Welcome, friends.
Today, I’m going to share a bit about my experiences as a newcomer to the beloved martial art of South American ground karate, otherwise known as Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ).
Let me preface this by saying that I will not be making any definitive statements here: I have not been rolling remotely long enough for me to have any kind of authoritative opinion on any aspect of BJJ, let alone pass judgement on the art as whole.
Here are some things that I will discuss in this blog post, or at least touch upon:
- Why a self-defender might want to (read: should) pursue a martial art
- My first impressions as a student and a few helpful tips for those on the fence
- Some considerations about certain techniques in the context of a defensive encounter
All of this will be coming from the perspective of someone whose initial involvement in jiu jitsu was motivated by an existing interest in armed self-defense and concealed carry. If you’re considering BJJ for self-defense but don’t own or carry a firearm, great! Just know that some of this won’t be quite as relevant to you.
Introduction
For the uninitiated: BJJ is a grappling-based (rather than striking-based) martial art in which the objective is to achieve submissions primarily via chokes and joint locks. While opponents can and often do start standing up, much of the action occurs on the ground in seated and supine positions or on one’s sides. The ‘game’ consists of back-and-forth between each practitioner as they vie for dominant positions which are each deemed more or less favorable in a hierarchy based on defensibility, ease of escape or advancement to a better position, and the number of submissions possible from that position. While jiu jitsu is traditionally done wearing a sturdy cotton uniform called a gi, no-gi classes and competitions in which more typical athletic attire is worn are also extremely popular.
Between A Harsh Word and A Gun
So, why would one actively choose to be mounted, straddled, and choked by sweaty strangers? For self-defenders—especially armed self-defenders—there are quite a few reasons.
I’ve seen the words that make up the section heading attributed to both Marc MacYoung and Chuck Haggard, and I’ve heard John Correia use the phrase as well (although he may be quoting Mr. Haggard when he does so). What it means is that, basically, it behooves us to have something to cover that intermediary spectrum of force between verbal judo and a deadly weapon. Whether you call them empty-handed skills, martial arts, combat sports, or combatives, they fill that role.
In other words, most fights are not gunfights or knife fights. If someone gets aggressive, hopefully de-escalation and, failing that, a spicy eye poke from some POM OC spray will diffuse a bad situation or at least allow you to break contact. But if it doesn’t, having no choice but to resort to the gravest extreme simply because you ran out of other options is a losing proposition, even if lethal force would be found justified after the fact.
…That is, of course, if you can draw your defensive pistol at all. Which, even when an attacker is further than an arm’s-length away, is a big ‘if.’ Most of us are probably familiar with Dennis Tueller’s often-misunderstood experiment, in which he found that an able-bodied opponent can often close with and strike an armed defender before the latter can draw their weapon—even when starting with a 7-yard buffer distance between them. At even closer ranges, stuffed draws and disarms become a huge risk.
This is corroborated by the substantial canon of recorded criminal activity, interpersonal conflict, and law enforcement use of force incidents that can now be freely viewed on the internet.
I’ve written previously about my strong belief in the educational value of footage of real-world violence. Whether you share that belief or not, the encounters such videos portray still speak to the need for specific skills.
Case(s) in point: this 721-video-and-counting playlist created by Active Self Protection.
People get knocked over, grounded and pounded, stabbed, stomped, sucker punched, grabbed by the hair or collar, and soccer kicked in the head by a second attacker while they’re wrestling with the first. Real-life human beings fight to, for, and over guns, knives, and purses. They get picked up bodily and slammed, or worse: stuffed into vans and kidnapped.
“Kung-Fu for the Concealed Carrier” by Steve Moses, Active Response Training blog
That’s just a long-winded way of saying it’s useful to know how to use leverage, angles, balance, and timing to move your opponent’s body and your own body, and that there’s proof to back that claim up.
Why BJJ?
Jiu-jitsu is unique in that it allows practitioners to repeatably spar at or near 100% effort, strength, and speed without any modifications to technique and without many of the risks or long-term negative health consequences associated with other combat sports. Full-contact, full-power sparring in striking arts like boxing and Muay Thai could result in concussions and brain damage. Likewise, wrestling and judo arguably involve a higher chance of injury due to their greater emphasis on throws and takedowns. In practice, this makes BJJ hard to beat from the standpoints of longevity and accessibility, especially for people over 40.
