Why Did I Choose Ju Jutsu?

I’m Paul Willson I am a brown belt in Ju Jutsu, a centuries old Japanese martial art.

I thought the best topic to discuss for my first blog is why did I choose Ju Jutsu as my martial art. What made me think with all the different martial arts out there that Ju Jutsu was for me?

I’ll start with an admission, I didn’t see Ju Jutsu and think WOW I have to do that. I also started Ju Jutsu later in life as in I didn’t start Ju Jutsu when I was a child. In fact I didn’t start any martial art until my late thirties. So what made me go into a Ju Jutsu dojo?

Before I decided to do a martial art I mainly played football (soccer to my American friends) and went to the gym to keep fit. To be honest with myself I didn’t enjoy playing football, I’m not any good at it and I am not very competitive so I wanted to do something else where I wasn’t being shouted at and that was indoors in the warm. I had enough of running around in the wind, rain and snow after a ball against other people who were younger and fitter than I was. But I still wanted to do something with other people because to go to the gym I need a purpose.

I started off on YouTube and was blown away by the number of martial arts out there. I knew about the well known ones like Judo Taekwondo, Kung Fu and Karate but I saw Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Krav Maga and Hapkido as well. For some reason Japanese martial arts appealed to me so with help from Google I got a list of Japanese martial arts and read up on each one, made a short list of which ones appealed to me the most and looked them up on YouTube. So I took my time choosing Ju Jutsu. What convinced me was a report on TV about Ju Jutsu and a YouTube video of a full contact Ju Jutsu tournament in Poland which made me think COOL! Also it was easier finding a Ju Jutsu dojo than something like Iaido (very important).

My first time at a Ju Jutsu dojo I was sold and there was no going back. I was living in Madrid at the time and my first sensei sold Ju Jutsu to me perfectly. He told me “if you want to throw do Judo, if you want to punch and kick do Karate, if you want to do locks do Aikido, if you want to do all of it do Ju Jutsu”.

About a year after starting Ju Jutsu I moved back to the UK and restarted my Ju Jutsu journey, because that is what training in martial arts is, a journey., at a new dojo and I love it. For me not doing Ju Jutsu isn’t even an option.

So do I have any regrets? Only that I didn’t start earlier!

Would be great to hear why other people chose their martial art. Please leave your comments below.