BJJ offers something for everyone

BJJ offers something for everyone, it one of the best things I love about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Some want to compete, some lose weight, some maybe just want to make some new friend with common fitness goals. Maybe some want to be a MMA fighters. People from all walks of life, doctors, lawyers, fireman, policeman, office workers, high school athletes etc fill our mats daily.

Here are two ways of the biggest ways of studying Jiu-Jitsu: One of the beautiful things of Jiu-Jitsu is that you can approach it in two very different ways. Both of which are very profitable to your development. The first is to study Jiu-Jitsu as a martial art/combat sport in itself. If you study Jiu-Jitsu as a stand alone art by itself you can make fast progress and really focus on pure grappling. I still believe after all these years that just BJJ by itself makes for an extremely effective fighting style. Even a very highly ranked fighter would have to be very wary of a very good Jiu-Jitsu practitioner who had no MMA training and stay away from certain positions and play a smart tactical game to win. The other approach is to see BJJ as a component of a complete fighting style that borrowed from various combat sports to produce a well rounded MMA style that covered everything. This is generally the best approach for fighting but is often not suitable to part timers or older athletes or professionals who simply can’t risk daily injuries while working a full time job. Many BJJ students are BJJ specialists who dedicate their time to single discipline, BJJ as a self defense art the way the Gracie Family created it. Takedown to grappling position to submission. Someone like Georges St Pierre is the all rounder who uses Jiu-Jitsu training as a vital component of an overall program as a professional MMA athlete. Both are wonderful ways to approach the art. I’ve always loved the fact that BJJ can adapt to the needs of its followers like this and it has created some amazing memories for me as a coach and competitor to see different athletes with different goals working together in their own directions.

www.njbjj.com  will be back tomorrow with more BJJ advice