Why I Train BJJ

Part 1: Self-Defense

For your information, I am an avid student of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ), and have been for several years. This is the first post in a multi-part series, each covering a different reason why I value and enjoy BJJ as a hobby. And today’s reason is: self-defense.

BJJ is a martial art that emphasizes taking an opponent to the ground, gaining a dominant position, and forcing them into submission via joint locks or chokeholds. BJJ revolves around the concept that a smaller, weaker person can successfully defend themselves against a bigger, stronger, heavier opponent by using leverage, weight distribution, and taking the fight to the ground.

I first started training BJJ in 2016 at the Ottawa Academy of Martial Arts, where I trained for six months while doing my Master’s degree in Sport Psychology. After completing my degree, I moved back to Montreal, and took a few years off before re-engaging my BJJ training at a gym called Agatsu. I trained at Agatsu for three years under head coach Shawn Mozen, and I loved it there.

Last summer, I moved to Toronto, and was determined to find a new gym to continue my BJJ journey. After trying out a few gyms, I joined Rev MMA in November 2022, and I have enjoyed training there under head instructor, Joel Gerson.

To provide additional context, BJJ wasn’t the first martial art I practiced. I started boxing recreationally when I was 17 years old. At that point, I had already become hooked on the sport after reading several books about boxing history and the next logical step was to start training. I trained in boxing for seven years before embarking on my BJJ journey in Ottawa.

Like boxing, I knew that BJJ would allow me to improve my fitness, learn self-defense, and gain confidence. But it was the self-defense aspect that was the biggest motivator for me. That is because BJJ has unequivocally proven to be the most effective martial art for self-defense, largely thanks to the early UFC tournaments that were dominated by Royce Gracie. And Royce’s success wasn’t an anomaly because as the UFC has grown, grappling still remains the dominant foundational skill for any successful MMA fighter.

And BJJ has proven to be effective outside the cage as well. If you want further proof of its effectiveness in fights without rules, check out the video below.

Although I had never been in a street fight and had no intention of doing so, I always wanted to be ready to defend myself and loved ones in the event that a dangerous situation arose. Armed with only striking skills, I knew I would be completely helpless if a fight went to the ground, and I didn’t want to have such a glaring weakness in my repertoire.

The reason BJJ offers an advantage over striking arts in a street fight is because in order to strike your opponent, you need to be close enough to them. But being in that striking range means that they are also close enough to hit you, which is dangerous because you are now in a 50/50 proposition where you each have similar odds of being hit. And you don’t want to be in a fight with those odds.

BJJ allows you to engage in a fight where the odds are more in your favor by minimizing the time spent in striking range. It’s about defending strikes, grabbing hold of your opponent, then safely taking them to the ground and controlling them.

By doing so you avoid having to inflict or receive head trauma and permanent injury. By not having to strike with a closed fist, you are also saving your hands, which can easily break upon impact on a hard skull. And what happens if, after you hit the person, they fall to the ground and hit their head? They can get severely injured and now you have to do with the legal ramifications. All in all, an entirely undesirable situation.

Another thing to note about BJJ is that although it is a martial art initially intended for self-defense, it can also be practiced in a sport context through competition. But those competitions don’t usually involve striking, which means that there are some techniques and/or positions that are common in a tournament but much less effective in the street when people can punch, kick, or stomp you on the ground.

Therefore, it is important that if you decide to start training BJJ, to pick a gym that emphasizes standing techniques like takedowns and striking defense for it to be truly applicable to real-life. That is another reason why I like training at Rev MMA, because once a month, we put on gloves and train our defensive reactions to punches being thrown, and ability to safely take the fight to the ground.

So there you have it, the first reason why I train BJJ and one of the most important ones is for its applicability to self-defense.

Stay tuned for the next posts in this series!