About Roger Gracie BJJ

‘The Gentle Art’

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was designed as a fighting style to defeat other martial arts. Not only does it improve physical fitness, it is the ultimate self-defence system, teaching techniques for defending against all forms of striking attacks while standing or on the ground. For this reason it is part of the training carried out by most elite military and law enforcement agencies. So why not try Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Oxford at OMAA!

Benefits of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu:

Improve physical fitness
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is both a martial art and a sport. It combines learning techniques and stances with sparring. The training helps to improve strength, cardio-vascular fitness, stamina, flexibility and coordination.

Learn self-defence techniques
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu teaches self-defence strategies for fending off attacks in a variety of situations, both standing and on the ground. It is based on using an aggressor’s strength and energy against them. The emphasis is on skill and technique rather than size or strength. This makes Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu suitable for anyone!

Increase confidence and self esteem
By learning to defend yourself in a variety of situations even against larger and stronger opponents, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu can help to build confidence and self-esteem.

These benefits can be transferred to other aspects of life.

 

 

Key Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Skills and Techniques:

A typical Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class in Oxford at OMAA begins with a brief warm up including running and stretching. The instructor will then teach the class one or two new moves, demonstrating and breaking down each technique for the class. Students then grapple with others of a similar skill level in sparring matches.

Positions
There are seven basic positions in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. These include the mount, the guard, the side mount, north-south, scarf-hold, the back mount and knee on chest/stomach. The key throughout a fight is to gain or keep the dominant position and force a submission.

Sweeps
Having learnt the basic positions, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu then teaches the skills to counter-act an attack and reverse grappling positions through the use of sweeps. Important transitions to master include standing up in base, side mount to mount (step over), side mount to mount (knee drive), scissor sweep, push sweep and double ankle grab sweep.

Submissions
A submission is an action that causes your opponent to surrender. There are two broad categories of submissions: joint locks and chokes. Joint locks involve isolating an opponent’s limb to create a lever that will force the joint past its normal range of motion. Examples include the arm bar, the Americana, the kimura, the shoulder mount, the omoplata, the heel hook, knee bar and leg lock. Chokes and strangles focus on restricting either air (chokes) or blood flow to the brain (strangles). Some basic chokes include the triangle choke, the rear naked choke, sliding collar choke, side mount choke and the scissor choke.

Sparring
Once the basics of the techniques and stances are learnt, sparring is used to further refine and perfect execution. This is done either through specific sparring, where the fighters are put into position by the instructor, or free sparring, which allows the fighters to choose their own starting point.

History of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a modern martial art with deep historical roots. It grew out of the Japanese art of judo which was itself based on old-style jujutsu. A system of unarmed combat, jujutsu was used by samurai to supplement their sword-based training and fighting during the Muromachi period (1333-1573).As samurai culture declined and Japan became more westernised, Jujutsu fell out of favour. Kano Jigoro (1860-1938) revived and expanded these techniques and founded the art of judo. It was brought to Brazil in 1914 by Mitsuyo Maeda (or Conde Koma), one of the five judo experts sent overseas by Kano Jigoro to demonstrate the new fighting system. At the time, judo was still often referred to as Kano Jiu-Jitsu and this name was adopted in Brazil and elsewhere. Gastão Gracie, a local businessman, helped Maeda get established and enrolled his sons in the new school. Gracie’s young son Hélio was initially considered too frail to participate, but he learned the techniques through observation and was eventually able to compete in and win many submission-based competitions. Over the course of the twentieth century, the Gracie brothers continued to develop the art while increasing the emphasis on ground fighting and refining its techniques. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu came to international prominence in the 1990s when Royce Gracie, a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu expert won the first, second and fourth Ultimate Fighting.