Opinions are like assholes, everyone has them and they all stink...
with that prelude, here is my humble opinion...
I like Gracie Jiu Jitsu as an art, I feel like it's one of the most effective grappling systems on the planet. It certainly has shown to be very effective in one-on-one confrontations under minimal rules as per the original UFC.
That being said, those conditions are very artificial. The potential for weapons to be involved or for other people to get involved were highly unlikely (hell, it does happen at sport fights however, a sporting event is a sporting event) and they knew that they were going to be fighting at a particular time under a particular set of rules, regardless of how minimal they were in those beginning days of the UFC.
Gracie/Brazillian Jiu Jitsu is a great art, and it is probably the most thorough solution to fighting a larger opponent over a long period of time on the ground. A fight or an assault is different...and you don't want it to take a long time, and you certainly don't want to be laying on your back or sitting on somebody's chest when their friends arrive or rolling on broken glass trying with somebody who is trying to pull your seams apart with a pocket knife.
Combatives and Gracie Jiu Jitsu don't belong in the same sentence. It's a good marketing strategy, but when I watched the end of the first disc (I borrowed them from a friend) and Royler and Renzo suggested asking a group of attackers to fight them one on one I almost lost my fucking mind. If things were that civil, you should be able to verbally diffuse the situation, or just leave. Also downplaying targeting the eyes or bites is also not wise...you CAN dislodge somebodies eye from it's orbit...trust me...as for fight bites...if somebody is trained, they can kill you or maim you for life, if not, even if you manage to come out on top, you're talking about horrendous infections. (just sit and watch the streaks crawl up your arms after a few days if you don't believe me.)
Granted...I'm not from a family who has a long standing dynasty in the martial arts community, I'm not a tournament winning dynamo grappler or kickboxer, or anything really...but I have seen fights unfold, and I know a little bit about people...and none of that jives with me. Still...great stuff for the ground, and everyone should have a bit of it in their tool box...but you don't want to stay in that range (if you can help it) if there is a remote possibility of other variables coming into play.
Also...combatives implies combat, not restraint, and not self defense...it is what you do in war to enemy combatants and it isn't subject to legalities surrounding self defense. Combatives also implies minimal training time, especially for hand to hand type stuff. Gracie Jiu Jitsu/Brazillian Jiu Jitsu aren't good fits for this, despite whoever decided to use them in military training may "think".
So...in short...
BJJ for sport or situations where restraint is imposed upon the defender*- great
BJJ for self defense...eh...not a first choice...at all.
BJJ for combatives...horrible choice.
*MAY help minimize legal issues...you can still get in tremendous shit (whether you are in the right or not).
with that prelude, here is my humble opinion...
I like Gracie Jiu Jitsu as an art, I feel like it's one of the most effective grappling systems on the planet. It certainly has shown to be very effective in one-on-one confrontations under minimal rules as per the original UFC.
That being said, those conditions are very artificial. The potential for weapons to be involved or for other people to get involved were highly unlikely (hell, it does happen at sport fights however, a sporting event is a sporting event) and they knew that they were going to be fighting at a particular time under a particular set of rules, regardless of how minimal they were in those beginning days of the UFC.
Gracie/Brazillian Jiu Jitsu is a great art, and it is probably the most thorough solution to fighting a larger opponent over a long period of time on the ground. A fight or an assault is different...and you don't want it to take a long time, and you certainly don't want to be laying on your back or sitting on somebody's chest when their friends arrive or rolling on broken glass trying with somebody who is trying to pull your seams apart with a pocket knife.
Combatives and Gracie Jiu Jitsu don't belong in the same sentence. It's a good marketing strategy, but when I watched the end of the first disc (I borrowed them from a friend) and Royler and Renzo suggested asking a group of attackers to fight them one on one I almost lost my fucking mind. If things were that civil, you should be able to verbally diffuse the situation, or just leave. Also downplaying targeting the eyes or bites is also not wise...you CAN dislodge somebodies eye from it's orbit...trust me...as for fight bites...if somebody is trained, they can kill you or maim you for life, if not, even if you manage to come out on top, you're talking about horrendous infections. (just sit and watch the streaks crawl up your arms after a few days if you don't believe me.)
Granted...I'm not from a family who has a long standing dynasty in the martial arts community, I'm not a tournament winning dynamo grappler or kickboxer, or anything really...but I have seen fights unfold, and I know a little bit about people...and none of that jives with me. Still...great stuff for the ground, and everyone should have a bit of it in their tool box...but you don't want to stay in that range (if you can help it) if there is a remote possibility of other variables coming into play.
Also...combatives implies combat, not restraint, and not self defense...it is what you do in war to enemy combatants and it isn't subject to legalities surrounding self defense. Combatives also implies minimal training time, especially for hand to hand type stuff. Gracie Jiu Jitsu/Brazillian Jiu Jitsu aren't good fits for this, despite whoever decided to use them in military training may "think".
So...in short...
BJJ for sport or situations where restraint is imposed upon the defender*- great
BJJ for self defense...eh...not a first choice...at all.
BJJ for combatives...horrible choice.
*MAY help minimize legal issues...you can still get in tremendous shit (whether you are in the right or not).
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