or immobile, or render his limbs unusable, thereby ending a fight.
The three primary categories of attack are:
1) Joint Locks: a practitioner will attempt to isolate one of his opponent's joints and use leverage or larger muscles to move the joint beyond its normal range of motion. Some examples are Americana, arm bars, Kimura, knee bars.
2) Chokes: the word "chokes" is sometimes mistakenly used for "strangles," but the two are very distinct, thought they both focus on the neck. A choke occurs when a fighters attacks the windpipe of his opponent to prevent the opponent from breathing properly.
3) Strangles: with a strangle, a fighter attempts to cut off the supply of blood to the brain by constricting the carotid arteries. Strangles are seen more often when fighters are wearing gis (mata leo being a large exception), which are the traditional training and sparring uniform. You can view BJJ gi videos to see what these look like.
BJJ is a fascinating martial art. It takes years or even decades to rank, but even inexperienced BJJ practitioners fare very well against expert practitioners from other arts like karate or tae kwon do. There are many vs videos available which demonstrate one art vs another. These videos will provide a glimpse into why BJJ is so effective for self defense.
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