This is a question that is often pondered by many practitioners of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. For instance, imagine your friend asks “What is BJJ then?”. Although you may train often and be fully immersed in the art, it’s not always easy to find an instant answer. Because of this, people often awkwardly try and explain what BJJ is and how it works.
This can be difficult as you don’t want to be too vague, but you don’t exactly want to ramble on for hours about the fine details of grip fighting or the difference between points and advantages either. With this said, here is our guide on how to describe Jiu Jitsu to someone who is clueless about the subject.
Table of Contents
Start with the basics
No, we’re not on about pulling off an americana from side control. Instead, the best way to describe BJJ is with a basic summary of how it all works. For instance, you may want to say it’s similar to judo or wrestling when it hits the ground. A good term for this is ‘submission wrestling’. You may even say it’s grappling on the ground without strikes, which involves chokeholds and the simulation of breaking bones.
Whatever your answer, keep it short and don’t go overboard. If you’ve re-read the bit on using BJJ to train chokes and breaking bones then yes, it does sound odd when you think about it. Having said this, let’s face it…to someone out of the loop, BJJ is a genuinely odd activity for people to casually be involved in. This is one of the reasons why you shouldn’t bang on about the intricate details to a stranger unless they are very keen on understanding how everything works.
Tone your BJJ down
Imagine you’re at a party and you’ve been tasked to explain BJJ to a drunk guy. These situations have arisen where the drunk guy turns aggressive and arrogantly challenges the BJJ trainer. In some cases, fights can occur even if it’s meant to be a playful grapple to test out the skills of the practitioner. With this in mind, it’s probably best to tone down your achievements or sell it as some kind of violent blood sport.
Obviously, you don’t want to do BJJ a dis-service but remember like the mats, ego can cause problems. Because of this, if someone does claim BJJ sucks, then simply don’t engage with their argument as it may lead to confrontation. Even if you can beat someone up with ease, fights aren’t always that simple especially with friends and outsiders involved. Combined with alcohol, it’s simply not worth getting into.
Don’t fall into the ‘white belt’ trap
It’s a cliche, but often white belts are fast to tell anyone about how they train BJJ and how awesome it is. This is to be expected when you’re in the honeymoon phase of training and it’s still a novelty. Typically, although you may always love training, you may tone it down in the future and hold back your true thoughts. Put simply, try not to be ‘that guy’ with a BJJ tattoo, branded BJJ clothing who points out his non-existent cauliflower ear and brags how they’ve defeated an untrained, middle-aged hobbyist.
It’s not cool and it doesn’t impress anyone. If anything, it will probably put people off. No one likes arrogant gatekeepers which are usually found with the more obscure martial arts. Corny analogies such as ‘the ground is my ocean’ aren’t welcome either. BJJ definitely has its share of pretentious practitioners who are quick to tell their passion to anyone, even if the question was never asked in the first place. Remember, enthusiasm is great, but over-enthusiasm can appear unattractive.
Final Thoughts
Trying to explain BJJ isn’t an easy task. However, if you’re going to do it then keep it short and simple. If the person asking is receptive and wants to know more, then feel free to expand. However, simply telling them that it roughly involves grappling and is based around submissions should be more than enough information.
You may want to include how long you’ve trained for and some examples explaining what the guard is, or what an armbar is but don’t go overboard. In conclusion, keep your description short and sweet and whilst you should represent the benefits of BJJ, don’t venture into the territory of a needy salesman whose trying hard to sell it to people either.
