Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu vs. Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.

Is there a difference between BJJ vs. GJJ? The answer is yes.
I have been a Royler Gracie student for 14 years and the focus and importance
has always been on self defence. Can you protect yourself if a person tries and
throws a punch at you? Can your Jiu-Jitsu save you from the guy who is
physically assaulting you and if so, do you know how and what to do?

There has been a lot of talk that BJJ can do the same, and yes it will but with one
difference. BJJ schools may focus on the competition or the sport and I think
that is great but with it being a sport there are rules to protect the competitors.

Sometimes the techniques or position the competitor put themselves in to win
the match would not relate to a good position to defend yourself on the street;
these rules are not always street friendly. Meaning you can leave yourself open
to get punched in the face repeatedly and end up being badly injured.

I’m sure the sport BJJ competitor is not going to let that happen here but that’s not what I
want to point out . A BJJ school or competitor will practice a rep or a single move for hours
and weeks on end literally thousands and thousands per time so that when they find themselves
in that exact situation when competing they will be able to beat their competitor and go on to win
that competition. So, habits you train are habits you gain.

In martial arts practice equals results

This also goes with the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu student where they will practice thousand
of hours to learn how to defend themselves in any given situation so when that times
come to defend they have put in the time and will react accordingly to defend themselves
and come out on top without getting scathed or at least take less damage than someone
who has not practiced the art.

So yes both sport BJJ and Gracie Jiu-Jitsu practitioners will be able to defend themselves
vs untrained opponents but most likely the BJJ student may take more damage in the process
if they’ve ignored the fight based /self defence aspect of their training in pursuit of mastery in the
competitive arena.

Gracie Jiu-Jitsu was evolved so that you as a practitioner would be able to survive or more likely
thrive in a fight when being attacked if even vs a much larger opponent.

Master Royler often asks, “Is it better to come home with a gold medal from a
tournament or come home with two black eyes from a fight?” Like anything else
in the world where you put your practice is where you will grow, if competing is
what you want then go for it or being able to defend yourself on the street.