BJJ Street effectiveness?

[Tant01]

Well.... Bummer. Threads dissapearing around here like crazy, eh?

Something ain't right!

[Grixti]

Yeah, dunno whats going on?

But mightaswell continue the thread: How effective is BJJ on the street?

[DickHardman]

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[Tom Yum]

lets just put it this way......if you are ever in some kind of violent encounter on the street, it would be better to know jiu jitsu than to not know it.

How street-effective are your BJ skills, Dickhardman?

[DickHardman]

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[DickHardman]

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[DickHardman]

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[Grixti]

Anyone have some detailed views on this subject?!

I was watching ultimate fighter on Bravo (upcoming ultimate fighters competing to fight in the UFC) and these two guys ended up having a scap in the house that all the fighters were staying in. I have to admit it was the most technical street fight i had ever seen. At one point one guy got the other in an arm bar but just got his head smashed on the concrete when he was lifted up and slammed down.

My point here is that BJJ might not be the best style for the street as your most likely going to be fighting on concrete and a lot of the time fighting more than one person. If you get someone in a submission you could either get slammed or get your head kicked in by the guys mate.

Might it be better to learn wrestling?

[bodhisattva]

MMA requires well rounded athletes - ground stand up and submssions

Anyone have some detailed views on this subject?!

I was watching ultimate fighter on Bravo (upcoming ultimate fighters competing to fight in the UFC) and these two guys ended up having a scap in the house that all the fighters were staying in. I have to admit it was the most technical street fight i had ever seen. At one point one guy got the other in an arm bar but just got his head smashed on the concrete when he was lifted up and slammed down.

My point here is that BJJ might not be the best style for the street as your most likely going to be fighting on concrete and a lot of the time fighting more than one person. If you get someone in a submission you could either get slammed or get your head kicked in by the guys mate.

Might it be better to learn wrestling?

That scene had two pro fighters going at it.

When a pro is against a pro, its a lot harder to pull off some of the moves.

That's like watching a pro boxing match and saying "They hit each other nonstop for 10 rounds and at the end they were still standing. Are you certain boxing is effective for self defense?"

BJJ is important even if you don't want to be on the ground. If a stand up fighter doesn't have good ground skills, he is going to get stuck on the ground (and unable to get up off the grounda nd back on his feet) a lot.

[seany85]

I dont think it would stop Ryu's Haduken.

[Tant01]

BJJ is not armor. Don't buy the hype.


"If someone points a gun at you, of course, you will be scared. But jiu-jutsu gives me the equivalent of a bullet proof shield. It protects me from head to toe, plus it gives me the ability to take a gun away."

(*Grand Master) Helio Gracie. via Doug Jeffrey. (From the April '05 issue of GRAPPLING magazine)

[jwf89]

yeah but multiple attackers=striking better for situation cuz it's easier to strike and run then submitt and run but 1 on 1 definatley bjj my opinion but judo would probably be better cuz they got the hip throws and some ground game as for the guys in tuf i can gaurentee that wouldn't last against 2 or more people

[DickHardman]

here is a recent post on my instructors forum by one of his students.....


"Let me start by saying that I am not a violent person, nor do I agree with solving problems with fighting or violence. On last night I took some freinds and family for dinner in San Francisco. After a nice dinner we left to go to our car. The car was parked some distance away due to lack of parking. On the walk back we were approached by 4-5 guys who had been drinking. They were very rude to the ladies and we asked that they leave us alone and continued walking. The main leader of the group then punched my friend in the face as we were walking away, cutting his eye badly, then he turned to atack my little brother. I knew at this point there was no option, so I took him to the ground, was able to take his back with hooks and applied a rear choke. At this point the police were arriving and the threat was eliminated. I am very thankful that no one was seriously hurt and that the training I have received in BJJ helped me protect my family. Again I want to say to that I do not condone fighting other than in the ring, but BJJ proves again against a larger opponent that it is effective in a real situation."


also, not too long ago, a student who works as a bouncer handed over a big pocket knife to our instructor. it was a knife that he had taken away from an attacker, after grabbing the guys wrist, throwing him to the ground, and then ripping the guys shoulder apart with a kimura.

[Guest]

here is a recent post on my instructors forum by one of his students.....


