A little guide through the Martial Art and Techniques of Brazilian JiuJitsu

Royce Gracie-s first, second and fourth win in the Ultimate Fighting Championships in 1990 drew the eye of the world to his martial art - the Brazilian jiujitsu, which is basically a combination of Kodokan judo and Japanese martial arts. Royce Gracie-s winnings have led to many MMA fighters to start training this martial art and it has become the key to other fighters- winnings as well.

The art of this kind of jiujitsu encompasses a lot of ground fighting techniques as well as submission holds, such as joint-locks and chokeholds. A fighter may look smaller or weaker, but with this jiujitsu, he can make use of leverage to defend himself and launch his own attack. Often, this results in victory on his part. This effectively turned this martial art into a very good choice when looking for self-defense techniques.

There are two trainings involved. The first is sparring or rolling, a free form of fighting where injuries are kept to a minimum by certain sets of rules. The other is alive drilling play, which is more spontaneous and dynamic. The opponents are not bound by rules or any script.
Brazilian jiujitsu tends to have the fighters bringing each other down to the ground. One fighter can defeat another by bringing their opponent down to the ground using the guard position. The guard position involves wrapping your legs around your opponent, preventing him from making any moves against you. In Brazilian jiujitsu, the fighting takes place on the ground and involves a lot of grappling. Since grappling can successfully subdue strength and power, weaker fighters have an even better chance of overpowering stronger opponents.

In Brazilian jiujitsu, belts are used to rank the practitioners of the martial art. They start with white belt as the lowest rank, slowly working their way up through blue, brown, all the way to the highest rank in the red belt. For one to achieve the red belt, a fighter would be required to put in a lot of years of work, discipline and lots and lots of practice. A nineteen-year-old who starts training in Brazilian jiujitsu can expect to achieve the red belt by the time they reach the age of 67. Constant training in the martial art is expected in those intervening years leading up to it. Kids- ranking are slightly different, though, because they start with white, then grey, yellow, orange, and green, the highest ranking.

Brazilian jiujitsu is as much a sport as it is a martial art. It influences physical condition of the young and is a way of building their characters. Brazilian jiujitsu is a Do - a way of life - and can be likened to other martial arts such as judo, karate, aikido, and kendo.

Just like judo-s judogi, Brazilian jiujitsu makes use of a uniform called Gi. It doesn-t have any added fabrics and tapers at the end of the trousers and jackets, allowing more freedom of movement. The uniform is also called kimono, even in Brazil.