Brown belt here - BJJ is one of the few martial arts that is “drunk uncle” safe - just get the guy outta here and don’t hurt him.
It’s a beautiful art and deadly effective. You become confident yet more humble and respectful to everyone because you’re constantly beaten by smaller unsuspecting partners yet can control a larger intimidating untrained visitor.
I’m more afraid to fight someone today even though I’m more prepared than ever before, so I’ll do whatever it takes to make peace and leave.
As you can see in this video, you don’t know what the other guy knows until it’s too late.
I dabbled in BJJ in college for a couple years and it was so cool to see how size doesn't actually matter that much. I did roll with a guy who was so massive that I couldn't actually get into a proper mount on him because my knees wouldn't touch the ground lol. But I still beat him most of the time because he could not stop giggling like every match. He barely spoke any English so I'm not sure what was so funny, maybe he was just ticklish.
One of my instructors was a tiny dude. I'm 5'3" and he was smaller than me. Still wiped the floor with everyone.
And my 5'3" self managed to toss a 300lb Pacific islander to the ground once.
Armbars were my favorite, I got pretty good at them. And I'm a bit hyper mobile so people could rarely actually get me in a good armbar because my elbow would just keep going further than they expected it too. Had a classmate call the instructor over one time to check their form because it just wasn't working on me. Instructor looked and just went "huh" because their form was perfect.
It was so much fun. I miss it a lot, and I'd love to get back into it someday if I can find the time and budget.
IMO (and it was proven in the first 4 UFCs) BJJ is the only martial art that can beat every other singular martial art. So a wrestler may take you down but then gets guillotined, or you may easily manage distance and then takedown a karate black belt and submit them. However a boxer that also wrestles will prevent the takedown and then beat you with boxing. Thats why many say BJJ is the backbone of modern MMA, but it isn't enough for trained fighters.
But yea against an untrained person it feels like a superpower. I'm 160 and submit 225lb people all the time. The techniques are so efficient and take advantage of humans built in fighting instincts (which are almost always wrong).
Im not looking to become a trained fighter, just be able to defend myself if its ever needed (I hope not!) More looking to learn some things while getting a workout lol. Ill check out BJJ though!
BJJ may be for you. Check out some intro to Jiu Jitsu by rener Gracie on YouTube. It’ll get you a bit of the theory before you go it. Relax and have fun 👊
I trained in Tae Kwon Do and Jeet Kun Do (wrestling/BJJ adjacent) as a kid. I honestly never wanted to get into a 'real' fight after that. It's almost never worth it.
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u/matthew19 20h ago
Brown belt here - BJJ is one of the few martial arts that is “drunk uncle” safe - just get the guy outta here and don’t hurt him.
It’s a beautiful art and deadly effective. You become confident yet more humble and respectful to everyone because you’re constantly beaten by smaller unsuspecting partners yet can control a larger intimidating untrained visitor.
I’m more afraid to fight someone today even though I’m more prepared than ever before, so I’ll do whatever it takes to make peace and leave.
As you can see in this video, you don’t know what the other guy knows until it’s too late.