Every martial art begins with real-life combat effectiveness as its top priority. As civilizations evolve and safety concerns diminish, the survival emphasis is replaced by sportive practice, and over time, the art is stripped of its combat effectiveness altogether. Jiu-jitsu has arrived at this critical juncture, and if drastic measures are not taken, it risk suffering the same fate that has negatively affected virtually every other martial art.
Rickson Gracie said that nowadays when he goes to teach BJJ seminars to sport BJJ schools, it reminds him of the times when he was teaching Karate black belts in the early 90’s who had no knowledge of Jiu-Jitsu and were blown away:
“In the past, when we arrived in the US, we were teaching Jiu-Jitsu to Karate black belts, who at the time felt like they knew everything. When they got exposed to real Jiu-Jitsu, they would say that they lost 20 years of their lives doing Karate, and now they realised what the real thing is. So somehow when I go to a (BJJ) seminar these days, i get the same impression from Jiu-Jitsu black belts. They’re like “Wow , I never taught that this existed in Jiu-Jitsu”. If we don’t do something very soon, Jiu-Jitsu will lose its fight-dentity.”
Cobra Kai TV Series – A Heated Confrontation Between BJJ & Karate Instructors
In this interesting video, Yusuke Nagano, a Japanese Karate sensei reacts to BJJ, watching it for the first time. He doesn’t really understand what is going…
