Ju Jitsu In Chesterfield

Of all the Martial Arts here at Marsden Martial Arts, Ju Jitsu is probably one of the more complex martial arts to define. Its complexity comes from the many meanings and styles it has to different people. To start with there are multiple spellings:

• Ju Jitsu
• JuJutsu
• Ju-Jitsu
• Jujitsu
• Jiu Jitsu
• Ju-Jutsu

We will keep with the spelling that we use, Ju Jitsu for the purposes of this page.

What Is Ju Jitsu?

Ju Jitsu is a martial art that originates from Japan – focusing on close combat against an armed or unarmed opponent and focuses on you being unarmed or only having a short weapon. The literal definition of Ju Jitsu is broken into two parts:

• Ju – meaning gentle, suppleness, flexibility or pliancy.
• Jitsu – art or technique.

As practitioners of this martial art will tell you, there is nothing “gentle” about the art – the gentle refers to the fact that Ju Jitsu does not pit strength against strength, rather that it uses an opponent’s strength against themselves. This means that a bigger and stronger opponent does not have the upper hand by default. Ju Jitsu is made up of a series of striking, throwing and grappling techniques and is considered by many practitioners a complete defensive martial arts system.

Considered a “Mother Martial Art” – numerous other martial arts have spawned from it, martial arts such as Judo, Sambo, Brazilian jiu-jitsu (via Judo), Aikido, Hapkido, Catch Wrestling, Bartitsu and some Karate styles.

The Beginnings of Ju Jitsu

The Samurai Warrior used Ju Jitsu

Tracing the origins of Ju Jitsu takes us back to around 1600 and the Samurai – where the focus was on battlefield situations and close combat, where traditional weapons were ineffective. At this time, striking was considered ineffective against armour – and so throws, joint locks, chokes and immobilising an opponent were the main techniques taught to the Samurai warriors.

At around this time there were over 2000 schools (ryu) of Ju Jitsu – all having their own variations on the art. Whilst they all had common core techniques, each one varied in some of the other methods taught and makes the finite defining of Ju Jitsu impossible.

Roll on 100 years or so and armour and weapons were to become less prevalent. This brought striking into the art as a core technique – with strikes to the head area concentrated on. However, as time went on, these striking techniques were considered a waste of energy and the number of techniques of striking were reduced – mainly used as a distraction or unbalancing technique to enable a practitioner to perform a choke, throw or joint lock.

Modern Day Ju Jitsu

Ju Jitsu continued to evolve and Western style adaptation of the martial art brought about new forms of the art, adapted to suit the Western culture and lifestyle. One of the more popular forms is Sport Ju Jitsu, recognised as an official sport of the World Games. Sport Ju Jitsu is made up of three variants:

1. Duo (self-defence demonstration)
2. Fighting System (free fighting)
3. Brazilian/Ne Waza (grappling)

Duo

The Duo is where two people from the same team play the attacker and the defender – and demonstrate a series of random attack techniques that are given out by a referee. Neither of the teammates know what the technique will be until the referee announces it. They have to perform 12 out of 20 recognised attacks that cover grip attack (or strangulation), embrace attack (or neck lock), hit attack (punching or kicking) and armed attack (stick or knife).

Free Fighting

Ne Waza starts with both competitors standing and effectively follows Phase 2 of Free Fighting. Victory is achieved by submission by way of choke or joint lock.

Ne Waza

Free Fighting pits opponents from different teams against each other and is made up of three phases. Phase (1) involves the use of arms and legs in controlled attacks – performing a series of kicks, punches and strikes. This phase ends once a “grab” has taken place. Phase (2) now starts. In Phase (2) kicks and punches are no longer allowed and the opponents have to try and take each other down to the mat using a series of throwing techniques. Submission techniques of strangulation and joint locks are allowed within this phase. Once an opponent has been taken down to the mat, the final phase comes into play, with immobilisation of an opponent being the aim. Chokes and joint locks are the focus here and submission of an opponent is the final aim.

The winner is decided by a totting up system, whereby the competitor with the most points over the three phases is declared the winner.

Ju Jitsu Classes in Chesterfield

Marsden Martial Arts combines Ju Jitsu into its wider syllabus of martial arts, and some of its core techniques are easily transferable into the other martial arts we teach here in Chesterfield. If you or your child are interested in learning a highly effective martial art, then please contact us about Ju Jitsu in Chesterfield and we will be happy to help you learn a self-defence system that will stay with you for life.