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Home » Starting BJJ » Should I do BJJ if I’m already doing a striking martial art?
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Should I do BJJ if I’m already doing a striking martial art?

- John Q. Whitebelt

Posted by John Q. Whitebelt in Starting BJJ | 1 comment

Community Answers

  1. 76
    8-7-13
    Aesopian says:

    That depends on what your goals are. If you just enjoy throwing sweet punches and kicks and breaking boards and knocking around heavy bags, but you’re not worried about self-defense, then who cares. Oss and kiai away!

    If you want to be a well-rounded martial artist who is capable of striking, clinching, and grappling, then Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is the #1 art for submission grappling and ground fighting. Being fully prepared to defend yourself means being able to handle any situation, including ground fighting, even if in your wishful thinking hammer fists and reverse punches would stop the fight from ever going there.

    Without invoking the name of Royce Gracie, you can look at the history of MMA and see that even two fighters who want to stand up and blast the teeth out of their opponent’s face end up going to the ground, often without either one actually wanting to. A lot of early MMA fights were won by the guys who took it to the ground on purpose, not fearing all the lethal karate chops and elbows to the spine that were supposed to stop them.

    Let’s say you don’t really care about self-defense or MMA. Speaking from my very biased stance as a BJJ black belt, I can tell you that BJJ is very fun and challenging, both mentally and physically. My friends who just do striking often complain how boring it gets to hit pads and work on the same five fundamental moves while I’m sparring all the time and working on cool submissions and sweeps.

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