The Jiu Jitsu Gi

Series Summary

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gained world fame in 1990 when Royce Gracie won the first ever Ultimate Fighting Championship, however the martial art has a long history. Jiu-Jitsu or Jujutsu began centuries ago in Japan as a combat system for warriors; it emphasized joint locks, choke holds, and throws to overcome the enemy's body armor which would effectively stop or weaken a strike. This martial art was modified into Judo which was brought to Brazil by Mitsuyo Maeda. Maeda instructed a man named Carlos Gracie and soon taught his brothers including Helio Gracie. Helio adapted moves to create more leverage with less strength allowing a smaller person to defeat a much larger opponent. He also emphasized ground fighting to minimize a larger foe's reach and strength; thus began a full contact fighting system excellent for self-defense.

In this free video clip series learn self-defense martial arts as personal trainer and kick-boxing instructor Don Daly demonstrates beginning Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighting techniques such as: the basic Jiu-Jitsu fighting stance, cross choke from guard position, foot sweep, armbar from the guard position, armbar from the mounted position, Kimura lock from guard position, sweep from the guard position, and the arm triangle choke from the guard position.

Video Transcript

"Hi! This is Don Daly representing expertvillage.com, and in this clip, we’re going to demonstrate the concept of the gi. This is a basic gi, or Kimono; it’s worn in competition Jiu Jitsu. It’s worn for several reasons. It can be used against you or you can use it submit your opponent. The collar can be used to do chokes. You can grab the collar and sleeve for control. The sleeves can be used to control those arms of your opponent. You can even choke your opponent with the bottom of your lapel. In tournament Jiu Jitsu, they always wear a gi. However, in the street a jacket can be used, a heavy shirt can be used for the same concept. You can choke people with the collar. Grab their sleeves; you can control their arms. You can even grab the bottom of this and use that to choke them as well. So the same concept of the gi will work in a street fight. For example, if I’m squared off with my opponent and he has a jacket on with a collar, all I have to do is come in, grab him here, pull him down, stick my other hand, come in to this other collar and I pull and he chokes. If I have him in the mounted position, I can use my own sleeve to choke him, take my arm, come under his head and 4 fingers inside my own sleeve. Come under to the other side of his neck, hand in the neck and we push down and pull up, and we choke him there. If he’s in my guard and he’s got a jacket on or gi, I grab his sleeves here on the top and control his arms. He goes to stand up; I go to what’s called an open guard; feet in the hips here. If I feel his weight coming towards me, as he comes in I’m going to use his gi at my feet to reverse the position. Take mounting position. If I take side control. I have side control here, sneak my gi out, hold the bottom out like this over his neck. Come under here, grab tight. "