Words and Labels....

Language can be terribly important.

I was watching some fake Jiu-Jitsu instructor on Youtube the other day. He was trying to give a lesson about something he clearly knew nothing about. He didn’t even know the correct names for what he was trying to do, and had come up with his own labels for everything.

He kept calling things holds, and pins, and locks.

This struck me, as absolutely nothing in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is called a hold, or a pin, or a lock.

There is one exception, but I’m going to ignore that for now.

What do you think of if we are talking about people wrestling around, and somebody says that one of the people pinned the other down, or had him in a hold?

Likely, you imaging that they had grabbed hard, and made it impossible for the other guy to move at all.

We don’t use those kind of terms, because we don’t want our people to ever think that is the goal of any technique.

One of the principal ideas of Jiu-Jitsu is defeating somebody while using the smallest effort possible.

Grabbing somebody and keeping them from moving would require a crazy amount of effort, and there is absolutely no need.

So you lay down, flat on your back, and a Jiu-Jitsu person sits on you. This is not called a pin, or a hold. Their position is called Mount. You try and get them off.

You buck and struggle and push. They remain planted on top of you. They have not held you motionless, but rode along with everything you tried. You will be insanely tired, more so than if they had managed to totally pin you down. They are not tired at all, which they would have been if they had tried to turn into a rock holding you motionless. Not only are they still on top of you, but you have been working very hard and achieving nothing.

How about if somebody wraps their arm around your neck. This is commonly called a headlock. The person holding the headlock typically clings on as hard as they can, again wasting effort. It is also very easy to get out of, no matter how hard the effort of the holder.

Interestingly, Jiu-Jitsu people call this a headlock when it is done to them, but whenever they do something that seems similar, it is called a neck hug.

Does a neck hug sound like it should be held with every ounce of strength that a person can muster? Of course not, it’s just a little hug.

Jiu-Jitsu is a mobile thing. We want movement, as people who can move can also make mistakes. If they make errors, it is easy to exploit them.

Let’s say you are being sat upon, and are thrashing about trying to get out. A very, very common response of an untrained individual is to roll off of their back and onto their hands and knees.

If you do this and are super observant, you will probably say to yourself, “why did that seem to be easier than what I had tried earlier?” The reason is that the Jiu-Jitsu guy on your chest got most of his weight out of your way; he wants you on your hands and knees. He is now sitting on your back, riding you like a pony.

Suddenly his legs entangle yours, and his arms clamp down around your neck. If done properly, you will still be fully able to breath, but within seconds everything will be turning black as blood flow to your brain is cut off.

The guy on your chest was controlling you, helping you tire yourself out, and when you made a rookie mistake, he let you do it and capitalized on the mistake to end the confrontation.

The only exception to the non-rigid language of Jiu-Jitsu labelling comes in the names of some of the final submissions.

There are lots of things called leg locks and arm locks, but it is aways very clear that the name has nothing to do with any sort of rigid position. These moves all relate to when a joint is extended as far as it can go, and then maybe a bit more. The word lock describes the condition of the extended joint under attack. This naming does not lead to confusion.

Jiu-Jitsu contains no pins, or holds at all. Everything is fluid, and is related to energy consumption. That’s one of the reasons that smaller size or strength are not unsurmountable disadvantages.

Balance, coordination, and speed are just as important, and they are all less important than skill.

It is what make’s it all so fascinating, and addictive.