What a brown belt has learnt
When writing in this blog you will see that I am using the spelling of Ju Jutsu when talking about the martial art I do.
One of the oddities of Ju Jutsu is that you will see different spellings at different dojos. You can see Ju Jutsu, Ju Jitsu and Jiu Jitsu. All of the are correct, just about.
One criticism a martial art often gets is “it won’t work in MMA” as if in some way if it doesn’t work in the octagon then the martial art is no good.
I have never understood this argument. Firstly I will state the obvious that MMA is not a martial art, it is sports fighting. Also it is Mixed Martial Arts, clue in the name. Fighters who complete in MMA use a mixture of martial art techniques to win a one on one refereed fight where the winner knocks out, submits or the referee steps in to stop the opponent for their own protection.
When a martial art federation or dojo is selling what they do one of the selling points is learning self defence. I absolutely hate this and I really think it is a bad thing to do.
Before I explain why I will explain what I think self defence is. Martial arts isn’t self defence. Self defence is creating a space so you can escape an attacker.
What is the best martial art? It is obviously Ju Jutsu. Why? Because it is the martial art I train in.
Seriously the best martial art is the one you train in. One thing I hate on the internet is the blogs, websites, videos by “martial art experts” which claim to know or rank the best martial arts which is normally based on their own biased opinions or do the “my martial art is better than your martial art” thing. Both are rubbish and fail to understand why people do martial arts.
So you have made the decision to do a martial art. Good for you! You have made the first step in a journey that you won’t regret.
For me the best part about martial arts is that dojos are extremely positive places. I have never gone to a dojo that or been to a Ju Jutsu course where the people have not been friendly or encouraging or welcoming. The chances are you will make new friends.
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?
Not Quite A Black Belt