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Thank you for the wonderful article!!

That's alot of good stuff! Thanks for the link.

Judo would certainly be more useful and is often studied hand in hand with BJJ. Honestly, if the same person that teaches the Danzan Ryu Jujitsu also teaches the Judo, it may have more ground work than usual. Quality is determined by the teacher and the dedication of the student. Not the area. I was in a slum area in NJ once and went into a school that I found to be quite phenomenal.

Kano was a genius! In my opinion, his contribution of Randori is virtually unmatched as far as modern MAs go.

Yes!! You need to have that mobility. But you can still learn the basics and some strong ground self defense without too much of it. In regards to your friend in BJJ, make sure it's more than just rolling. Be sure you practice and learn technique also. Rolling is just one component of training.

I think it is pretty accurate to say that there are very few things that JJJ systems and BJJ systems have in common. Their teaching methods are extremely different. JJJ systems tend to focus on Throws, strikes and small joint manipulations. There is a ground component taught, but usually not much at beginner levels and certianly not to the extent that BJJ has perfected. On the contrary. BJJ tends to focus on Ground, takedowns (usually from the clinch/T position), and large joint submissions (chokes, armbars, and various shoulder locks). They are both great systems. But if your interest is in submission competitions, as I said before, go with the guys teaching BJJ. As long as they have earned at least blue, they should be able to teach you decent enough. I would be hesitant, however, if they haven't had much formal training. For the record, I have studied Daito Ryu Jujitsu for 6 yrs and BJJ for 3. I'm certainly not a master of either, but have a strong enough grasp to tell you those differences.

We do our best. Thank you for the kind words.

By this statement you lead me to believe that your school is actually an extention of your instructor's school. If that is correct, what you think and your goals are of little concequence. He is the boss and his goals are what matter. If he is not getting a cut of the profits, then he does not have stake in the business and you should do what you want. Be courteous of course, but firm on your position. Saddly, this is the area where many instructors and students part ways. The instructor wants you to do something you can not or choose not to. Surely, you want to have at least a few high quality students before you were to entertain the idea of quiting your job to teach full time. I attempted to run a school in the same manner as you describe. However, I made the mistake of allowing the YWCA keep control of the costs. They treated it like a spinning or aerobics class and charged by the class. $9 per class. We were open twice a week but to come every day would cost a person $72 per month. That was high for the area I was in. Needless to say we ended up closing due to lack of interest. To date, that is my only experience with running my own place and I would not make the same mistake again. I will have financial control next time.

Now that I think of it, this is a great statement when it comes to BJJ. For them, competition requires being able to string together several techniques without hesitation and applying advanced versions of their basic techniques. However, with most standing martial arts, competition tends to be very different than what is trained for self defense. This is why BJJ can train for competition and still be suitable for self defense.

True enough.

For submission competitions, Danzan Ryu will not help you much at all. Besides, as mentioned above. 3 months of training is not really enought to help you in cometitions anyway, unless your are a phenomenal athlete.

That's a great discription. Thanks for the info.

You shouldn't feel bad about losing to wrestlers. They are great athletes, and many of them have probably been doing it since they were kids, so they will have a lot of experience. Good point also.

NO I met from NJ and NY where I'm from.I know a few gracie guys and we sometimes train in the part in NY.He told me they work mostly all ground work and what I've seen so far looks to be true.I'm sure other BJJ can train differently but that's what I've seen so far alone with a bout 10 BJJ guys I've come across. I have not seen any self defense from BJJ so far.its mostly for competition. I see what you mean. I will say, however, that the most trained portion of the art is the ground work. Not for competition, but because that is where they feel most fights end up (wether you agree with this or not is a different discussion all together). Of course they would like to end the fight while standing. The best techniques in the system (rear naked choke and guillotine) both work on the feet just as effectively as the ground.

My BJJ instructor is one of those kind. He played Baseball in College. His timing and rythm are amazing. Very atheletic.

Neither had I. But like I said earlier, guys like him are a dime a dozen.

You're probably right on that one. I don't think many people walk into a TKD school, without training, and tell the instructor their primary reason for training is to get into the olympics.

I think it looks staged.

By "here" are you saying New Jersey or the entire US? Because self defense is the number one concern where I train Gracie BJJ. Ground work is, by far, the largest component trained. However, we work leg kicks, jabs and crosses, as well as closing the distance safely. To say you've read a book and you don't believe the stuff is taught is a little silly. Your sum experience is a seminar and watching a couple of students. That would be like me buying a Wing Chun book and saying you don't really learn that stuff because I don't see anyone doing it in a couple of classes.

I'm sorry to hear that.

Actually, there are alot of "recreational" type wrestling leagues. I'm sure that it depends on where you live and such. I definitely see what you're saying here. But I think a better comparison for karate would be boxing. The reason I say this is because we need to compare apples to apples. Wrestling is to BJJ as Karate is to Boxing (Muai Thai). In the end, it goes back to how they trained. If they trained karate as I, unfortunately, have seen many train; with very little contact and difficulty (Shugyo), they will have a difficult time. But if they train hard, with shugyo and contact, they may not have the same difficulty. If a karateka, Kyokushin..for an example, trained hard, they could best a boxer. A poorly trained one would likely loose miserably. I'm writing this quickly so if it doesn't make sense let me know. I thought I specified "olympic" TKD. If I didn't, I meant to.

You're echoing what I'm saying here. There is no doubt in my mind that a boxer could defend him/herself quite competently in many situations, probably better than many Karateka I know. I believe this would be due to the way he trains. He/she is used to contact and used to a high stress situation. As I said above: I totally see where you're coming from. I agree with most of the points you make. I just feel that any combative art that is being used for sport is a combative sport. That goes for other arts such as Kendo and Kyudo as well. They exclude much of what their predicessors deemed necessary to success in combat. The purpose of training dictates everything. Once that wrestler learns to adapt to things that fall outside of the rules of the sport, it could well become a martial art. But in that situation it is no longer being trained for sport use.

While I agree that the nature of the training for boxing and wrestling is what makes it very effective. But that same type of training can and should be applied to those who train for self defense reasons. Here's a small example of what I'm saying. In wrestling, all movement must be circular or toward the opponent. So, in the BJJ academy I train in, when wrestlers come in, they initially have problems using take downs because they're not used to someone simply backing away as they shoot. Of course, they eventuall adapt and learn stratagies to use them in new situations. Those stratagies are what can seperate a martial art from a sport and can mean life and death.

I don't. I believe Wrestling, boxing, thai boxing, mma, xma, olympic tkd and anyother system being trained soley for sport are combative or martial sports. As I wrote above, A martial art should have the sole purpose of teaching it's proponent the self defense techniques and stratigies necessary for that persons tasks of every day living. I should add that, most of the above mentioned sports can be trained and used for self defense. It's really about purpose of training more than anything. And, in the US, wrestling is predominantly trained for sport.

Best of the Best rocks. Great MA flick. Cheesey but great.