RE: Jiu Jitsu is Not the Answer to Everything - Eli Knight
It's good that you bring this up since it seems the tendency most martial arts follow once they become more mainstream: the sportification of the art while sacrificing some of their effectiveness for actual confrontation and combat.
This was one of the reasons I quit Taekowndo years ago: my school grew increasingly focused on this scoring points mentality (because that was the strategy that did well under competition rules) while all the other combative/self defense aspects were neglected. All knowledge was heavily funneled in favor of being sneaky about scoring points which led to a lot of stalling and unrealistic maneuvers that would get you destroyed under any other circumstances (like that "keeping the front leg up" thing that a lot of olympic competitors do).
We see this happening in BJJ already, with the increasing addition of inversions, somersaults and other "fancy" techniques, as well as stuff that you can only possibly pull off because of the very specific rule set that prevents your opponent from causing some easy damage in response (think butt-scooting or those crazy 10th planet guards were you have your ankles next to your ears).
I watched the video, and I like Eli's very balanced perspective about the matter. I hope you succeed in luring him into Steemit! ;-)
You are 100% correct @irime. I love some of the more technical, tricky, and sporty techniques. It took me quite a few years to realize that I was only getting good at jiu jitsu against other jiu jitsu practitioners. What's the point if you suck at self-defense.
You can be the greatest at fighting another person who gives you trained energy. I felt like around the time I was getting my blue belt, that I was really hitting my stride. I would tap some blue and purple belts. Even if I didn't get the tap, I could defend, defend, defend for long periods of time. Looking back now, I realize that I got by quite a bit with athleticism, more so than technique (a total other topic I'll cover soon).
There were a few eye-opening moments in the last 2 years that changed my mindset:
The first time I trained mma, and jiu jitsu with gloves. I realized quickly how decent I was at jiu jitsu, but that I sucked at defending myself in a fight.
The first few times I partnered with upper belts who were great at self-defense techniques, and realized that I sucked at them as a 2 stripe blue belt.
The first few times I struggled teaching or performing self-defense techniques with white belts of all skill levels, body types, etc.
The first few times I was one of the upper belts in class. Instructors were finally calling me out and using me to show technique in front of everyone. Some of the more sporty stuff, guard, half-guard, or things I were great at went fine. Basic standing self-defense techniques, I actually felt embarrassed at how painful it was showing techniqe in front of others because I never put the serious time into learning them.
I like the term that you used: sportification. The sportification is jiu jitsu is fun and beautiful. I love watching and learning quite a bit. But I'm thankful I'm surrounded by instructors at an academy that push self-defense over everything first.