How athletic / strong do you have to be to be good at Jujitsu?

I%26#039;m just wondering for those who are really good at Jujitsu are have rolled with really good guys how athletic and strong to you have to be to be a serious player like a black belt Gracie level. Watching like the Gracie family it seems like they are athletic but no super athletes. Is is safe to say that an average athlete can go along way in Jujitsu?|||You don%26#039;t have to be big and strong to be a jujitsu player. My instructor is a 2nd degree black belt under Gracie Barra and is only 135-140 pounds and about 5%26#039;5. He%26#039;s very good and as all martial arts go it%26#039;s about technique not strength. The smaller guy must have better techniques to beat the bigger guy. I%26#039;m 5%26#039;9 156 pounds and roll with guys in the 200 pound range; if it wasn%26#039;t for technique, cardio and timing they would squash me like an ant. So it%26#039;s really about training hard and putting in work to get good in jujitsu; being from an athletic background will help greatly in terms of coordination, cardio etc but it will definitely take some time in order for you to excel in jujitsu. Good luck!|||I can%26#039;t say. But I%26#039;m in a different form of Martial Arts, and we had a guy that was in Jujitsu join and let%26#039;s just say he could toss me around like a rag doll. That was mainly because he was a concrete worker though. Report Abuse
|||Yes an average athelete can do well, you don%26#039;t even have to be in good shape to study the discipline, but it helps since most of the techniques work from the core muscle groups (abs and obliques).





look at the Grandmaster of Gracie Jujitsu, Helio Gracie himself was not a very physical specimen, even in his youth.





as he is now in his 90%26#039;s he CONSIDERED even more a frail man, but he can still put most people far younger than he into a submission technique or even choke another person out even his sons.





So a guy like you shouldn%26#039;t have a problem doing well in their ground fighting discipline.





the Gracies are very much a healthy and muscular group of Martial Artists, but they also know the values of weight training, cardio, and good nutrition through diet as should everyone, especially those of us who physically exert ourselves be it whatever we do either for fun, or jobs.|||Well, for traditional japanese jujitsu, you don%26#039;t have to be that big and strong, some flexibility is good, especially in the shoulders and hips, but besides that most taichiwaza (standing technique) is very technical and aimed towards maximum efficiency so yeah, athleticy is second to brains. Groundwork (newaza) though, is very enduring and can wear a guy down in under a minute if you fight poorly and waste a lot of energy, so it is good to get lots of cardio and build up strength in the areas important to grappling, although i can attest that through good technique, even on the ground where the larger man has the greater advantage, you can still win through brains and speed. So yes, a less athletic person can go a long way doing jujitsu, but in turn by doing jujitsu, you will become a great deal more athletic.|||Jiu-jitsu is an art of the mind body and soul. You can%26#039;t be great at it right off the bat. the gracie%26#039;s have been known for their jiu-jitsu for a long time now and all of them know that it takes great conditioning, technique and heart to go out there and perform. you really shouldn%26#039;t go in with an attitude that your an average athlete, cause i%26#039;ve had countless numbers of great athletes that couldn%26#039;t hang with beginner jiu-jitsu students. its not for everybody but if you have the desire to want to do it you can go far|||One purpose of Martial Arts is to enable smaller people to protect themselves against bigger stronger people.|||Anyone can be proficient in any art. Jujitsu and it%26#039;s counter part Judo are very suiting to people from many different sizes and strengths.


I can garentee that it will only take a few months of training before you are in better shape and stronger than you have ever been in your life. Add a mile or 2 a day of running and you will have great cardio as well in a matter of weeks.


Jujitsu in the dojo is 80% technique/skill and 20% cardio, strength and physical health. In competition however it can easily be completely reversed.





I trained in Judo for over 12 years and stopped for a while. I recently got back into it a few months ago. In the dojo I am easily matching up to biger higher ranked partners. I competed on Dec. 2nd for the first time in many years I fought 2 matches and was already tired 1 minute into the first and almost quit do to exhaustion 3 minutes into the second. Although I out matched my opponant in both strenght and skill ultimatly my cardio failed me. And he was able to throw me for the point to win.


In other words dojo training equals learning good skills and techniques but requires little cardio and strength training. But competition requires alot of cardio training.|||I am 6%26#039; 250lbs, very strong in both legs, back, arms and neck. I am decent at BJJ as I have been studing for 3 years. Having said that I am still bested by a few 130 and 150 lbs guys that are extremely flexible and fast. JJ is a great art as if you dedicate yourself to it, it will level the playing field very quick and humble many foes. Average athlete could do great. I am an ex-athlete, that balloned to 310 lbs, before I got reintroduced to martial arts.|||You don%26#039;t have to be that strong to be good at it. However you do need a very good stamina for it though. It take LONG time to be good at it but once you%26#039;re really good, it%26#039;s very difficult for others to beat you in grappling.





I would HATE get in fight and end up on ground with very experienced grappler.|||Have you ever spent 2 minutes grappling? It is tiring! Cardio.|||Some strength is a plus. But it is a leverage system. Find a good teacher. Check out there back round, and have some fun.|||Anywhere between being able to run half an hour at a time to being able to run a marathon. Less fit would do if it was just messing around and the likes.