Advertisement
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
“Do you know how to wake people up? Because I don’t.” Not the most obvious question to hear at the gym, nor any other scenario come to think of it. However the two blokes conversing were not referring to the other’s competence as a human alarm clock, plus the gym in question was a mixed martial arts school. The obscure question had surfaced because we were in the middle of a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class and one of the boys had failed to recognise his partner’s desperate
tap-outs’. Consequently he held a chokehold on too long, leaving his mate, Vinicius, clutching his neck and gasping for breath like a suicidal salmon. Vinicius is lightly tanned but at this point he looked more like Smurfette and the genie’s lovechild. Or as if he had spent the previous week listening to BB King and perusing Picasso’s blue period.
Shoddy similes aside, this is not an uncommon event in a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
(BJJ) class. For those unaware of this rapidly growing discipline, after Capoeira it’s the second most famous Brazilian martial art (loyal bloggees will remember that I am unconvinced as to Capoeira’s status as a martial art but
live and let live). Its aim is to manipulate the human body’s weaker points, manoeuvring your opponent into various joint locks or chokeholds until they ‘tap out’ signalling their resignation. There is one particular chokehold where you take your opponent’s back and dig your heels ‘hooks’ into his inner thighs, effectively paralysing his legs. From this position the hard part of your foreharm
‘mão de faca’ (knife of the hand) slides under their chin and you grab the bicep of your other arm. When this hold is applied properly it requires less pressure to put the adversary to sleep than to break an egg.
At times, pride takes over sense which my mum will tell you is a typical male trait due to too much testosterone. It can happen then that a fighter refuses to give up when beaten, thinking they will be able to get out of the hold but wind up asleep on the mat or doing 8 months rehabilitation to repair a dislocated shoulder. As they say, pride comes before having your arm removed from its socket.
The concept is similar to Judo; by using leverage and your adversary’s weak spots, skill and technique will win over size and strength every time. It reminds me of a story from my childhood. A Greek god (I forget which one) who had to fight a giant 10 times his size to get to wherever he was going, lets say Athens. They faced up to each other in what seemed a hopeless match-up. In an effort at intimidation, the giant threw back his hatchback-sized head and roared, saliva and bad breath pouring out of the chasm of a mouth. During this show of unbridled machismo, the diminutive Greek leapt forward and with a sickening crunch tore his foe’s little toe out of its socket. The giant thunderously collapsed with the nauseating pain, allowing our hero to pass untroubled. The morale of the story? Your opponent is only as strong as their weakest point. Then again, he was still a god.
Imported from Japan at the beginning of the 20th century, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was adapted and developed by the Gracie family from Rio de Janeiro to become a worldwide martial art. It arrived resembling modern day Judo but the Gracie’s decided to focus more on the groundfighting aspect of the art. The man who first brought what would become BJJ to Brazil was a Japanese martial artist called Count Coma, a suitable name when you think of the emphasis on choking out other competitors. Those who follow MMA and the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) in particular will be aware of how effective BJJ is. It is unheard of nowadays for a fighter to not have a reasonable grounding of Jiu-Jitsu and the first Ultimate Fighting Champion was in fact a member of the seemingly infinite Gracie family. Royce Gracie, a BJJ black belt. The vast majority of street fights as well end up on the ground, thus the effectiveness of this grappling art cannot be denied.
However, it is not a violent discipline. It is extremely methodical and almost painstakingly slow at times. It has been described as human chess as you have to counter your opponents move and try and figure out what part of your body is in danger. If he grabs the sleeve of your kimono you have to figure out how he will try to dominate that arm and what his next move will be. If he is controlling your right arm, you have to figure out a way to free it because an isolated part of your body is at great risk. A large part of my training is still trying to figure out exactly where the danger is coming from and how to defend it. Unfortunately almost all of my Jiu-Jitsu game currently is learning to defend as I am still not very effective at putting my opponent in any real danger.
I have been training now for four months and am still pretty much clueless as there is an ungodly amount to learn. According to the other students I am developing quickly and will graduate to the next belt in a year or so. I am sure every novice receives this kind of encouragement but I am pretty gutted that my visa will temporarily stop my training here. Yet there are BJJ gyms popping up all over the place in the UK so maybe not all is lost.
Like many martial arts imported from the Orient, you train with a kimono or gi as it is called in England. There are 6 belts starting at white, you need roughly two years to graduate to blue from white and about ten years of dedicated training to reach black. I am coming off the back of a pretty demoralising training session so have no idea of my level about now. The best thing about the training is that you can go full contact in a competitive situation right away without any protective equipment. As there is no striking it’s rare for any real damage to be done during a sparring match. Apart from the pride issue that I mentioned.
I am training about 4 times a week and really enjoying it. As I said it is an MMA gym so at times we train other disciplines, such as boxing, muay thai and wrestling. I personally, try to stick to Jiu-Jitsu as much as possible and am feeling as strong as I have done in a long time. My build is slightly different, I am leaner than normal, having lost about 4kg of muscle and fat combined since I started training; yet this body type is more useful for Jiu-Jitsu than the slightly stockier one I am used to. Running on the beach twice a week has contributed as well. Contrastingly to a weights gym where members talk about how much they have put on; in a fighting gym people brag about how light they are and how much they are trying to lose. Consequently I find myself closer to 70 than 80kg which I don’t think has been the case since I started hitting the weights at 18.
Other than training there is not much else to report on. We had the coldest day of the year so far last week, 18°, almost equalling Salvador’s coldest day since records began which stands at 16°.
I’ve also started music lessons in other news. I was so taken by the wind instruments’ sound in the Olodum bloco that I decided to learn the saxophone. This is the first time in my memory that I don’t have to study, be it degree, A-levels or GCSEs. As a result, I have a lot more time than I’m used to and trying to learn as much as possible during my last couple of months here. The wind instrument teacher is a friend of mine and willing to swap English lessons for music ones and my project has lent me a clarinet to practise with. On the whole, a pretty satisfactory arrangement. For anyone that is thinking of spending an extended time in Brazil, you can often get lessons for free in exchange for English classes. Be it music, Portuguese, cookery or pretty much anything you want to learn.
I had wanted to publish this blog on Sunday but was struck down by the flu and have spent the last 2 days in bed blowing my nose and feeling sorry for myself. A self-confessed sufferer of man-flu, I am not one capable of putting a brave face on any illness. The concept of brave face doesn’t even enter my head when there is some serious sniffling and whining to be done. I think I will be fully recovered by tomorrow though. For those uninterested in martial arts, I am aware that this blog may have been one of the least interesting bits of reading you have done in the last few months. I will try and publish a slightly more diverse one next time around. Until then wish me a speedy recovery as I reluctantly climb off my death bed.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.167s; Tpl: 0.03s; cc: 5; qc: 44; dbt: 0.1145s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Manuel
non-member comment
seems a serious effort
in south Africa we shoot people who try to grapple us to the floor in a form known as African Shooting Style (ASS) - speaking of which, why are you so keen on rolling around on the floor tapping men - is there any more you'd like to share young Wilberforce?