Academy of Combat: Christchurch Martial Arts

One of the biggest changes to martial arts and fighting systems in recent years has been the emergence of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu which ultimately led to the growth and development of the mixed Martial Arts or MMA systems and competition. And while the exact origins of MMA can be debated, it is difficult to dispute the opinion that Brazilian Jiu Jitsu influenced the emergence, growth and development of the phenomenum.

Probably the most important effect of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu was that it exposed the weakness of the majority of martial arts to be able to cope with being taken to the ground. Although for many of us martial artists, who have been involved in real street fights, this was not new but we hadn’t done much about it believing that we could prevent anyone from taking us down if we trained hard enough.

The Brazilians, however, exposed this weakness as a major flaw in the way that us strikers thought, fought and trained. Even some of the more dogmatic, so called reality based fighting system trainers, resisted the glaringly obvious flaw in their thinking, giving simplistic reasoning for not going to the ground in a street fight. What they were not addressing was the fact that on many occasions, more often then not, that in a real fight it would go to the ground.

Another interesting trend that I could not help but notice, once the effectiveness of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and the importance of ground-fighting was realized, was the sudden exposure of hitherto unknown secret ground-fighting techniques from all manner of martial arts systems, that emphasized striking, with the most glaringly ridiculous coming from Wing Chun Kung Fu and Tae Kwon Do practitioners.

Having been involved in martial arts for over 35 years now, I have been exposed to many systems of martial arts and either trained in them or kept pace with the literature pertaining to them. A few observations are worthy of note in placing extreme skepticism on the majority of claims by the authors of these secret exposure reports.

1) There was no mention of true ground fighting techniques in karate or related striking systems before the emergence of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. In a few styles of karate simple throws were taught followed with the application of an armbar.

2) Tae Kwon Do with it’s emphasis on kicking, particularly high kicking, would make the practitioner particularly vulnerable to being taken down.

3) Not only did I have Tae Kwon Do black belts coming to my gym to learn Brazilian Jiu Jitsu but the highest ranking Tae Kwon do practitioner in my home city brought a classical Ju Jitsu practitioner in to teach him.

4) When Brazilian Jiu Jitsu appeared on the scene, fight challenges were issued and taken up. All the practitioners from the various systems that tried their luck failed; with the practitioners from systems that emphasized striking not demonstrating any efficacy, even from an expected defensive knowledge, on the ground. By this I mean that they didn’t demonstrate any familiarity or knowledge of how to move on the ground unlike the wrestlers and judokas who knew how to move.

5) The secret techniques that are now appearing in these systems like Wing Chun Kung Fu and Tae Kwon Do bare a starting similarity (but very poorly executed) to the methods we use in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Now, before you say all armbars and chokes are done the same, I mean to draw your attention to the way these systems set the chokes and armbars up and the little details in how they are applied. This is what makes BJJ distinct and has been the product of years of evolution. For another system that has been predominantly stressing striking throughout it history it seems very unlikely that they developed the moves separately and had been teaching them in secret until now.

6) One of the most influential martial artists of the 20^th century, Bruce Lee, realized the importance of ground-fighting and had started to explore it. However, he did not draw his knowledge from his original art of Wing Chun, of which he was a very accomplished master, he acquired knowledge from Judo (Gene LeBell being a big influence) and wrestling. I am sure that if Bruce was still alive today he would have embraced Brazilian Jiu Jitsu with a passion, as has his successor Dan Inosanto.

7) I have seen (in fact still have on my computer)a video taken of a real life challenge between two high ranking and high profile Wing Chun practitioners several years ago (one German the other Chinese). The fight started standing with a short striking exchange then went to the ground where it was broken up by the followers of these “experts”. The ground fight was nothing but a brawl with no ground-fighting ability being demonstrated by either practitioner.

Why can’t people just be honest, give credit to the people and systems that have developed knowledge that we, as martial artists, can all benefit from. I am a scientist and we as a profession place great value on the validity of origin of a finding and the use of it to expand our knowledge so that all mankind can benefit, and in doing so we always give credit to the source our inspiration.

If you want to incorporate ground-fighting skills into your system because you see the value and need, then do so, but give credit to where it came from and, if you haven’t done so already, get down to your local Brazilian Jiu Jitsu school with an open-minded attitude, put on a white belt, and be prepared to advance your martial arts knowledge and understanding to a completely new level. You will not only reap the benefits for your self but for all of your students.

I leave you to ponder on the words of Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) “If I have seen further than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants”