Just Run

I once had a BJJ (Brazillian Jui Jitsu) Apologist suggest to me that I should be grateful that I have had a year of BJJ training, because the rest of my several years of mostly full contact martial arts training had been a huge waste of my life. Considering BJJ's extremely hostile attitude towards other martial arts over the years, I would like to address this extremely misguided notion here and now.

In the course of my security-related professional responsibilities from 2007 to 2017 I was attacked several times on the job and never injured, primarily due to my martial arts training I received in the late 80's through mid 90's. Let's look at what happened, and how using BJJ instead would have changed the outcome.

Veteran

A woman was trying to get into a car while a man who she did not appear to know was yelling sexual insults at her. I approached him asking "do you know her" and he proceeded to throw punches at me for a half of a city block on the side walk before he decided to walk away. I used footwork and head movement from Kickboxing and Aikido to avoid his strikes while staying close enough to him so he would focus on me, so the woman could drive away. I later found out that this attacker was a veteran who was having side effects from back pain medication mixed with alcohol. There were other miscreants observing the situation, but they did not get involved.

Let's look at what BJJ would have had me do instead:

1. When he threw punches at me, I would have dove for his legs and taken him to the ground. 
2. I would have held him in a dominant position in mount, or gone for a submission. 
3. Either way this would have injured him knowing what we found out later about his health problems.
4. I would have had to spend a lot more time explaining to the police what happened, and I would have been at risk legally, with possible assault charges.
5. I would have been let go from my job.
6. When the other miscreants saw me holding him down, they would have most likely moved in to help him. In that area miscreants usually carry improvised weapons for self defense.

BJJ would have turned a nearly harmless situation for me into a deadly multiple armed attackers scenario, and possibly have gotten me killed or put into prison for assault charges (as I would have been outnumbered as far as witnesses were concerned.)

Shoe Ninja

I was once chasing someone through Seattle's Sodo neighborhood who was having a mental health episode and was in serious physical jeopardy, and I was not allowed to lose direct line of sight of this person. While I was running after them on the side walk, a homeless man jumped at me out of the bushes, perhaps trying to protect the person I was following. This specific stretch of sidewalk often had used syringes on it left behind by heroin users, and this homeless man's presence made that even more likely than usual.

The homeless man started by throwing shoes at me, which I defended against with Aikido footwork and martial arts parries. I used the distancing I learned in Aikido and side stepping from Kickboxing to manage how close he could get to me as I side stepped out in the street to get around him. He was trying to physically escalate with me, but I was past him and on my way before he could get close enough to try to strike me. Shoe Ninja, if you ever read this, I have much respect for the force and accuracy with which you can hurl shoes, I never knew that was possible!

Let's look at what BJJ would have had me do instead:

1. I would have ran straight directly into the Shoe Ninja for the fastest possible takedown.
2. I would have held the Shoe Ninja in a dominant position or gone for a submission.
3. The person for whom I had a professional responsibility to protect during a mental health episode would have kept on running beyond my line of sight while I was trying to grapple the Shoe Ninja.
4. Again I would have been out witnessed, I was not popular in that neighborhood and there were other people watching, so the legal outcome for me could have had severe consequences.
5. I would have lost my job.
6. Possible risk for needle exposure was a known-known at that specific location.

With the training I had this situation was almost harmless to me, but BJJ would have put me on the ground with needles, and the person who I was supposed to be protecting would have been completely exposed to the primary threat they were facing.

Surfer Dude

I once asked a pedestrian to stop loitering in bushes on a length of sidewalk I was responsible for. He was a tall, blonde muscular young man, who's response (probably because of his simultaneous stimulant intake) was to march straight at me trying to grab or hit me. I used Kickboxing and weapon sparring footwork to keep a tree between the two of us as I continued to explain the neighborhood rules and expectations to him. He eventually got distracted and I was able to run away without getting manhandled by this guy (or having to go Mike Tyson on him and/or shut him down with leg kicks.)

Let's look at what BJJ would have had me do instead:

1. When he came at me, I would have changed levels for a take down.
2. He was a superior physical specimen to myself, so what kind of dominant position or submission I might have gotten with my two stripe white belt (1 year of casual BJJ training) is highly questionable. 
3. Hopefully I would have gotten a dominant position, but this guy had been to the gym before. The odds are that me being on the ground with this guy would have been really bad for my physical safety.
4. Again the witnesses in this area were hostile towards me, and in this case there were many witnesses. If I had hurt him bad enough to actually stop him from being a threat to me, assault charges would have been likely.
5. I would have lost my job.

