History
Building on the fundamentals of Kodokan Judo and traditional Japanese Jujutsu, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) was developed by Carlos and Helio, of the famed Gracie family. It was created to develop a more pragmatic grappling art, whose effectiveness lay in allowing a practitioner to take on larger, heavier opponents.
BJJ gained international prominence due to the part the Gracie family played in founding the UFC, largely as a platform for demonstrating their art’s effectiveness against other martial disciplines.
It is a testament to the effectiveness of its techniques that more than two decades after the UFC’s fonding, no one enters the Octagon without a grasp of at least the fundamentals of BJJ.
Focus
As an outgrowth of judo, BJJ’s tactical focus is on ground-fighting. The art utilises positional grappling and submission holds, a number of which have been popularised by their wide use in mixed martial arts competition.
The armbar, the rear naked choke, the kimura, and the Americana – not only will the SMA Centre teach how to apply these and other submissions, but they will also get extensive instruction in submission defence, so that they don’t find themselves on the wrong end of a painful lock.
More than just the application of, and defence against submissions, “the soft art” is about using superior leverage and flexibility to control your opponent’s posture, and limit his/her ability to do damage.
Advantages
As a martial art that sees wide application in a combat sports setting, BJJ training places great emphasis on physical fitness and flexibility. Students’ cores will be strengthened by the demands of grappling training, and their minds will be sharpened by the situational awareness necessitated by fending off and applying submissions against trained opponents.
A background in BJJ provides a practitioner with the tools to defeat larger and stronger opponents in close quarters combat.