This isn’t to say that other martial arts are too dangerous to pursue or are not as ‘realistic’—only that they must be trained differently and with more concern for our training partners’ safety than we would have for a violent attacker’s. Just because we can’t replicate the unforgiving and brutal conditions of a fight to the death doesn’t mean we shouldn’t accept the closest substitute. That’s true of striking just as it is of simulated weapons sparring.
BJJ also lends itself to the principles of proportionality and reasonableness we’re required to adhere to as self-defenders. While jiu-jitsu is known for its submissions, which can certainly cause gruesome injuries, it can also be used to accomplish certain things in gentle(r) ways than might be possible with other martial arts. Compared to suplexing a mugger on their head in the parking lot or pummeling them into a coma before you can escape, a two-on-one split seatbelt to knee-on-belly is pretty low on the ol’ force continuum.
It’s no coincidence that more than a few knowledgeable, well-rounded defensive practitioners and firearms instructors do jiu-jitsu, including Mickey Schuch, Annette Evans, Alex Sansone, Gabe New, Nate Perry, Dr. Sherman House, Scott Jedlinski, and Rhett Neumayer.
So, in the words of MMA coach Ramsey Dewey, “If you don’t learn grappling, you are handicapping yourself…That’s half of what a fight is, at least.”
That’s a pretty good endorsement, but isn’t half still just, well…half?
People more experienced than me (not that really narrows it down much) will rightly tell you that jiu-jitsu is only one discipline and represents just a fraction of what happens in a physical conflict, whether in the octagon or on the street.
In a perfect world in which time and finances were not a factor, a self-defender would achieve a respectable command of multiple other martial arts like judo, Muay Thai, and Greco-Roman or freestyle wrestling. At best, though, I think most people will only be able to dabble in one or two.
Even if jiu-jitsu doesn’t cover all the bases, it covers most of them in a way that lets us practice more and longer while often staying healthier overall.
Embrace The Suck
I came to BJJ without any martial arts background or, really, any athletic background at all: I never wrestled, or even played a contact team sport like football. Sure, I’d been blessed genetically with the fastest metabolism in the west, wasn’t a total weakling, and didn’t have the worst cardio. But I didn’t start with any real physical skills to fall back on, either.
Thus far, I’ve been on a very light twice-a-week routine for around 12 months, cumulatively, although I’m now cranking that up to hopefully see some faster improvement. All but the past few weeks of that have been no-gi.
I can say for certain that that infrequency has exacerbated the fact that I’m a slow learner; I’ve witnessed people who are either more single-mindedly devoted, more kinesthetically gifted, or both, improve at a much faster rate. While I am trying to pick up the pace a bit now, that’s something that you’ll have to make your peace with if you can only allot so much time to jiu jitsu. If you have more time available and want to put it towards training more frequently, so much the better.
Pie Charts and Pyramids
This is an opportune time to talk a little bit about hierarchy of priorities and where BJJ might fit into yours. You can think of priorities as either a pyramid or a pie chart. These are two simple ways to visualize how we distribute time, money, mental-emotional energy, and other resources across our various engagements, as well as the relative value that we either consciously place on each of those things or that we indirectly ascribe to them by living the way we do.
Let’s think about the pie chart first. Modern humans tend to have a lot on their plates at once—lots of responsibilities and pursuits to juggle, areas of their life that compete for time and that are constantly fluctuating in terms of how much of our effort and attention we give them. In other words, our life (the whole pie) is always being divided and redivided based on which slice we feel should be biggest.
For self-defenders, this is even more of a challenge because we’re required to have one foot in so many different disciplines at once. And the more well-rounded we get, the more slices we have to account for: pistolcraft, medical skills, combatives, fitness, and so on, all of which take up what’s left over after the non-negotiables of work and sleep. Improving in one area means allocating it a bigger piece of the pie for a time, which is hard to do, because without maintenance the other skills will depreciate.
