02 April 2016

Jiu-Jitsu / JuJutsu / Jujitsu ?

Hold on the ground Jiu-Jitsu technique

What means Jiu-Jitsu?

Literally spoken, it is the gentle art, the technique of suppleness and flexibility. Jitsu means art in Japanese and when you translate the Japanese into all the other languages it also known as Ju Jutsu, Jujutsu, Jujitsu or written with a hyphen as in Jiu-Jitsu or Ju-Jitsu. The confusion already starts when you move from one country to another as I did. 

What is Jiu-Jitsu in Germany is wrongly taken as BJJ (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu) in Britain. And so on... But as we say, names are sound and echo.

Today we have uncounted styles all over the world and that is very much the same than at the time this popular combat system can traced back in history. In ancient Japan in the late 17th to mid 19th century there were over 700 different systems. All based on the same principle, the gentle art. Winning by losing. What counts most is the effectiveness in combat. And that includes the armed and unarmed skills.

Jiu-Jitsu techniques include striking and kicking, kneeing, throwing and choking, joint locking, holding and tying. And all these skills are or can be combined with weapons. Therefore it is a truly all round combat system and today very much used for self defence.Useful for men and women and all ages.

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