I feel we have to thank the Gracies for bringing us this modern style of Jiujitsu.
That said, times have changed since the Gracies came on to the scene.
The art itself has evolved and is continuing to do so.
There are many people who have made drastic improvements to Jiujitsu especially on the sport side but even in terms of MMA.
One that quickly comes to mind is Eddie Bravo with 10th Planet Jiujitsu.
Eddie has some great ideas and has contributed greatly to the MMA side of Jiujitsu.
Although I don't fully agree with all of his ideas particularly to how he has marketed some of his approach.
Still, what he has come up with is very valuable.
The rubber guard and the no-gi approach in particular have a lot to offer.
I think that people will continue to innovate and evolve Jiujitsu as time goes on.
The martial arts are in an interesting time of change right now, both for possibly better and worse.
Most people who are entering into the martial arts today are looking to do so for self-defense or fitness reasons or both.
Therefore you have people who just want to learn to defend themselves and want proven skills and tactics and you have people who just want to get in shape or take part in a sport and compete.
There will probably always be a small segment that will want to learn a cultural martial art but that is definitely not the majority and this is where the martial arts are changing in the west.
This is also why Mixed Martial Arts has exploded in both popularity as well as practice.
I think it's very important to be able to take the beauty and benefits that the traditional martial arts have always held; the respect, honour, and ethics involved and bring that into the newer self-defense and sport aspects of the modern arts like Judo has.
Judo was the first modernized martial art.
Jigoro Kano developed it from traditional Jiujitsu and kept much of what was beneficial as he developed it to maximize the efficiency of the techniques with minimum effort.
What he sought to develop was a martial art that can be practiced safely as a sport and still be applicable for the other reasons why martial arts are practiced.
I think much can be learned from this today especially in the MMA world.
That said, times have changed since the Gracies came on to the scene.
The art itself has evolved and is continuing to do so.
There are many people who have made drastic improvements to Jiujitsu especially on the sport side but even in terms of MMA.
One that quickly comes to mind is Eddie Bravo with 10th Planet Jiujitsu.
Eddie has some great ideas and has contributed greatly to the MMA side of Jiujitsu.
Although I don't fully agree with all of his ideas particularly to how he has marketed some of his approach.
Still, what he has come up with is very valuable.
The rubber guard and the no-gi approach in particular have a lot to offer.
I think that people will continue to innovate and evolve Jiujitsu as time goes on.
The martial arts are in an interesting time of change right now, both for possibly better and worse.
Most people who are entering into the martial arts today are looking to do so for self-defense or fitness reasons or both.
Therefore you have people who just want to learn to defend themselves and want proven skills and tactics and you have people who just want to get in shape or take part in a sport and compete.
There will probably always be a small segment that will want to learn a cultural martial art but that is definitely not the majority and this is where the martial arts are changing in the west.
This is also why Mixed Martial Arts has exploded in both popularity as well as practice.
I think it's very important to be able to take the beauty and benefits that the traditional martial arts have always held; the respect, honour, and ethics involved and bring that into the newer self-defense and sport aspects of the modern arts like Judo has.
Judo was the first modernized martial art.
Jigoro Kano developed it from traditional Jiujitsu and kept much of what was beneficial as he developed it to maximize the efficiency of the techniques with minimum effort.
What he sought to develop was a martial art that can be practiced safely as a sport and still be applicable for the other reasons why martial arts are practiced.
I think much can be learned from this today especially in the MMA world.
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