Author: Bret Gordon
With the popularity of MMA and BJJ continuing to soar, one can hardly post any martial arts video without some fanboy commenting that it's fake or would never work in the cage. For the majority of martial arts history, people have understood there is a difference between sport and combatives, yet that seems to have gone by the wayside in the internet age. Having extensive experience in both training methods, I'd like to weigh in on the subject.
I grew up in sport martial arts, having primarily competed in both point karate and full contact kickboxing, eventually earning a spot on the US Martial Arts Team in 2010 and taking home 3 world titles. I was never on the level of people like Raymond Daniels, Ross Levine or Jadi Tention, but I made my way around the circuits.
Fast forward a year later and I made a drastic change by diving heavily into self defense training. This was because one of my students, himself a state kickboxing champion, got jumped in high school by 3 people and was pretty badly hurt. Of course, defending against multiple assailants is no easy task for anyone but I felt personally responsible that I had not better prepared this student for the realities of violence outside a ring. It was then I became affiliated with Steven Hatfield, who would take my training to the next level.
Fast forward a year later and I made a drastic change by diving heavily into self defense training. This was because one of my students, himself a state kickboxing champion, got jumped in high school by 3 people and was pretty badly hurt. Of course, defending against multiple assailants is no easy task for anyone but I felt personally responsible that I had not better prepared this student for the realities of violence outside a ring. It was then I became affiliated with Steven Hatfield, who would take my training to the next level.
Hatfield sensei first introduced me to what's commonly called pressure testing, something the majority of the martial arts community seems to neglect (which has led to their tarnished reputation, but I'll get back to that shortly). You see, it doesn't matter what techniques you know. If you freeze or panic under duress, they all go out the window. Everyone is familiar with "fight or flight," but it's an incomplete statement. When stressed, as in a physical assault, the body actually goes through at least one of five natural responses:
- Freeze
- Fight
- Flight
- Posture
- Submit
Steven Hatfield OC Spray Course 2021
In my school, Trio Martial Arts Academy, we use a variety of different training methods including scenario-based training, blindfolded defense drills, multiple attackers, live weapons, and full contact fighting. Self defense training does not stop there. It also includes having a basic understanding and training with firearms and knives. After all, if you are fortunate enough to pull off a disarm there's no guarantee the fight is over and you may need to use that tool to further subdue the assailant. These drills and others are so crucial to preparing the student to deal with real violence that I would argue any school not doing at least some variation of them is not actually training self defense.
My instructor even takes it a step further and has his students go through an annual chemical spray course, because you need to be able to function even when visually compromised. Whether you're in an altercation and Law Enforcement uses OC to break it up (like in the case of numerous riots and brawls), you happen to use pepper spray and get blowback, or any number of ways you can be contaminated, learning how to remain calm and fight through it is a very useful skill. I plan to implement this training myself after I'm fully certified.
My instructor even takes it a step further and has his students go through an annual chemical spray course, because you need to be able to function even when visually compromised. Whether you're in an altercation and Law Enforcement uses OC to break it up (like in the case of numerous riots and brawls), you happen to use pepper spray and get blowback, or any number of ways you can be contaminated, learning how to remain calm and fight through it is a very useful skill. I plan to implement this training myself after I'm fully certified.
So how does this relate to MMA and BJJ? Inevitably when someone posts in a local community group on social media looking for self defense classes, they are inundated with recommendations on every possible local school... And there are always two ignorant responses you can count on:
- Join a BJJ school. All other martial arts are fake, the UFC proved that
- Just carry a gun
Both of those statements could not be worse from a self defense perspective. Don't get me wrong. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is an amazing art for what it is. I've dabbled in it since 2007, and recently earned my blue belt. Understanding how to fight on the ground is an essential skill for self defense, but it should never be the go-to strategy in a real fight. Unlike in the cage, the ground is less than sanitary. There could be broken glass, sharp rocks, needles containing God-knows-what... Not to mention there's no guarantee of it being a one-on-one encounter like in the ring. On the ground, your head makes a wonderful target for someone to kick a field goal with, and of course it's a lot harder to defend against weapons which always seem to make their appearance when someone thinks they're losing.
Of course, Helio Gracie knew all of this. That's why when you watch videos of the Gracie self defense curriculum, the majority of it includes standing techniques more akin to Judo than anything else. I've heard it from more than a few high-level grapplers that the average person really only needs a blue belt to defend themselves against the majority of people they'd encounter on the street. Anything higher is about defeating other BJJ fighters.
Of course, Helio Gracie knew all of this. That's why when you watch videos of the Gracie self defense curriculum, the majority of it includes standing techniques more akin to Judo than anything else. I've heard it from more than a few high-level grapplers that the average person really only needs a blue belt to defend themselves against the majority of people they'd encounter on the street. Anything higher is about defeating other BJJ fighters.
The popularity of the sport as well as its connection to MMA have led to massive growth in the number of schools that offer only the sport of BJJ. This is such an issue that those who do teach the original self defense curriculum have begun calling themselves Gracie Jiu Jitsu to differentiate themselves.
Unfortunately, the highly successful marketing of UFC1 has cemented the idea that BJJ is the ultimate fighting style. Rather than understanding any contest is about the individual fighters and not the style they came from, people flock to the nearest gym out of a need to belong to something in hopes they'll catch "Cool Guy Herpes." Doing BJJ will automatically make them invincible in a fight and gain them loads of street cred. But what happens when someone who is not only considered one of the best grapplers in the world but also a multi-division UFC World Champion gets knocked out in a local street fight by an untrained, drunk opponent, as BJ Penn did in the fight shown below:
Of course, anyone can get caught at any time and this was likely a lucky punch, but there are numerous stories of high level BJJ practitioners and MMA fighters "losing" real-world altercations, yet this does nothing to erode the credibility of these disciplines as "the most effective fighting arts." Why? Because almost 30 years ago, Royce Gracie used BJJ to defeat fighters who had no idea what grappling was? What about these news stories:
Russian MMA fighter stabbed to death in North Ossetia restaurant
Brother of British MMA champion admits stabbing fighter to death
Maybe it's unfair to use these instances to show that sport fighting clearly does not prepare you for much outside of a one-on-one unarmed bout with someone of equal size, as I'm sure the majority of people claiming to teach self defense or martial arts in general wouldn't have faired much better when faced with a similar situation. That's why I mentioned earlier about the importance of pressure testing. Unfortunately the majority of people claiming to teach self defense live and die on "I would just..." statements before describing how they would maim their assailant as if they don't have the free will to stop you.
My point is simply that we have to stop saying MMA and BJJ (or any specific art) are best for self defense training when in reality it comes down to the training methods of the individual group that will determine how likely a student is to survive a violent attack. Of course there are no guarantees, but with the right training methods we can improve our odds of going home to our families at the end of the night. That's what it's all about.
P.S. - The advice of "just carry a gun" is equally as ignorant as blindly telling someone to find a BJJ gym. So much more goes into carrying a firearm than the 2-hour class required by law to get your permit (at least here in Florida). First of all, are you willing to use that firearm to potentially end someone's life? Anytime you carry a tool, whether it's a knife, gun, pepper spray or anything else, you automatically turn every situation into an armed encounter and unless you're willing to use it, you now have provided an advantage for your assailant (as in this case that happened in my home town). It takes a lot to be willing to potentially end someone's life, and there's no shame in not being able to stomach it but then you also have no business carrying a weapon. Also, do you have the hand-to-hand skills to access that firearm under pressure and retain control of it when someone is trying to take it from you? All of this must be considered before you decide to carry.
