I often ask students after they’ve been training for a few months what they want to get out of their training at El Dorado Hills Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. The answers vary from person to person, but most of the time I hear these phrases in the mix.
1) Lose weight
2) Learn self defense
3) Become a world champion
I sometimes cringe when I hear the term “self-defense” because it’s become thrown around as though it’s something you can go and learn in a few hours. So when someone tells me they want to learn self-defense, I clarify that they really want to be able to defend themselves from someone bigger and stronger attacking them. Not just attacking them, but to possibly take their life. If the answer is yes, I recommend they train as though they are going to get ready for a tournament. To roll as hard as they can. I truly believe that the best form of training for self defense is some form of grappling. In my opinion Jiu-Jitus has found a way to mix the idea and concepts of self-defense with the competitive sport, allowing for the best form of self defense training.
Yes, there are positions you would not want to voluntarily go to in a self defense situation, but jiujitsu teaches that. There are illegal moves that jiujitsu doesn’t do, but again a good teacher teaches that as a form of self defense. I have yet to find a style of training where both partners can go as hard as they possibly can without the worry of hurting each other day after day after day.
A follow up question I always ask when someone tells me they want to learn self defense are these:
1) Do you take any medication or prescription drugs?
2) Do you eat well balanced, well proportioned meals?
3) Do you reduce, reuse, recycle in that order?
These are a few questions the I feel are necessary to ask because self defense is much more than just the physical. The physical aspects of self-defense, you could argue are much less prevalent than the dietary, medical, or environmental forms of self defense we should be practicing on a daily basis.
The real attackers and killers are the ones that kill the most amount of people each day. Heart disease, diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, pollution, toxicity, etc. We need to take a more practical look at what we are “training” to protect ourselves from, and realize if the training we are doing is truly going to defeat a bigger, stronger person.