Your thoughts on "Jitsu"

[Diomedes]

Hi. As a poor student, there's no way I can afford to attend BJJ where I am, it's simply too expensive. However, my university has some sort of Ju Jitsu club, which would be more affordable, though everything's tough when you have as little $$ as I do :p

I'd like you guys opinions, based on the information available. Here's the website:

http://www.geocities.com/vuwjitsu/

Their website seems to be a bit out of date, but provides some information:

WHAT IS JITSU?
The Jitsu Style of the Jitsu Foundation Austrlasia is designed principally for practical self-defense in a modern setting, using techniques that work under realistic conditions.

Ju-Jitsu, translated as "gentle art", is a method of fighting that employs holds, locks and throws to subdue an opponent. Because this sort of thing requires considerably more skill than strength, men and women of any size can become very good at it. In training sessions, you will learn how to defend yourself from everything from unwanted grabs to punches, shoves, head-butts, chokes, kicks and multiple attackers, armed or otherwise. By training regularly, you will improve your general fitness, flexibility, strength, coordination, reaction time, and above all, self-confidence.

They have a video here:

http://www.geocities.com/vuwjitsu/movies/jitsu.mpeg

Thoughts?

[Shawarma]

No judo around?

[Diomedes]

No judo around?

There's no university Judo club unfortunately, though there are probably private clubs in the city. Basically Uni clubs are all I can afford to attend since they're much cheaper for students. The Muay Thai and Boxing clubs are superb, but I dont have any experience with the rest. They've got two TKD clubs and two Karate clubs as well, but I'm not particularly interested in them - I might check out the Kyokushin one sometime though.

[PEtrainer]

You should look into some akidio or Capoeria then.

[Diomedes]

You should look into some akidio or Capoeria then.

Har har.

I've seen the Aikido club guys practising actually. Super slow-mo.

There's also a ninjitsu club.

[Zing!]

Jeezy's advice is good. If that fails, judo is generally cheap. Check out the clubs around you and you might be surprised.

[supercrap]

Roughly 5 times on their website it mentions drinking beer after training is essential.

Go there. At least you can get drunk and forget you are training a **** martial art.

[eyebeams]

The "Jitsu" Foundation teaches a JJJ style called Shorinji Kan. They're headquartered in the UK. We have a club around here. Some stuff:

* It's mostly standup grappling in the JJJ style, but resistance is added as you go up. It evolves from one-steps to full-on sparring by the blue-brown level.
* However, even in the beginning drills they do emphasize on target attacks by uke at full power, with some resistance permitted.
* It's a modern JJJ style, so even though there are ancient weapons, they also talk about bottles and such.
* They practice tournament style judo at senior belts. A jitsu belt is not going to be as good a judoka as a judoka of the same rank by any means.
* They heavily emphasize ukemi skills.
* They do tend to be partying types, to be sure.

So in short it eases into fully resistant striking and grappling over time, but you don't get it from the start. One of my seniors in kung fu is a brown at their club here and we was able to use the throws he learned in sanda competition when he visited China over the summer.

[Cullion]

I tried the style for a few weeks (we had a thread about them before). I largely agree with eyebeam's comments except to say that they don't practice striking that much and I've never heard of them really sparring with strikes. AFAIK their striking is limited to RBSD-style self defence drills. They don't claim to be able to teach people to strike well enough for any sort of competitive use.

It's better than most Aikido, and more varied (though less intense and resistant) than Judo.
They don't do randoori every week, but they seem to gradually be getting more into alive and resistant training.

They are generally nice people, aren't out to milk their students for cash (the TJF seems to be a well organised non-profit organisation that ensures instructors have first aid and teaching skills), and have no problem with people cross-training (a lot of their higher grades seem to cross train in Judo).

The Bullshido user Sophist trained with them for a while, so you might want to ask his opinion.

A lot of TJF members post on this site (most of the posters have trained in either TJF or an offshoot.) : http://www.planetjitsu.com

Some of their users also read bullshido, but I'm not sure if they actively post here.

[Diomedes]

Thanks for the thoughts and info guys. I will probably give it a go for a few weeks at least, but I'll have to wait until I get back from up north at the beginning of next year. I'm also trying to find out prices for Judo classes - I've found a couple of clubs in my area, but it's funny how the websites will have all sorts of information except actual fees. If I'm lucky one might have a student discount.