Man has been fighting since he could first crawl. As soon as he stood upright and had opposable thumbs he made weapons. As soon as he had a big enough brain he made atomic bombs. Yes, man has and will always be fighting. Maybe, it all ends with a barrage of bombs. Maybe, fighting will be our demise, and it’ll all go up in a wall of fire. If so, we may be left with sticks and stones, but whatever form of slug is left will use these sticks and stones to fight. So, we will develop, once again, martial art.
Martial arts are the organized systems of fighting we have passed down through the generations. A punch, a kick, a slap, a choke and a break have been omnipresent. I have been focusing in on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in a very narrow way for two years. My other disciplines have gone to the wayside. It’s been all about grappling for me now. I open up the terms of my study. I don’t think of myself as a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu guy. I say I’m a Jiu-Jitsu guy, but I really see myself as a grappler.
Jiu-Jitsu came from Japan. Maeda, a master of the grappling art, took the art to Brazil. He was a great teacher, and taught this form of Japanese self-defense. The Gracie family met and studied under Maeda, and thus we got the branding of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. I studied my BJJ under Roger Mamedov, who learned from Ricardo Almeida. I then studied, and continue to study, under Danny Morera. He got his black belt from Roberto Maia who got his from Carlos Gracie Junior.
Now, I’m a man who respects lineage. I have a grasp of history. I value tradition (I am Jewish after all). I’m proud to have learned from true artists.
My original study of the art was broken down, in a class setting, to five techniques. We did three standup techniques. These techniques included freestyle wrestling, Judo and Greco. We would then work two ground techniques. So, as a result, I consider myself a grappler. I’m not just a BJJ guy. My professor, Roger, would work in with the wrestlers from Rutgers. He brought the standup to us. We were an MMA school, and this meant we looked at it from that perspective. We didn’t pull guard. We stood up. We took it to the ground, and we would be damned if we didn’t try to be in a dominant position.
Labels are myopic. When we classify ourselves into a narrow realm, especially in grappling we cut down the possibilities. Yes, I study in the Gracie lineage. I had influence from western wrestling and it’s incarnations. There is a multitude of techniques, and they don’t all sit under one umbrella. Eddie Bravo now has allowed slapping in a special grappling tournament. We see the changing of the tradition. This is a great thing.
We don’t do Kung Fu. We don’t do Tai Chi. We grapple. Some of us dabble in punching, kicking and slapping. All of us who do BJJ, ideally, do sport but think street. There isn’t a set of moves or theoretical actions. We use the dojo as a laboratory of technique. We figure out what works, what’s garbage and where we fall short. It is constantly evolving and changing. Thus, the terms of this umbrella change as well. We fall under the umbrella of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, but the game changes and so do we. We take all that is good and grand from the masters of the world. We break them down in the laboratory, test them, note the outcomes and weigh the results.
For those of us who study the methods, we are more than a single label. Some might say we’re grapplers. Others may say we’re martial artists. I see us as explorers of the human condition. Mankind will always fight until the last drop of blood courses through his veins. It’s written into our DNA. Our ways cannot be changed. Our fate, like our DNA, may also already be written. So, no matter what culture steals methods from another culture it’ll be the same thing. I don’t care if it’s punching, kicking, slapping, choking or breaking. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what we call it. Just like the name of God, there are many names for what we do. So, call it what you may. We’ll always be searching, exploring and dreaming up new ways for an undetermined future…