A well-rounded self-defense curriculum will incorporate striking (offensively and defensively) and will teach you the techniques that will help to keep you safe in a street fight. While every martial art will claim to be the best martial art for self-defense—and getting sucked into an argument over whose martial art is better is mostly pointless for everyone involved—BJJ is unique in that it prepares you to overcome the disadvantage of being smaller than your attacker while also preparing you to escape or counter an attackers attempt to grab or tackle you.
As much as Walker Texas Ranger taught us that street fights looked a lot like choreographed kickboxing matches, the reality of self-defense is that a striking exchange quickly morphs into a dirty boxing match where at least one attacker is grabbing a shirt or jacket. Then someone trips or is overcome by the size of their attacker, and the fight falls to the ground. Virtually every World Star Hip Hop video or the shaky YouTube footage of a schoolyard brawl follows this formula.
Most street fights morph into grappling matches, whether you want them to or not. BJJ will prepare you to protect yourself from strikes, to escape bad positions, and to establish dominance over your attacker. If you don’t know how to grapple, you can very easily get stuck on the bottom of mount, your head stuck between pavement and a fist that rises and falls until you are uglier than you have ever been before.
With all of that said, street fighting is stupid. Learn BJJ to protect yourself in the worst case scenario, but make it your goal to never have to use it.
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Yes.
A well-rounded self-defense curriculum will incorporate striking (offensively and defensively) and will teach you the techniques that will help to keep you safe in a street fight. While every martial art will claim to be the best martial art for self-defense—and getting sucked into an argument over whose martial art is better is mostly pointless for everyone involved—BJJ is unique in that it prepares you to overcome the disadvantage of being smaller than your attacker while also preparing you to escape or counter an attackers attempt to grab or tackle you.
As much as Walker Texas Ranger taught us that street fights looked a lot like choreographed kickboxing matches, the reality of self-defense is that a striking exchange quickly morphs into a dirty boxing match where at least one attacker is grabbing a shirt or jacket. Then someone trips or is overcome by the size of their attacker, and the fight falls to the ground. Virtually every World Star Hip Hop video or the shaky YouTube footage of a schoolyard brawl follows this formula.
Most street fights morph into grappling matches, whether you want them to or not. BJJ will prepare you to protect yourself from strikes, to escape bad positions, and to establish dominance over your attacker. If you don’t know how to grapple, you can very easily get stuck on the bottom of mount, your head stuck between pavement and a fist that rises and falls until you are uglier than you have ever been before.
With all of that said, street fighting is stupid. Learn BJJ to protect yourself in the worst case scenario, but make it your goal to never have to use it.
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