A lot of the stuff in Jiu-Jitsu is just good wrestling. By this I mean wrestling, if wrestling weren't totally concerned with putting the other guy on his back, and staying off of your own.
Some of the easiest stuff is the material that people find hard to do. For example, keeping your weight off of your knees. This automatically puts most of your mass onto your opponent. This limits his movement, keeps him really close, and makes it hard for him to breath. All good in grappling. This is hard and unnatural for people to do while at the same time being very, very simple.
Most of the rest of Jiu-Jitsu is just common sense codified. An example is; when in punching range, keep your hands up guarding your head. Simple and sensible.
The other third of Jiu-Jitsu is pure magic. Somebody is on top of you, crushing you. They also have a good hold of you, perhaps with a head lock. You twist this way, put this foot down, squiggle to the side, scoot scoot...and you are the one on top, or you're choking him, or his arm is about to wander off in an unnatural direction making snapping sounds.
It does all the stuff that Karate does not. Karate does all the stuff that Jiu-Jitsu leaves out. It is a fabulous combination.
I am a 68 year old retired teacher living on the west coast of Canada. I spent over 30 years as a student of Karate until my knees stopped liking it. My current passionate activity is Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, which I've been at for about 13 years.
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