Of course, people sometimes want very different things out of life. On one hand, a young athlete with competitive aspirations may live and breathe grappling: jiu jitsu might be their workout, their hobby, their social outlet, and their therapy all in one. Rolling may be more or less all they do outside of work or school.
The self-employed, 43-year-old father of three, on the other hand, isn’t interested in that level of commitment, nor is it feasible for them. They have many more obligations vying for that pie real estate. They may also simply enjoy other things more.
It comes down to an equation of external constraints, what an individual places the most subjective value in, and what makes them feel happy and fulfilled.
I think the pyramidal model is also worth considering, because—at the end of the day—something is always getting the objective majority of your blood, sweat, and tears. We get to choose what that thing is, to an extent.
A pyramid can be either more like a totem pole, with the most important thing at the very top, or a building-block-style hierarchy with the most critical and basic things at the bottom, serving of the foundation on which everything else is built.
At the top (or bottom, depending how you look at it) of most people’s pyramid will probably be their career and their obligations to their stakeholders like their wife, husband, or kids. This is where we have to direct most of our energy, by necessity: keeping the lights on, food in our stomachs, and kids fed and clothed. I think this is true whether one loves their job and finds purpose in it or is just collecting paychecks.
When I decided to start BJJ, I was trying to make a value-based decision. I haven’t done everything right in my defensive journey thus far—not by a long shot. But I like to think that my choice to dip my toe into the ocean of jiu jitsu is a decent example of how to prioritize.
I’ve wanted to upgrade my EDC handgun from iron sights to a red dot for a long time; but, recognizing that addressing my total lack of empty-handed skills was more important to my overall defensive capability, I chose to put that money towards a year of BJJ. And now, another. I rank general fitness (encompassing strength, cardio, and flexibility) above both pistolcraft and martial arts because of the corresponding benefits to quality and longevity of life, and because it’s the best safeguard against the biggest statistical killers like heart disease, many types of obesity-linked cancer, stroke, etc. Additionally, exercise has become a crucial way to moderate my emotions and intensity. For me, I value mental health as much or even more as physical health because of how determinant our thoughts can be of our happiness. An unsound mind driving even the soundest body isn’t likely to lead to an ideal quality of life.
Buying an RMR would have been a lot more satisfying in the short-term and would have avoided the bruised ego that inevitably comes with conscious incompetence, for sure. But overall, I believe my decision was a good one.
To conclude my spiel on priorities, the pie chart model is perhaps more realistic because it lets us represent several things as being equally important better than the pyramid can, but the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Taking a few minutes to figure out your life’s hierarchy is part of knowing yourself.
Although not every gym has the same culture, the people I’ve met and the friends I’ve made at mine lead me to believe jiu-jitsu can be workable for a diverse range of people with different lifestyles, professional and familial obligations, and motivations.
Does that include you? Let’s talk about it.
For Who?
It’s often said that jiu jitsu is for everyone. But is it, really?
A lot of people are worried about not being in shape, or just self-conscious. But jiu jitsu is very much a ‘come as you are’ sort of affair. While extra strength training and cardio can help a lot, I don’t think there’s really any way to prepare yourself physically beforehand.
While there are some people who can legitimately claim physical inability, jiu jitsu in particular is extremely accessible: you can train if you’re missing fingers, limbs, deaf, or even blind. Conditions like muscular dystrophy, dystonia, autism, and other intellectual and neurodevelopmental conditions aren’t dealbreakers either.
The best way that I can think to say it is that jiu jitsu is for everyone who wants it. It is okay if you try it and don’t like it. In keeping with what I’ve written previously about defense-life balance, it’s just not logical to voluntarily spend our limited time on this earth doing something we hate.
Sadly, I’ve known a few victims of sexual assault in my life. A person who has experienced something traumatic like rape might find certain positions triggering. I can’t say for certain whether that’s always something that can be overcome or worked around, and I suspect that varies depending on one’s personal history and their temperament, but I can tell you that the right gym will be an incredibly safe space.