In this situation BJJ would have taken a dangerous situation I was facing, and made it far more dangerous and hazardous, by prolonging a physical confrontation with someone who might have been able to really hurt me.

Amateur Pharmacist

One time I spent about two years on a corner in Sodo preventing amateur pharmacists from conducting trade at that location. One day I was speaking to my supervisor out on that corner when one of these amateur pharmacists approached us with hostile questions regarding our presence. I stood up and he got in my face, and next thing I knew I was facing his back, as if he had stumbled past me.

What had happened is this amateur pharmacist had reeled in at me with a huge head butt, because of my Tai Chi Push Hands and Kickboxing experience, I had dodged and stepped around his attack out of pure reflex. I had to explain to my supervisor later at length in his office as to why I continued to lecture someone who was trying to physically attack me (apparently the "responsible" thing to do once he had attacked me was for me to leave.)

Let's look at what BJJ would have had me do instead:

1. When his back was exposed, I would have used a sacrifice take down.
2. I would have nailed side control with this take down.
3. I would have been fired before I before I passed to mount.

In this situation BJJ would have taken a situation where I got a stern verbal warning, into a situation where I would have been instead unemployed all together.

Xanax Aficionado 

One time I was assigned to a neighborhood near numerous medical institutions where anti-anxiety medications were constantly traded illicitly outside, causing various public health problems. Word on the street was some were not pleased by the reduction in trade I had caused with my enthusiastic presence and optimism for the future of the community.

One day a guy walked up to me and pulled out a knife. He more stumbled towards me than walked, and I could see he might not be able to stumble his way down the street least bit make a serious attack at me with the knife, because he was just too benzo-impaired. Using the distancing I learned in Filipino Martial Arts and other weapon sparring, I stayed close enough to retain his attention but too far for him to hit me with a single lunge. 

As he looked down at his knife and back up at me, I decided to use a Jedi mind trick, O' Sensei style. I commanded him that "you have to put that thing away right now, or else you are going to get into a whole lot of trouble!" I pointed my finger directing him to put his knife back into his pocket, and used full body language to demonstrate that I actually expected him to do this. He did, he put the knife back in his pocket and stumbled away.

Let's look at what BJJ would have had me do instead:

1. Impale my jugular vein on his knife as I try to get a take down.

In this situation BJJ would have massively intensified a dangerous situation I was facing and possibly have gotten me killed.

Mariners Fan

 

There was another stretch of a street in Sodo I was responsible for, and much to my dismay there was a man taking apart a sign with a baseball bat one morning before the sun came up. Not known for being a morning person myself, I yelled some words of discouragement to the baseball bat armed man. He turned towards me and started crossing the street.

Using distancing and strategy I learned in Aikido and weapon sparring, I kept him several yards away form me as I backed up and called the rest of my team in for help. The largest of us got in front of him and employed verbal deescalation while I and another got behind the base ball fan to take him down from behind should he try to attack. This was a combination of Aikido strategy and pure security experience, and we managed to deescalate instead of having to disarm.

Let's look at what BJJ would have had me do instead:

1. Intercept this guy in the middle of the street, attempting a take down.
2. I would have been at risk of getting hit with the bat, but I think I could have dove in and grabbed an ankle and put him on the ground with my shoulder before he got me with the bat, but it would have been risky.
3. Diving in on the pavement like that would have been risky also, because asphalt is not a mat.
4. Holding up traffic on a busy street before the sun comes up is dangerous also, we could have easily been hit by a large vehicle while we tussled.
5. There are legal consequences for getting in avoidable fights that hold up traffic.
6. I would have been fired.

BJJ would again have taken a dangerous situation and made it far more dangerous.

"Just Run"

I can already hear the BJJ apologist's response that I should have "just run" in all of the above situations. In every one of these situations I had a professional obligation to NOT run, there was property and people who needed to be protected, and I was being paid to protect them. But even off the clock I have had situations where I had elderly or children with me near dangerous individuals who were not fit enough to escape without my protection! 

If "just running" is a core strategy in BJJ, then they need to train and spar with running techniques, or else they need to stop claiming to be experts in running away. Most BJJ schools have the mats needed for obstacle training (parkour), and falling practiced in BJJ does have some overlap with obstacle training. However, the fact is the only martial art I know of that includes obstacle training and running away is Ninjitsu, so unless BJJ ups their game and adds some kind of Parkour rules to the IBJJF rule set, I find these BJJ claims of escape proficiency extremely problematic.