Why do Jiu-Jitsu

Just what is it that makes Jiu-Jitsu so compelling?

Some cite fitness, or self-defence, but to me those answers really make no sense.

It is a great work-out, but there is always a significant risk of injury involved. It wouldn’t be logical to do Jiu-Jitsu to improve your cardio, and improve your muscle tone, and then get crippled with a knee-bar. I’ve had an arm hurt, and a knee hobbled, and wrenched shoulders, along with small, broken bones, and a rather shocking dislocation, all within 7 years, and I take it pretty easy. Any of a number of those injuries could have sidelined me permanently if they were only slightly more damaging.

Self-defence might be a reason to start Jiu-Jitsu. Let’s say you do that, and complete the Gracie’s superb self-defence beginner’s program. Great; you’ve taken your ability from about a zero up to a five.

You enjoy it, and continue in the advanced class. You will learn tons more stuff, most of it aimed at beating up your training partners. That is NOT the same as self-defence. At least 75% of what you will do will have no application in a street fight. You will get comfortable with grappling in general, and some of what you learn will be aimed at people trying to take your head off for real. After about a year, you will have taken your ability up a few more points, to maybe an eight.

Like any activity, the smallest improvements happen at the top end of the scale. How many years will it take to become a nine? Will you ever be a ten?

If gaining self-defence ability were my motivation, I should have stopped long ago. I trained in Karate for 30 years, and have put 7 more into Jiu-Jitsu. Will going to class today really make me safer?

If I lived in a place with real threats, it might look different, but I don’t. My chance of being injured by some attacker are pretty minimal. My friends at class are a much more tangible risk.

Let’s say somebody tries to rob me today. Should he succeed, he would get the $100 in my pocket. If he fails, I will keep my hundred bucks, but will have easily spent over $10,000 on Jiu-Jitsu training to stop him, and spent thousands of hours on the mat.

My wife doesn’t do Jiu-Jitsu; she plays music. She doesn’t do it for a workout, or to gain self-defence skills. She does it because she enjoys it.

I don’t do Jiu-Jitsu for the workout, or to gain self-defence skills. I do it because I enjoy it.

I love learning new stuff, and working out the human puzzle that grappling presents. It involves the intense concentration necessary to solve intense mathematical problems.

I also love grabbing people, and flipping them about, and being flipped around in turn. Escaping an inescapable position is exhilarating, and rewarding.

It is like puppies rolling around in the back yard, or small children, or monkeys.

It is just so much fun.