Why Blend Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu WITH Japanese Jujitsu

By Fanatics Authors, October 31, 2018

Should You Combine Brazilian Jiu Jitsu WITH Japanese Ju Jitsu?

The age old debate of which "Jiu Jitsu Style" is best for all around fighting ability has been solved when people starting sharing instructional videos on YouTube and awesome sites like BJJFanatics.com 🙂

The result? There is no perfect style, all of it works, but it's the application that makes it work.

This writer has a black belt in Japanese Jujitsu and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and through my experience I have noticed a few major factors why BJJ and Japanese Jujitsu work hand in hand.

Japanese Jujitsu excels at stand-up take downs technique, but lacks on the ground, especially the guard.
Modern Brazilian Jiu Jitsu excels on the ground, yet lacks in stand-up take downs
Japanese Jujitsu tends to be very ridged, repetitive and technique focused
Brazilian Jiu jitsu tends to be more creative, fluid and application focused
Japanese Jujitsu dojos tend to have be disciplined and respectful to instructors and students
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu tends to be a bit more relaxed and "entertaining"
Japanese Jujitsu tends to stick to their old-school curriculum
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is always evolving.
Japanese Jujitsu ranks based upon knowledge of a chart or curriculum
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu ranks based upon experience on the mat and the ability to perform techniques when fighting.

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When you combine all of those 10 elements together, you almost get a perfect system.

Takedowns of Japanese Jujitsu with the Ground combat of BJJ
Technique focused training combined with application (rolling / live drills)
Respect for the art, teachers and students combined with the fun lifestyle of BJJ
Curriculum based conceptual training with the ability for creativity
Ranking based upon knowledge of the art, with the ability to prove it.

There's a lot be learned and experienced in both arts. That doesn't mean that you should be training both arts at once, but there are many ways to learn how to bring them together to make you an overall better Jiu Jitsu Martial Artist.

If you wanted to take your grappling knowledge a step further, add wrestling to your training Jiu Jitsu training as well. Some of the best grapplers in the world, especially with the modern no-gi submission only grappling events, use a lot of wrestling in their Jiu-Jitsu.

Overall - yes, BJJ alone is a wonder and powerful martial art for self-defense, sport comps and MMA. But modern martial arts teaches us that there is no style that is better than another style. The styles that work are ones that have live rolling and have been tested on the mat, in the cage and in the street.

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There are a few incredible Jiu Jitsu fighters who have done this quite effectively. One of them being Travis Stevens - author of "American Judo System: The Koshi-Guruma Encyclopedia". Though his black belt is in BJJ and Judo, judo is essentially sport Japanese Jujitsu.

Aikido is a highly evolved form of Japanese jiu jutsu with smooth flowing techniques and an emphasis on blending rather than fighting. Two high-level Aikido and BJJ martial arts show how you can blend these two arts together to make a more complete Jiu-Jitsu system. For the aikido side we have Derek Nakagawa - 4th degree black belt and a 30+ year veteran of the martial arts. On the BJJ side, we have Marcio Feitosa, 3rd degree black belt, legendary competitor, and master instructor of the largest jiu-jitsu school in the world - Gracie Barra.