Recently read an article that claimed
Brazilian Jujitsu was causing lots of injuries.
I find this fascinating.
When I started Kenpo Karate back in 67,
within two years I had broken my toes twice,
my hand once
and needed to repair a cracked tooth,
and I attributed these injuries to two things.
First,
poor instruction.
Can’t argue with that.
Second,
protective gear.
Our instructor came out to the freestyle class one day.
He had a couple of large boxes filled with protective gear.
“Okay, guys,
now we can fight without getting injured.”
Oh, Lord, the injuries piled up.
Everybody thought they could hit harder,
everybody thought they had to hit harder.
They stopped learning control
and started punching harder.
When I went to a classical school
(Kang Duk Won)
I learned what power was.
By learning what real control was.
This school was ten times harder than the Kenpo school,
I ended up with so many bruises I couldn’t press the clutch pedal.
But I never received an injury.
Good instruction and no protective gear.
We learned to be protective of our partners,
and to be precise in our control.
We learned the consequences of poor control
through the ministrations of our ‘gentle’ seniors.
in other words,
if you showed poor control
a higher belt would step in and show you consequences.
But they did it with good control.
It was actually a very humane lesson.
Brazilian Jujitsu has lots of injuries.
There is no arguing that.
I have seen good schools with lots of injuries.
Especially to the hands and wrists.
Poor instruction?
Maybe.
But I would tend to think it is young turks
getting over excited by the action.
But here’s the thing…
if you do jujitsu correctly
if you find the angles
and use gentle force,
it works.
That’s what the name means.
Jujitsu means ‘gentle trick.’
But I see people,
especially in the cage,
where victory is more important than your opponent’s body,
who use full force
and crank to the max,
and who,
in rare matches,
can’t even be pulled off their opponent.
It is interesting,
we live in degraded times,
where honor is not as valuable as a punch in the face.
Thus, there aren’t many voices asking for
more rules to protect the fighter.
To be truthful,
I am not fond of rules.
Rules are needed in contests
where the participants might be out of control.
they don’t have self control,
and there is a need for ‘other’ control.
such as referees,
fines and punishments like being banned.
It will be very interesting to see how this all plays out.
But,
in the meantime,
I’ll stick with the classic arts
who preach honor and virtue,
over ‘winning at all costs.’
Okay,
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and enjoy the rest of this winter.
It’s almost spring,
and that is training time in my book!
Have a great work out!
Al
Don’t forget to check out the interview
‘The Last Martial Arts Book’ has 12 ratings for 5 stars.
(There is a video version of this book with no stars yet)
My two yoga books have 9 ratings between them for 5 stars.
‘The Book of Five Arts’ has 8 ratings for 5 stars.
‘The Science of Government’ has 7 ratings for 5 stars.
‘Chiang Nan’ has 6 ratings for 5 stars.
My novel, ‘Monkeyland,’ has 5 ratings for 5 stars
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so hopefully you’ll find the book that works for you.
How to Fix Karate:
A Karate Training and Workout Book
(Two Volumes)
Matrix Martial Arts 