Getting Started
No-gi BJJ has a fairly low cost of entry in terms of the clothing and equipment required to start training. A mouth guard is probably the only item I would call a non-negotiable prerequisite, for the simple reason that, if we’re training to protect life and limb, needlessly risking our pearly whites in the course of preparing to do that doesn’t add up.
Clothing-wise, you can get by with generic basketball shorts and a T-shirt for quite a while. I have, however, heard some schools make it a policy to require students to wear their branded rash guards, so make sure you know your gym’s dress code. Shorts without pockets, or with pockets that can be zipped up, are preferable. Oversized, baggy T-shirts aren’t desirable. They’re easier to get hands and feet tangled up in and can make it harder for your instructors to clearly see what’s going on enough to coach you through a technique. Men who usually wear boxers will also want to buy a few pairs of boxer briefs to prevent wardrobe malfunctions. Speaking of which, a cup can also be helpful insurance against an overly friendly butterfly hook or poorly executed armbar. It’s not a striking sport, but accidents do happen.
Overall, practicing good etiquette out of the gate will be more helpful than having any type of equipment. This entails universally agreed-upon courtesies and preventative health measures like:
- Keeping your fingernails and toenails trimmed.
- Washing your gi and/or rash guard and shorts after training.
- Practicing good personal hygiene.
- Wearing slides or flipflops when you step off the mats.
- Taking time off for colds and other sicknesses.
__ Days Without an Accident
Those squeamish about injuries might wonder: just how safe can simulated limb-breaking and strangulation be?
Turns out, ‘very.’ People bring their five-year-olds to do it and they have a blast. I’d say it’s almost certainly safer than tackle football at that age given the lesser concussion risk.
I confess: fear of injury was one of my biggest obstacles to getting on the mats in the first place. When I dislocated my left elbow way back in 2017, it was hands-down the most miserable period of my adult life. It was so bad I avoid even thinking about it today, even from the emotional distance of hindsight. My goal has been to avoid a repeat of that at all costs.
Thus far, I have found it extremely safe. While this depends to a large degree on the quality of one’s individual training partners, I think the average disposition of those partners is representative of a particular gym’s ethos. That is, if most of your peers are well-adjusted, down-to-earth people who have as much concern for your safety as they do for their own, that’s probably a good place to train. If, alternatively, every person you meet seems like an overcompetitive asshole that only rolls at 110% percent speed and effort…Maybe that’s not a coincidence.
Just as with picking a firearms instructor, it would seem to me that the seriousness with which a school’s coaches take matters of safety is a good indicator of quality. Whether the martial art you’re training is physical or ballistic, there are inherent risks, and I would raise an eyebrow at any teaching that glossed over or totally ignored those risks.
That’s really the only tip I can give you about picking a gym. I can’t offer any others because I just happened to hit the jackpot on my first try. Stout is only a sample size of one out of many thousands of gyms, though, so your mileage may vary.
Here are a few additional tips on safety:
- Don’t overexert yourself. Jiu jitsu requires moving your body with muscles that are hard to train and that, starting out, are not used to producing violent, explosive movement. Not only will avoiding that type of frenetic motion make sure you don’t embody the stereotype of the spazzy white belt, it will also prevent you from pulling things you didn’t know could be pulled.
- Tap early and tap often. Er…Sorry, Freudian slip. Don’t forget that you can say ‘tap’ when your arms and hands are tied up, as mine often are. I haven’t yet figured out when to do when you can’t do either, which, sadly, has also happened to me more than once.
- Give people a quick heads-up if you’re nursing any injuries. If my experience is any indication, most people are exceedingly accommodating and will attenuate their efforts accordingly. Likewise, no one will judge you if you feel the need to pass on the live portion of a class altogether.
- Pay attention to other partner pairs and mat boundaries for both courtesy and safety. ‘Winning’ in live training will never be worth hurting yourself, your partner, or another person rolling. In any case, if self-defense is your primary motivation for training, it’s a good habit to get into keeping an eye out for walls and other people anyway.
