Kobukai Ju-Jitsu

[Hitokiri88]

Kobukai Ju-Jitsu located in East Hartford, CT (there are locations in CT) is Ju-Jitsu in the purest sense. It is a traditional school that has adapted to the modern would - keeping it's beliefs in the system and ideology intact, but embracing the flow of time and change. What they offer is Ju-Jutsu as it was intended - a practical answer to self-defense. The best way to describe what they teach is to call it a mix of Judo, BJJ, Aiki-Jutsu and what most would call Traditional Ju-Jutsu (TJJ), but in reality, Ju-Jutsu is all these arts, or rather those arts were born from TJJ.

http://kobukaijujitsu.com/

Aliveness: 8

It's what you'd expect from a good Ju-Jitsu school; a lot of randori and ne waza. We train at full intensity when sparring and the instructor encourages striking at the discretion of those participating.

Dojo Size: 7

Great dojo size in general, but we also have a lot of members that attend regularly. Still, plenty of room with very little worry about about tripping or having someone thrown on top of you.

Instructor/Student Ratio: 9

Classes are 3 days a week: Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. During the Tuesday/Thursday classes, we normally have about 15-20+ students training. It's a large class. Luckily, we have usually about 3 black belt instructors available, that's including the main instructor.

Atmosphere/Attitude: 10

Everyone is friendly.

Striking Instruction: 5

This one was difficult for me to grade considering Ju-jitsu is primarily a self-defense/grappling art; however, striking is apart of our curriculum. We don't train punches in kicks frequently as you would in a striking art, but they are incorporated in our atemi waza and we frequently practice the appropriate defenses.

Grappling Instruction: 10

Our school has 5 progressions: white, yellow, blue, brown and black. Each progression includes many techniques that are categorical by type. They are Hazushi (escapes/evasion), Aikijutsu, Newaza (ground technique) Nage Waza (throwing technique), Atemi Waza (striking techniques used to set up Nage Waza), Weapon Defense, and Ju-Jutsu (throws done in reaction to strikes, hugs, etc.)

http://kobukaijujitsu.com/wp-content.../WHITEBELT.pdf

Weapons: 5

Once again, this is self-defense school. We don't train in how to use weapons, but we train in how to defend ourselves against a live attacker. We use rubber and wooden equipment: guns, knives, and clubs.

Rating Based On Avg: 7.71

No martial art is complete and perfect. Full contact sparring using punches, kicks, and elbows, and weapon attacks is not Ju-Jutsu. Ju-Jutsu is the science of yielding; it's self-defense.

Personal Rating: 10

[lordbd]

Wow sounds like a great school.

[Hitokiri88]

It really is. Every time I look at our curriculum, I'm astounded by the mount of various material we cover.

[erezb]

What type of protecting gear do you use during class? are there many injuries?

[Hitokiri88]

Only a supporter cup is required for class and a mouth guard is optional. As far as injuries, primarily dependent on you. If you practice proper and technique taking falls correctly, you'll greatly reduce the risk of injury. Likewise, executing sloppy technique will increase the risk of injury for both uke and tori. That said, we do train practical self defense and as with most martial arts, injury does occur, but no frequently. I'm particularly very protective of myself and my training partners so I've never been injured or injured anyone. I've been training for a year now and good so far. I can link you to some YouTube pages if you'd like to see some technique, etc. if you'd like.

[erezb]

sure! a MA that basically practices mma with almost no injuries! almost too good to be true! i would love to see stuff. Thenx.

[Ming Loyalist]

so how do you guys do in judo competitions? BJJ competitions? i seriously doubt that you compete, but would love to be wrong.

[Hitokiri88]

I don't compete but I'd like to soon. I've been a yellow belt since February, but I still consider myself to be a bit green. A classmate of mine, also a yellow belt, participated in a NAGA tournament last month and placed 3rd place in no gi and did really well in the gi division as well. I believe you start standing so throws are done in the tournament. From what I've gathered from a black belt that competes, there were hundreds of participants spanning from different divisions. I think he said about 800, but I think I may have miss heard.

http://nagafighter.com/index.php?module=homepage

I should note that we don't train for competition, but Shihan encourages us to participate on our own and some of us do. That in mind, we don't learn as much techniques as you would at a BJJ school, but that's because are techniques are street smart and usually not really designed for sport and ground fighting is a last resort. Ironically, we do A LOT of newaza.

[Hitokiri88]

sure! a MA that basically practices mma with almost no injuries! almost too good to be true! i would love to see stuff. Thenx.

Not much to see, but you get a good idea of what our curriculum looks like. He performs each technique 3 times, twice slowly so the viewer can see whats going on, and once at actual speed.
http://www.youtube.com/user/kobukaidojo?feature=watch

One of Shihan's students opened up their own school with Kobukai JJ as apart of their curriculum.
http://www.youtube.com/user/MMADVDReviewscom
http://www.youtube.com/user/fightaut...e=results_main

This is a really good video. Very practical technique and philosophy.

[Ming Loyalist]

I don't compete but I'd like to soon. I've been a yellow belt since February, but I still consider myself to be a bit green. A classmate of mine, also a yellow belt, participated in a NAGA tournament last month and placed 3rd place in no gi and did really well in the gi division as well.

so that was the novice division? while it's good that you compete, we would be more interested in hearing how more senior students do in the higher divisions. in gi, do your guys compete at the equivalent BJJ rank? how about judo competitions, do you guys do them?

I should note that we don't train for competition, but Shihan encourages us to participate on our own and some of us do. That in mind, we don't learn as much techniques as you would at a BJJ school, but that's because are techniques are street smart and usually not really designed for sport and ground fighting is a last resort. Ironically, we do A LOT of newaza.

"don't train for competition" "not designed for sport" are big red warning signs around here.

if you guys just do a lot of newaza among yourselves, and only lower ranked people compete (and do that competition in the novice/beginner divisions) then you have a recipe for mediocre-at-best training, and the potential for an inflated sense of one's own skills.