"Let me start by saying that I am not a violent person, nor do I agree with solving problems with fighting or violence. On last night I took some freinds and family for dinner in San Francisco. After a nice dinner we left to go to our car. The car was parked some distance away due to lack of parking. On the walk back we were approached by 4-5 guys who had been drinking. They were very rude to the ladies and we asked that they leave us alone and continued walking. The main leader of the group then punched my friend in the face as we were walking away, cutting his eye badly, then he turned to atack my little brother. I knew at this point there was no option, so I took him to the ground, was able to take his back with hooks and applied a rear choke. At this point the police were arriving and the threat was eliminated. I am very thankful that no one was seriously hurt and that the training I have received in BJJ helped me protect my family. Again I want to say to that I do not condone fighting other than in the ring, but BJJ proves again against a larger opponent that it is effective in a real situation".

I'm a cynical Dick, but many students feel the need to invent streetfight stories at certain stages of their study. I've heard that exact story told a thousand times, its got just the right level of detail and all the fantasy ingredients to make me smell bullshit.

Maybe I'm being unfair, lets say it is true, he is a very very lucky guy. 5 guys, so he takes one to the ground and starts rolling around looking for a choke? I don't know where he comes from, in every place I have been to on planet earth, the other four would have had a game of soccer with his head - then started again on his family.

I think he wanted to take what he does on the mat and put it into a fight story he could tell his teacher. But hey, like I say, I'm cynical.

[DJColdfusion]

One of my former instructors was arguing with me about fighting multiple opponents and his illustration as to the "impossibility" of fighting multiple opponents involved a story about his own mugging.

As I remember it . . .

These 3 guys come up to me and tell me to give them my wallet. I wouldn't do it so one of them pushed me. I tackled him, went to mount and started punching him in the face . . . and that was when his friend stabbed me in the back.

And while he sat there with a "that should explain everything!" look I was wondering to myself "why in the hell did he volluntarily go to the ground?"

Smart self defense is about escape, not victory. You don't try to beat multiple opponents, you try to get away from them.

If you are confronted by 3, 4, 5 guys then pullin guard or taking one of your assailants down is just stupid. Dropping down into horse stance is also stupid. Throw a tripple spinning crane beak reverse hurricane kick and you'll prove that you're a moron.

Every martial art, well . . . maybe not every but atleast most martial arts will find some degree of street effectiveness if they are trained in an effective manner. In other words, while someone is resisting your action, trying to kick your a$$.

Jiu-Jitsu can give you the skills you need to stay on your feet so that you can escape. AND if you happen to trip over a chair, get tackled from behind, slip on some oil in the street (whatever) and you find yourself on the ground with someone trying to waffle stomp your face then will someone out there please tell me how many arts actually give you the toolset to protect your self, reverse your position, and/or escape back to your feet so that you can continue to get the hell out of there?

Only one . . . BJJ.

Others play at it, BJJ focuses on it.

And no, I do not believe that BJJ should be the only art you study, it isn't my only art. But the art is as solid for self defense as any other martial art out there. Again, the key is how it is trained.

I spend a lot of time teaching my students how to standup, escape from being pinned against a wall, clinching to direct their attacker, defending different types of takedown attempts, defend against different types of grabs, proper posture in clinch, how to defend against punches, elbows, knees while in the clinch (which translates very well to defense against weapons while in clinch range) . . . I could go on for a week but if you have trained with a serious BJJ instructor then you've seen this and what I'm saying doesn't surprise you.

If, on the other hand, all you see in Jiu-Jitsu is some guys rolling around on the ground then you need to go find a good school and train. Don't train for a week, don't train for a month, don't train because you want to learn how to fight. Train because you love to train and you'll learn how to fight.

One last thing, I've heard some really STUPID horse-sh*t over and over again that always goes something like "I'd like to see you try and pull that guard crap in a gravel parking lot!" If you're one of the guys that says something similar then just STFU!

If I end up on my back in a field of broken glass then I will thank god that BJJ has given me the tools to protect myself until, and while, I can get myself off of the ground. Will I get cut up? DUH! But I'll have a better chance of surviving than the vast majority of martial arts practicioners. Take your super-secret ninja combatives too dangerous to practice on a live person dim mak death touch CRAP and see what happens when you end up on the ground in that gravel parking lot. What are you going to do? Poke them in the eye, grab their crotch? Drive that elbow into their eye socket?

Well, this may surprise you, but we can play dirty too. We're just better at it because we understand what proper posture is when you're grappling, we know when we are in a good position or a bad position, we know how to transition from one position to another, we understand submission defense, and we spend some time learning "submissions". In a selfdefense situation the knee bar become a knee breaker, the arm bar actually snaps the arm, the choke stays on until your attacker can no longer hurt anyone and the fact that we've practiced our posture, positioning, transitions, sub-defenses and the subs against a resisting opponent means that we DO train effectively. Do you?

A wise man once said that the effective fighter must "be like water, then add some dirt".