Takeaways So Far
Here are a few things I’ve gleaned from firsthand experience, which is a much more dignified way to say ‘getting submitted a thousand times’:
- One of the first things jiu jitsu will do is make you extremely comfortable with being in intimately close proximity with strangers. Maybe it’s just me, but when I first got started, I couldn’t help but be keenly aware that the people I was making prolonged physical contact with were not significant others or family members. After all, how often do you get close enough to a classmate or coworker that you can smell their shampoo or feel their heartbeat? I’m just glad I had the chance to get acclimated during training instead of in real violence—just imagine wrestling over a knife in an alley and your last intrusive thought being, “wow, this guy’s breath is really bad.”
- Not every technique that is viable on the mats is tactically sound in a defensive scenario—pulling guard, for example. Likewise, neck control and leg locks are huge parts of jiu jitsu, but ceding control of your opponent’s hands when they could access a weapon is a considerable risk.
Students of Stout PGH are fortunate to have access to training that directly takes these differences into account in the form of Shawn Lupka’s self-defense curriculum. Shawn coordinates classes at all four Stout PGH locations under the banner of Antifragile Training, all taught by Shivworks alumni. For reference, Shivworks founder Craig Douglas’s ECQC course is widely considered the gold standard for this type of training. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, Derreck Almasi leads the self-defense classes here in Zelienople. - While jiu jitsu is sold as a technique-based art, weight and strength matter. A lot. This is important to remember because there are no weight classes in a defensive encounter. As such, I think it’s helpful to partner up with people of different sizes in class, especially if you’re smaller. The same principle applies at open mat. We should aspire to train for the worst-case-scenario opponent. Not just because everything worth doing is hard, but also because it would make facing a smaller, less-skilled adversary that much easier.
Yes, position is paramount, but there’s no way to nullify gravity. I’m sure that as one’s technique improves, body weight becomes less of an advantage or disadvantage because they simply get better at staying in mount and applying pressure, respectively. But between two equally skilled opponents, the person who is heavier and stronger with a bigger gas tank is at a considerable advantage. - Training against resistance is messy even when strikes aren’t involved. Thanks to the proliferation of fixed and mobile phone cameras, we can see that actual conflict is at least twice as chaotic, visceral, and brutal. It’s not pretty like the choreographed fight scenes in action flicks; you’re probably not going to pull off a Jackie Chan disarm or disassemble an attacker’s pistol at gunpoint like Jet Li in Lethal Weapon 4.
- Mental management is a survival skill. I’ve tried to be more thoughtful about what I feed my subconscious by accepting my partners’ compliments when given and deliberately giving myself positive reinforcement. Sometimes that simply means checking myself before saying or thinking “I suck at jiu jitsu,” which, lemme tell ya, takes Herculean self-control.
Submissions Are Serious Bodily Injury
Let’s extend the conversation about contextual use of jiu jitsu beyond my own negligible experience and venture into the legal realm. Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, and this should not be considered legal counsel.
In the video above, “The Combative Lawyer” Chet Palumbo discusses how your personal jiu jitsu ‘game’—your style of grappling, preferred positions, and go-to submissions—could set a person up for legal consequences in a non-sporting context. For example, many of my coaches and Stout competitors are vicious leg-lockers. Chet rightly points out the fact that a completed heel hook or straight ankle lock would be likely be considered serious bodily injury (SBI), the definition of which varies slightly from state to state but can be broadly understood as injury that rises to the level of deadly force even if it is not lethal.
For reference, this is how SBI is defined here in PA:
“Bodily injury which creates a substantial risk of death or which causes serious, permanent disfigurement or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily member or organ.”
Pennsylvania Title 18 Chapter 26 § 2602
By that metric, I think it’s reasonable to assume kimuras, Americanas, armbars, and a slew of other submissions would also qualify.
If you get into a shoving match, it’s probably not wise to hyperextend the other guy’s leg into oblivion with a knee bar as your opening maneuver. Personally, I wouldn’t want to explain the choice to go straight to a joint lock to a judge or jury given that they will know you were aware of the damage it could do. Of course, if a firearm, edged weapon, or blunt instrument (or “pokey device” as Derreck often says) is in play, very little is off-limits.
If you reasonably believe that it is immediately necessary to prevent someone from killing or inflicting serious bodily injury upon you, then you are probably well-placed to justify the decision to use as much force as necessary (but no more) to do so.
