A Case for Control

Knowing how to establish control when going up against an opponent is critical. It doesn’t matter about the style of martial arts. Being in control means that you take away your opponent’s ability to dictate the pace of the fight and minimize their ability to do damage. Having control can also have an impact on how efficiently you can employ techniques, which will ultimately help you keep your stamina up as you sap your opponent’s.

Compared to striking martial arts like Muay Thai or boxing, grappling martial arts like jiu-jitsu place more of an emphasis on establishing and maintaining control through constant physical contact. Moreover, the techniques taught in jiu-jitsu give even smaller people the ability to do so. As a result, jiu-jitsu has become a popular method of self-defense for people of smaller stature, regardless of their knowledge of other martial arts.

The Problem with Striking

As Rener Gracie and his student, Suzi, explain in the above video, Suzi was attracted to jiu-jitsu because she recognized that bigger people hold an innate advantage over her. Luckily, this realization did not come about because of a tragic or violent assault. Instead, it came about after years of wrestling with her brother.

When the two were younger, they both started taking martial arts classes. Suzi began training as a kickboxer. Her brother began taking karate classes. When they would spar standing up, the two were more or less equal. However, the fight would immediately become one-sided once her brother took Suzi to the ground. He had a significant weight advantage, and he could easily use that to neutralize her strikes.

As Suzi became better at kickboxing and even participated in tournaments, she never could fully shake the feeling that there was something unrealistic about the experience. Unlike jiu-jitsu, kickboxing competitions have relatively narrow weight classes and fighters are not expected to punch above their weight (literally). Suzi was more than proficient in her own class, but she constantly questioned if she’d really be able to defend herself if a far larger person assaulted her on the street. Her only hope would be to quickly overwhelm them with a few strikes and then run away.

As she told Rener in the above video, she began to have dreams about being unable to successfully fight back against imaginary assailants. No matter how hard she kicked or punched, she felt like she was striking through Jell-O.

Suzi’s dreams were telling her that she knew she was an effective striker, but that it wasn’t enough. “I could be really confident and strong against someone my size or slightly bigger,” she says, but going up against a significantly larger person was another matter.

Her uncertainty eventually led her to jiu-jitsu.

Jiu-Jitsu Dreams

A few months into her jiu-jitsu training Suzi began to commit the techniques to muscle memory. When a training partner put her in a hold, her body would naturally respond and allow her to escape. According to Suzi, jiu-jitsu gave her a sense of confidence that she hadn’t felt even after years of kickboxing and even though Suzi is a very athletic person.

As Suzi’s jiu-jitsu training continued, she started having jiu-jitsu dreams. This is not a metaphor. Suzi was literally doing jiu-jitsu in her sleep. “I would try the moves, and they’d actually work!” Suzi says.

Changing What Victory Means

In striking martial arts, victory is typically defined by knocking out your opponent. With jiu-jitsu, victory is about survival. If you can survive and never cede control to your opponent, you win. As Hélio Gracie used to tell Rener, “I don’t defeat anyone. It’s they who defeated themselves.”

For individuals who recognize that their goal is not being able to land a roundhouse kick or increase their punching speed, but instead want to be more confident that they can walk away from a life-or-death scenario, jiu-jitsu can provide that confidence. Particularly for smaller people, jiu-jitsu is designed to neutralize your opponent’s size and strength advantage, especially if you are both on the ground.

It is not simply about self-defense, but about self-preservation.