Honesty in Jiu Jitsu
By Francisca Hernández / Dojo Ronin
Few martial arts can be as sincere as Jiu Jitsu. And this is for several reasons:
1. CONSTANT EXPOSURE AND STRUGGLE
In virtually every training session you are exposed to fighting (and losing) and you can fight very close to your 100%.
It's not like in other disciplines (such as boxing, kickboxing, karate, etc.) where you can
Spending a lifetime training without ever facing a real person who
moves and thinks on its own.
In other martial arts, in fact, it is more
“easy” to avoid contact: you can stay training only with the bag or do
formulas (such as kata) in the air, alone, or even training only combinations
choreographed in advance with your partner without ever running the risk of opening
space for spontaneity and surprise.
Also, in other martial arts,
Higher grades often excuse themselves from more active participation
Precisely for that reason, because they are “high grades”, and they can stay in a corner
watching the “others” perform their techniques. You can find, in these other
martial arts disciplines, practitioners with a black belt rank who...
They've never fought in their lives!
In jiu jitsu, only the facts and your performance count. There's no room for stories; the charlatanism of someone claiming to be "good" quickly collapses once they finish in a row and in front of everyone in the academy.
Also, because of its format, jiu jitsu allows you to fight hard, close to your 100%.
of capacity, every time. That cannot happen in other martial arts linked to the
striking (like kickboxing or muay thai), because people would end up destroyed
within a few minutes and martial arts academies would lose customers in
massively (which would ruin the business). That's why in schools of
combat with blows and impact, strong sparring cannot be an everyday occurrence.
On the contrary: this “soft” sparring is more of a game, where the rivals slap each other.
in order to discover "windows" through which to enter and, eventually, cause harm.
The work that is carried out there is not to finish off the opponent (because if
If you did that, you would quickly be left without a training partner), but
that other skills are sought: learning to use space and manage
corporeality in front of another living being that also moves. As I maintain in my
book, the most important thing in combat is the ability to “read” to know
use opportunities to your advantage (precise timing to attack with a
action, which cannot be trained alone in front of a bag or
performing movements in the air).
But those soft sparrings are nothing more than
playfulness, after all! When fighting in striking-type disciplines, you have to
to be very measured and, in this way, such restraint often falsifies the outcome
from combat.
But jiu jitsu, due to its intrinsic rules, does allow you to deploy all your
potential and see how much you are capable of... and you can do that every week,
Every day of training. You learn about your own limits and capabilities! And
without pretending, without deception or self-deception: it is revealed how good you are,
every time.
2. COMPETENCES
While jiu jitsu is a martial art, today it is more weighted towards the
a sport that involved self-defense, no matter who it hurts. Positions like
north-south or quadruped retention, for example, make no sense in
terms of self-defense. And it is possible to get out of “a triangle” by biting its
genitals to the opponent, which is prohibited in sports. The same thing happens if you are held
In north-south: it's a matter of biting the opponent's chest and that's it.
But beyond that, jiu jitsu has the serious limitation that it is one on one: it is of no use
facing more adversaries. And on the street, bad guys never walk alone.
Facing them, the last thing you want to do is throw yourself on the floor (where jiu jitsu is
(effective): they will stab you 15 times between them.
Therefore, we must be honest: jiu jitsu is today more rooted in the field
sports than in self-defense. This is not bad; it is simply
to be clear about the identity of each thing and not be fooled.
That, then, also the methodological approach: there are “prohibited” techniques in certain
levels (such as “cow hand”, foot locks, etc.) precisely because the
curriculum is now oriented toward competition. “Passing the guard,” three
dots... “Scrape”, colon... And so on.
At the same time, I am a devotee of the idea that competition will make you progress. The more
The more you compete, the more you advance, because in that crude confrontation it is your rival who will defeat you.
reveals your weaknesses: it tells you where you failed, why you lost. I have never
learned the greatest lessons. Every time I compete, I get a work plan:
I know what I need to polish so I don't fail again.
In short, jiu jitsu is a discipline more loaded towards sport and that
It means that sports performance is crossed by competencies. Unless
If the event is dirty and/or pre-arranged, there will be a maximum
sincerity, because the other is an unknown rival who will have no mercy
with you: he also wants to win and will not let himself lose.
Enjoying this content? 📖✨ Take your learning further with our author's book. Find unique knowledge, useful tools, and actionable tips, all presented in a practical and accessible way to take with you anywhere. Click here and start transforming your perspective today!
3. GRADUATION SYSTEM
In jiu jitsu, the graduation process is so long that generally the
People who have reached advanced colors (purple, brown, black) have done so
achieved because they have been training for a long time. In other words, in jiu jitsu,
If you wear an advanced belt, it is because you have truly been dedicated for years, and
Time has taken care of toughening you up. At this point, those who were around
fashion, they no longer follow. Those who did not feel true passion have already given up;
Those who did not have the discipline required to learn jiu jitsu,
they deserted in white or blue.
Furthermore, the system prevents you from, for example, obtaining advanced degrees in the short term.
age, which is not the case in karate, for example. In Japan, there are karate children of
14 years old and already a black belt. To me, that's nonsense. I prefer that
case of jiu jitsu, where a certain maturity is required to be a purple belt, brown
and black.
Anyone can learn to throw a combo. That's intuitive. But
learn to fight intelligently, even with the ability to retain and/or
Subduing your opponent without hurting him is not so easy. Striking, to win,
It requires devastating damage. But jiu jitsu allows you to win without destroying;
You can force the opponent to surrender without damaging him. Doing that with skill and
Delicacy requires years of practice and a large dose of intelligence and maturity.
As I maintain in my book, you can build a fighter in a few weeks, but
A martial artist who does jiu jitsu takes years to build. It even takes
decades. Time is always a natural filter and separates the fake from the
honest.
Want to know more? Read the reflections I've published in my book, The
Secrets of the Warrior: Martial Wisdom Found Along the Way (Versalita Publishing,
2024).