Chokes are interesting to consider within this line of thinking. Really, the only difference between a fatal and nonfatal choke is how long it’s held. After the person being choked loses consciousness, prolonged oxygen deprivation will cause brain damage and eventually result in death. This is one of the reasons why late stoppages by referees in combat sports like MMA can be so dangerous.
So, if, hypothetically, a stranger on the street randomly attacks you and puts you in a rear naked choke, an attorney could more than likely make the case that a reasonable person would fear for their life in that circumstance. Once unconscious, you’re at the mercy of the attacker, who can not only do whatever they want to you for as long as you’re out but can also continue to apply the choke for as long as they fancy.
Of course, the better solution is to save yourself hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees by learning how to escape a RNC (although anyone who’s taken my back would rightly point out I have no room to make recommendations to others in that area. Regardless, I digress).
Verdict
No, BJJ may not be perfectly suited to self-defense because it’s practiced in a sterile, non-weaponized environment with mats and rules against a single opponent. Adding simulated tools to the mix can be done outside of your gym or as an adjunct module, provided you have mat space and the permission of your coaches, plus willing partners. As for mats and rules, I would challenge anyone to survive long enough to improve at grappling without those two things.
Jiu jitsu is practiced in a controlled setting to maximize our time learning (that is, uninjured) and ensure we don’t take our training partners out of rotation by laying them up with physical therapy and reconstructive surgery. It’s not supposed to be a perfect analogue of real violence because it simply can’t be and isn’t trying to be.
And what of the infamous ‘multiple attackers’ dilemma?
On Active Self Protection, John has been known to say that the difficulty of a defensive situation increases exponentially with every additional attacker. So, yes, if you’re jumped by a group of dudes, no martial art on the planet is going to save your ass, and even a force multiplier like a gun—if you manage to bring it into play—may not tip the scales enough in your favor.
But using that as an excuse not to train is disingenuous at best. If you find yourself being strangled by a lone tweaker, I doubt it would give you much consolation to gurgle out, “I-if this guy had a dozen friends, I would have lost this fight anyway…” just before you lose consciousness.
I think it is worth keeping in mind that someone on the street with sufficient strength could pick you up while they’re in your closed guard or triangle and slam you into a grease spot on the pavement. I’ve been bodily picked up a few times…only to be placed down gently because everyone at my gym is super cool. But it should make you stop for a bit and contemplate life.
Paralleling the many pointless debates of gun culture, dialogue abounds on the matter of whether gi or no-gi BJJ is better suited to self-defense. Arguments in favor of the latter hold that people on the street don’t wear gis.
At this point, I admittedly have very little exposure to the huge variety of gi-based grips and chokes that are out there. But, based on what I’ve done with Derreck in the self-defense curriculum, it seems like quite a few of them are perfectly usable in street clothes with slight modifications, even if the garments themselves are not as durable. They don’t need to be. A t-shirt only needs to maintain its structural integrity longer than it takes your opponent to lose consciousness. Hoodies are deathtraps. Ties are essentially fancy, pre-tightened nooses.
Other Resources
In addition to the usual couple of links, I want to shout out a few noteworthy individuals that are experts in this niche confluence of martial arts, firearms, and edged weapons:
- Paul Sharp of SBG Idaho
- Matt Thornton of SBG Portland
- Cecil Burch of Immediate Action Combatives
- Guy Schnitzler of DFW Defensive Training
- Greg Ellifritz of Active Response Training
- John Valentine of Deeds of Arms
- Aaron Jannetti of Knife Control Concepts / Endeavor Defense and Fitness
- Chet Palumbo (@TheCombativeLawyer on YouTube)
I’ve probably forgotten quite a few names, so feel free to jog my memory in the comments!
“Avoid Embarrassing Yourself as a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu White Belt” by Nicholas Jasset, Medium
Thanks for reading!
…And special thanks to Andy, Shawn, and Derreck for their tutelage, as well as that of Alex, Andrew, Jonas, Mike, and of course Warren.
What topics would you like to see here in the future? Please, drop a comment and opine! Until next time.
Fire Carrier Defense 