Saturday, May 15, 2010

Which style is more effective overall: Gracie Jujitsu or Judo?

I practiced judo for 3 months until I injured myself (bad ukemi on my part, I guess). Now I am thinking about trying Gracie Jujitsu because they focus more on ground fighting. However, I want to learn the most effective style for fighting. Any suggestions?|||Hmm,





Surprisingly enough, even the most effective disciplines of submission wrestling eg Brazillian Jiu Jitsu (alongwith it%26#039;s derivatives like Renzo Gracie Jiu jitsu, Machados Jiu Jitsu etc.),Sambo wrestling and catch wrestling (alongwith it%26#039;s derivatives such as shootfighting, pancrase, shooto, CSW, RINGS submission fighting and Japanese submission fighting) have been very strongly influenced by Jigoro Kano%26#039;s Judo.





The western world emphasises on BJJ being the %26quot;underlying secret behind MMA sucsess%26quot;, while in Japan Karl Gotch%26#039;s Shoot wrestling has trained men who defeat BJJ practitoners regularly. The fact that BJJ is %26quot;the ultimate form of ground fighting%26quot; is pure imagination. In fact, the most dominant fighting style of both the current and all times is (surprisingly enough) Amature wrestling (widely associated, in the US, with either Greco Roman or Freestyle). Check it out at http://www.sherdog.com/stats/upr_styles_... (current ratings of fighting styles) and http://www.sherdog.com/stats/upr_styles_... (all time ratings of fighting styles).





Intrestingly enough, BJJ is %26quot;the ultimate method%26quot; in the eyes of an American, just as Sambo is the ultimate method in the eyes of a Russian, shoot wrestling is the ultimate method in the eyes of a Japanese, Muai thai is the ultimate method in the eyes of a Thai national and Amature wrestling is the ultimate spoiler in the eyes of most.





Listen, Mitsuyo Maeda (the teacher of the Gracie Family) was a prize fighter/judoka/catch wrestler from Japan. It%26#039;s through his teachings that the art was born. BJJ owes it%26#039;s very existence to Judo.





And, let%26#039;s not forget the Kimura-Gracie match in which Judoka Kimura defeated the legendary grandmaster Helio Gracie. Even the unstoppable Rickson Gracie was stopped by the President of USA Judo until 2008, Dr. Ron Tripp. Plus, Hidehiko Yoshida seems to have taken it to Royce Gracie in the draw they had.





The thing is that when the time has come to test their skills against the best in Judo, BJJ has never been able to step up like Catch wrestling did (AD Santel, NWA lightheavyweight champ defeated evey judoka the Kodokan threw his way and was the self proclaimed World judo Champ from 1914-1921). By piting grandmasters against mere black belts is going to prove little for BJJ.





And, Judo does%26#039;nt take all of eight years to learn like BJJ does. Plus it%26#039;s recognized by FILA as the fourth form of widely practiced amature wrestling in the world.





However, Judokas have never participated in MMA compared to BJJ or shoot wrestling practitoners. There have been very few %26quot;champion%26quot; judokas (I can only think of Naoya Ogawa at the moment, he%26#039;s done pretty good though) who actually have stepped up to prove their craft in MMA. Even with the dearth of participants to represent the art, you can check out for yourself at http://www.sherdog.com/stats/upr_styles_... the rating of Judo and Sambo/Judo.





Anyways, Fedor Emelianeko practices Sambo/Judo, if a Gracie can beat him their craft will be proven to be the best. Until then, Oh well.





And the most effective system, if you want my opinion, is shoot wrestling (any of it%26#039;s derivatives will do, the main derivatives are shootfighting, shooto, RINGS submission fighting, Combat Submission Wrestling, Pancrase and Submission Fighting Japanese style. However in the US, you%26#039;ll come across shooto and shootfighting the most). It does%26#039;nt take eight years to learn and covers lower body submissions, hard takedowns, takedown defence, kicks, punches and other aspects neglected by Gracie jiu Jitsu. The sucsess of guys like Frank Shamrock (knocked out Ceaser Gracie in what ?? 21 seconds), Kazushi Sakuraba (the Gracie hunter), Matt Hughes (about to bury Royce Gracie at UFC 60) and countless other world beaters is attributed to this style.|||jujitsu is pretty much considered the best in %26quot;real%26quot; fights where your life is on the line. however, it is rather inherently limited, e.g. only one opponent at a time, ground has to be relatively wide and available, you are pretty much humping your opponent the entire time, etc.|||I don%26#039;t think the style matters, but the fighter. I say learn as much as you can and learn to apply it properly, and you%26#039;re good. All that style crap is for the movies and videogames.|||Jujitsu is the most effective means I have found of finishing a fight. If you were to combine it with the throws and take downs you learned in Judo, you would have a good combination.

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