I am continually amused by people who don’t know anything about Brazilian Jiu-jitsu attempt to try to talk about why it is a bad choice for self-defense. Even with the easily discovered legion of actual video and even more legion of documented non-video reports of real world success, these critics tend to have substantial cognitive dissonance. Unfortunately, they are so vocal that they have even convinced some jiu-jitsu people of their arguments. This is sad, and misguided. With one single exception (and one in which I will write about in the final part in this series), what we need to do to successfully use jiu-jitsu to defend ourselves is already internally physically contained within the art. All that we really need are a few mental tweaks to make sure we are doing what we need to be doing. Rather than hoard that information I want to get it out as widely and as public as I can, in order for as many good guys have access to these concepts and can utilize them to keep themselves and their loved ones safe.   I am going to write a multi-part series of posts showing all jiu-jitsu practitioners the handful of minor mental adjustments they need to make to be able to rely on their own methods to protect themselves and their loved ones.

I kick off the series today with the single most important physical action we need to take, and our first line of defense. And that is active control, or at the very least active monitoring, of the opponent’s arms.

In a self-preservation situation, where striking and/or weapons may be involved, I cannot let my opponent have freedom to use his arms. Period and end of story. Any damaging thing he can do to me has to emanate from his arms.  Even if I am on the bottom of side control or the mount, I still need to be active in monitoring it as best as I am able. I need to have the shot at preventing him from deploying a weapon, or setting an opportunity up to start throwing bombs; or if the weapon comes out, to be able to keep him from using it in the manner he wants to.

This element has to be ingrained in us from day one, and it must be constantly reinforced so it becomes as subconscious and as automatic as possible. If we ignore it, or dismiss it as “just something else to worry about” , then we underplay how crucial arm control is to our very survival. If you takeaway nothing else from this series of articles, please absorb that one.

Here is what is so funny about this principle – we already need to do this all the time in our normal jiu-jitsu practice! This is not wishful thinking in any way. It is simple fact.

Think about it. If he is trying to pass my guard, what is the main weapon he is using? What if he is trying to sweep me? Or if he is trying to escape from a bottom position? What about when he has superior position and he is working for a submission? What if I am on top and working for my submission? Don’t I need to have some control over his hands? If not, he can block that submission all day long, or work an escape/reversal while I am focused on the attack. His hands/arms are going to be the main driver in anything he can do in opposition to me. No matter what is happening, he needs his hands to do the majority of it, which means I have to obtain some control over them. Don’t take my word for it. Go watch high level grapplers who are successful over and over again. Watch something such as the 2015 match between Roger Gracie and Comprido. Note how Roger controls Comprido’s limbs as soon as possible, and how it leads to the eventual win by choke. You will be able to see this in your own academy any night of the week. The dominant wins will happen when one person controls the hands of the other person. Every single time.  

So if that is the case, why do we so often slip up, to include great champions? Because in anything we normally do – regular training, heavy duty sparring, competition, and even MMA – the penalty for failure is not that bad. If we tap in a roll in class, then we restart, slap hands and go again. In a tournament, we lose and the tournament is over for us, but there will be another one soon where we can try again. Even in MMA, the worst that happens is a knockout, but even that is not so bad. We still have a career in fighting again (usually) and we still essentially have our health – even if we have some trauma after for a few days. With such a fairly low penalty for screwing up, it is treated as not so bad and we can easily develop a bad mental scar of shrugging off the mistake of letting the other guy have freedom with his arms. The problem arises in that the consequence of that same exact failure in a self-preservation scenario quite literally is death or massive and/or permanent bodily injury. That is not something we can shrug off, and therefore it has to permeate our fundamental mental approach at all times in training.

Does this mean every moment we train we must do it like it is life or death? Of course not, life does not work that way, and training in just such a manner will lead to injury and mental or emotional burnout.  After a long tough day at work, maybe when we get to the BJJ academy we will need to be more relaxed and less intense on occasion. That is no problem at all as long as we keep it in mind what we are doing and why – FOR THAT MOMENT ONLY – it is okay to slide. We cannot let it become an every time approach. Keep those stakes in mind, and let that be ever present.

This is an incredibly simple concept, but it is monumentally crucial, and we need to treat it accordingly. We don’t need to add or change any of our physical actions on the mat, but keep the principle in mind always.