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Brazilian Ju-jitsu

I think that as time goes and we study martial arts or play sports or even mixed martial arts we sometimes forget something’s that are important. I can remember being a kid growing up on the farm and getting to play football and I thought it was the best thing in the world. You could have never told me that there was anything better than football. It would have gone in one ear and out the other. As I got older and getting into wrestling again the thought process was the same and I would have never been able to see past what I was doing thinking that wrestling was the only way you can protect yourself. The point I am trying to make is when we do something and it does not matter what it is we have a thought process that sets us up for failure and the sad thing is everyone falls for it now and then it’s just human nature with this. Now it does not matter if you are male or female we all have this problem and it does not matter what we are doing.

I have seen people that do a marital arts style and they will swear up and down that it is the best thing since mom’s apple pie and would die trying to prove their point. But the sad thing is most of these people think this way because they have someone in the background that is brain washing them. Not only does it limit your thinking and learning it could also get you hurt or killed.

If you do an art that kicks a lot there is nothing wrong with that if that is what you enjoy just remember just like any art it will have strong and weak points and I am saying every art or style has this problem and yes even the style I do has good and bad points. The difference for me is I understand this and I know for me to better protect myself I must increase my abilities with different things that are available to me. There is nothing wrong with learn more than what you are given from your art, instead I encourage it because as this world changes so does our needs to learn as marital arts. In this day and time we have lots of people that think they are street fighters or mixed marital artist and so on. They get a little training or watch a DVD and they think the world can be conquered. They know just enough to get into trouble with it or they are over confident and get hurt.

Classic example is the men and women that study BJJ. I have found that they think the only grappling that is worth the effort is what they do and nothing else will work and if you do something different it is a waste of time. I have found a lot of them think they are better than anyone else and they have no respect not only for other arts but for themselves as well. Now in fairness there are some that are the exception to the rule of what I just said the list is limited but it is there.

I think its something that has been going on for a long time and it is out of control and it will be hard for them to correct this if at all. Will BJJ end if they don’t correct the way they think? I would say it is very unlikely it would have that effect but it is sad the way they are teaching the younger generations of what martial arts is about or even wrestling or grappling. It seems to feed off of human nature that has a dark side to it and yes it does have it’s good points but I think the bad ones out way the good ones and nothing will ever change that.

As a teacher we must understand the need of the student to better teach them not only the art we study but teaching responsibility of the consequences of our action if we don’t try to do the right thing and if we as teachers forget this then we are teaching young adults how to be bullies and even worse possibilities. We must realize our actions have consequences that can be devastating to the next generations of students. We as martial arts teachers must do things that are lasting and will be remembered by your students in a way that can be positive and an example for other to follow.

If your example is negative then that is what will be remembered. I know that does not sound fair but it is the truth in the world we live in. Yes, I know that what I have said about BJJ has not been positive and for a good reason they live by the examples I share with you in this article and have reinforced my thought process by their actions almost every time I see them in action and if that ever changes I would be happy to write a new article and reinforce the improvements but I am not going to hold my breath on that one.

You cannot teach people that if you use BJJ in a bar fight or some other place it is the only thing you need to know if your life depends on it. I don’t have the time in this article to explain everything you need to know because even with my experience I am still learning and I try to do this with an open mind. I cannot allow myself to think that I know everything that is the quickest way I can think of to get yourself killed or hurt real bad.

Now some of you will agree with what I have said and I am sure some will understand but may not agree with my thoughts and without a shadow of doubt there will be a lot of BJJ people thinking that I am nothing more than an a)* hole and that I have no ideal of what I am talking about and that I am a stupid low life martial artist because I don’t think BJJ is the best thing in the world. I would expect nothing less from them because after all my years of expense is worthless if I am not a BJJ practitioner.

Train safe and hard.