Just thinking more about the thread Chadderz started recently about the guy using BJJ after getting punched... how often (if at all) do you train "self-defence" in your BJJ class. For example, do you drill, as a friend of mine told me Royce did at a seminar, with one glove on your hand so you can occasionally strike your partner when rolling? Do you drill moves which are not legal in BJJ comps (such as neck cranks) for self defence purposes? I'm not suggesting "sports BJJ" is not applicable for SD situations (clearly it is, check youtube), but just wondering to you folks feel the need to make some adjustments in your training if you were training BJJ from a SD point of view?
i haven't been anywhere that teaches deescalation when i fleetingly went to RGA they would train jiu jitsu get ups and distancing for sometimes an entire class. no gi classes have an MMA focus usually. ive been places where they teach applications through the class but its not a major focus. many smaller clubs will show you neck cranks, headlocks and the like and explain how to defend against them i think it's assumed that many of the basics of bjj groundwork in MMA are still the same when it comes to self defence. (let's not assume that they're going to teach stand up striking self defence because BJJ guys have been going to boxing, karate and muay thai for this for years, they know their limits, everyone except kron gracie) if you allow someone to get good posture in your guard then they're going to hit you or pass your guard. shrimping solves 90% of your problems.
As long as your approach is based on fundamentals, and you roll gi and nogi with the occasional session of jits with hits the majority of physical SD is unnecessary. But headlock defences are always worth training, if just for avoiding a bad neck when rolling with over enthusiastic newbies.
One thing that I have added to my self defense practice a few years ago is regular practice of getting up off of the ground and sprinting away. It sounds silly almost, but adding a regular practice of basic parkour type skills (running, jumping, vaulting and climbing) can be a really good and valuable addition to ones Bjj practice.
well i think you have to understand a bit of the origins of the art and what the sport aspect is. judo, and consequently, bjj is a survival art that just so happens to have a sparring and competition aspects for training. as you mention, regular ol' sport bjj is very effective for use in amorphous situations. at my gym, we also train more self-defense-y situation. my coach likes to use colorful language for these, like: drunken uncle at thanksgiving headlock defense. that defense is actually perfectly useful and legal at a bjj comp., but most likely an experienced player isn't going to try to pull off a headlock.
Yep, exactly! I think it's actually very important to train. Especially exploring different variations of it and ways to apply it
You can always keep the distance management aspect of things in the back of your mind but if by "specifically training self defense", you mean doing standup defenses against punches, knives and so on, most BJJ schools don't spend much time on it in my experience. As for avoidance, deescalation etc, it's taught almost nowhere and just mentioned in passing most of the time. YMMV.
you're right about that, most schools don't teach that sort of thing, they're too busy concentrating on regular sport bjj. which is fine. as i mentioned, i'm pretty lucky that i'm at a big school and the coach sometimes teaches applications outside of the mat. but my coach also brings in a jjj instructor once a week for more "self-defense". it's pretty cool, very similar to hapkido, which i trained in for some time.
Halfway through rolling today the instructor pulled out a butter knife for fun, and the round ended with me headbutting him repeatably whilst pinning the knife to his chest....... But only after I'd been buttered and armbared thoroughly. #sd #highjinks #gracieway
At my gym we do a bit of self defence here and there - it's definitely not the focus, but we'll cover clinching up and taking someone down if they're punching us, protecting yourself from punches when you're on the bottom, etc. Occasionally we'll do full shootboxing/jits with hits rounds. We're a sport gym more than a self defence place, and I prefer that because when I'm training in the gi it's more the sport that I'm interested in than anything else, but it's still nice to be reminded that in a "real fight" someone would punch you.
