An example of Hollywood’s most remarkable demonstrations of its power to influence the masses is in the global popularity of martial arts today. Through their depiction of Kung Fu, demonstrated by the likes of greats like Bruce Lee and Jet Li, this fighting style took the world by storm. Suddenly, there was an unprecedented interest in learning these fighting skills, and with more interest came more information.
One of the fascinating things about martial arts is the variety available. Not just style, but of purpose too. The disciplines cater to the underlying needs of the practitioner, be they traditional, fun, creative or esoteric. Hence, there is more to them than just fancy fighting moves and the ability to take down an enemy -no matter how cool it looks in the movies-.
Martial arts like Wushu, Tai Chi and Capoeira can provide excellent health benefits. Conversely, others like Sode Tsumi Komi Goshi and Berimbolo can expand your learning abilities through challenges. Finally, there are others like Krav Maga and Gracie Jiu-Jitsu (GJJ), whose focus is self-defence.
What Is Gracie Jiu-Jitsu?
Gracie Jiu-Jitsu is a martial art whose focus on self-defence aims to address one of the most overlooked aspects. Its philosophy considers that, while martial arts teach students about fighting in dangerous situations where you use weapons, deadly strikes and gouges to defend against an attacker, these techniques are still rendered useless in one significant and often the more prevalent scenario. That is the case where the assailant is known to a victim. At this point, the question becomes not whether the victim has the skill to fight their way out of the situation, but whether they can employ them against someone familiar to them.
Gracie Jiu-Jitsu aims to address this disconnect through a fundamental understanding that just because you didn’t win a fight doesn’t mean you lost. Instead, it seeks to instil confidence in the knowledge that you will survive. Afterwards, the focus turns to offence.
The techniques you utilise in this discipline do not require a lot of strength to execute. Perhaps that is why this, and the reasons below, make Gracie jiu Jitsu best for female self-defence.
The Guard
It is difficult to trust that you can get comfortable with learning how to defend from a prone position. Teaching defence techniques from all positions helps to sow seeds of confidence in their chances of survival even if perpetrators are able to escalate, no matter that the victim could be smaller and lighter.
Please note that the guard does not guarantee the ability to defeat the assailant. Instead, the primary aim is to instil confidence that will form a foundation for awareness skills, striking, anti-takedowns and other offence techniques.
The Contact
If you consider your daily life, you may discover that you don’t have a lot of physical contact with those around you with whom you are not intimate. While this is a societal norm today, it also leaves you and other victims at a disadvantage. So when you encounter an attacker, you are more likely to freeze up. GJJ helps counter this tendency by providing safe, progressive contact with various people until it becomes second nature.
Emphasising Leverage And Control
GJJ uses the same counters and escapes as other disciplines to maximise leverage. However, the difference lies in the misdirections, structure, control and movement. This form focuses primarily on survival and then structural escape rather than relying on the attacker’s pain reactions.
These three principles together will give you the confidence to say no, believe in your ability to defend yourself, if need be, and at the very least, have an assurance that you can survive an attack. Therefore, it is not a course you can afford to miss.