Formosa Neijia

We use lots of acronyms when talking about this stuff, don’t we?

A while back, I wanted to get in some sparring practice and do some grappling. Sparring here in Taiwan is amazingly rare. I know of only one traditional school that does it. Just one. Even the schools that supposedly specialize in fighting material don’t usually do it. Lots of lip service is paid to fighting, but no one does it.

For that, you have to go to a MMA/NHB/BJJ school so that’s what I did. I was somewhat comfortable with going there because I did judo in the past. So wearing a gi and tying my belt, etc. was not a big deal to me. I went for about two months and took the basic BJJ class and the NHB class. Here are my thoughts on BJJ from what I experienced.

First, I was surprised at the use of many IMA concepts. Most of what IMA people think make IMA special can be found in BJJ. That really shouldn’t be surprising if you think about it. BJJ itself came from Kosen judo and judo is the softest of the traditional JMAs. Most IMA people’s exposure to BJJ comes from watching the UFC and that type pf competition shows BJJ in a certain light.

Few UFC people these days have an extensive BJJ background. Most of them are now true MMA guys in that what they practice is very mixed. Few pure BJJ guys compete, unlike in the past. There are reasons for this. Many say that the Gracies have stopped growing and refuse to adapt to today’s competitive environment. I think that’s true, but at the same time I don’t blame them too much. I understand that they are proud of their traditional art. I just find it humorous that they are becoming as obsolete as karate, kung-fu, etc. became in the UFC. What goes around comes around.

Most IMA people also don’t spar, let alone fight, so they rarely are able to pick out the nuiances of IS (internal strength) movements in fighting and especially ground grappling. Ground grappling is a whole field of endeavor that IMA doesn’t even touch so most IMA people don’t even know what they are looking at, let alone what to look for. Working the throws found in all IMA styles would go a long way to building that type of knowledge but few people do that with their IMA training. That’s ironic since the IMAs are primarily grappling styles.

The lack of sparring/fighting practice means that IMA people don’t usually know what Internal Strength (IS) actually looks like when used in a fighting context. IT’S NOT THE SAME AS IN FORMS PRACTICE. Form practice keeps everything pretty because you have few variables to deal with. Adding in an opponent who might do anything greatly ramps up the difficulty level. The idea that you can pull off a perfect IS technique is almost absurd in that context. But many of the elements can be there if the person correctly trains them. But it WILL NOT look like forms practice.

If an adventurous IMA guy takes BJJ, he might discover that they don’t prefer force-against-force techniques as most IMA people assume. They prefer to take what the opponent gives them, or illicit that response, and then flow into the technique. The idea of using “chains” of movements allows good BJJ to look much like IMA in that they FLOW from one technique to the other until the opponent resists and is caught. As I said in the past, this looks much like baguazhang.

Second, I liked the attitude towards sparring. They let even rank beginners spar in the NHB class. Everybody had a blast. This proved very educational for me. I found that my techniques worked very, very well but that I was missing the conditioning component of my training. Basically, I dominated each match I fought for the first minute and half and then I got creamed for the next minute if the guy had better conditioning or was younger (which was always the case). It was a huge blow to my ego to lose to people who weren’t half the martial artist that I think I am <grin> but who were much better athletes than me. That was a wake-up call that I needed. I changed my training accordingly.

So those were two things I liked. Now, for two things I didn’t like.

First, I didn’t like the hip-hop thug culture that permeated the school. Are all the young kids into this nonsense? There was a real “I get in street fights with my hommies” attitude in the school. I didn’t like that at all. I remember when the teacher asked who in the class was married and me and one other guy raised our hands. Most of the students were 19-24 years old. There was definitely a culture gap. I noticed lots of strutting and excessively baggy clothing that sort of translated into a general disrespect for many things. Think disrepect for yourself and how you look that leads to disrespect of other people. Several senior MA people in this area got seriously disrespected by memebers of this BJJ school IN PUBLIC. It got so bad, that this school and anybody associated with it is now a pariah in Taiwan MA circles. I’m glad I left before all that happened.

Second, added to the thug culture was a tough-guy atmosphere. We did warm ups and cool downs occasionally but the general attitude was that those things were for wimps. We tended to warm up really quickly and often rushed through it. I have been lucky and haven’t gotten hurt much doing IMA, but one of my worst injuries happened at the BJJ school during warm up. We had to do backward rolls across the mat, but we were being told “faster! faster!” So I accidently did a backward roll straight over the top of my head instead of my shoulder. OUCH! I don’t remember much of the class that followed. I was in too much pain. It took me three weeks to fully recover from the shooting pains I felt from the top of my head to the middle of my back.

This attitude also showed up technique practice. When beginners learn something new, it’s best not to give them too much resistance at the beginning so they don’t force the technique. But because of the macho attitude of the school, we often had to do applications against full force right away. I remember a choke defense that really pissed me off. The senior that we worked with really slapped the rear naked choke on us and I had to use all my muscle instead of correct technique to get him off. I complained that he shouldn’t do that and he smarted off to me about being soft. Whatever.

All-in-all, it was a really great experience. I learned lots about grappling and being relaxed in that kind of situation. I totally recommend that IMA people try it out to interact with others on the ground and lose their fear of UFC-type takedowns. I’ll give you guys a hint: the double-leg takedown is NOT invincible. Not even close. You just need to have it done on you by people who know how to do it and then learn to defend against it. It’s a matter of conditioning. But you won’t get that anywhere but a BJJ school. Don’t think for a minute that having your taiji buddy try it on you is the same. IT ISN’T.

Why didn’t I stay? Several reasons. BJJ is a great traditional art but it is long and complex, just like IMA. Don’t let the BJJ people fool you. There are just as many LOW PERCENTAGE moves in BJJ as in taiji. (Well, okay maybe not quite!) But BJJ is a lot more than double-leg takedown, mount, guard, arm bar and rear naked choke. Yet that’s all you see in the UFC because those are the high percentage moves. BJJ has lots more than that. But not all of those moves get trained to be fully used, just like in most IMAs. Mastering all those moves requires a substantial investment of time that I wasn’t prepared to make.

Second, I didn’t think I would be a ground specialist, I was more interested in throwing. I was shocked at how few throws BJJ people know. Their throwing skills are usually very, very limited. Most of them need to go back and take judo to learn how to throw. How ironic is that? Once BJJ gets you on the ground, you’re probably toast. But if their double leg is countered, they seem a little clueless.

Third, I was NOT impressed with the standup fighting skills at all. My traditional IMA training really paid off here. The emphasis in the NHB class was to learn their way of striking and since I didn’t think much of it, me attending the class was not a good idea. It was becoming obvious that I had no interest in learning to fight their way, especially when my way worked pretty well in sparring.

I would heartily recommend a good BJJ school anyday over most of the garbage that passes for IMA. If you can’t find good IMA near you but you can find good BJJ or judo, then take it. Finding a good teacher/training environment is SO MUCH MORE IMPORTANT than the style being taught. Don’t get caught up in “I gotta have this style or nothing” thinking.

And if you are anywhere near this BJJ teacher, then jump at the chance to learn from him.